So Mr. Stein has a new documentary coming out called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The fundamental argument of the movie is that those who speak out against evolution and in favor of Intelligent Design (ID) are “persecuted.” If you’re a scientist and you subscribe to the idea of ID you’re looked down on, if you’re a teacher who attempts to teach ID in school you may be fired.

There are already quite a few responses the the film that point out its many flaws, including one from the infamous Richard Dawkins (author of “The God Delusion”), so I wont spend too much time on it, but I did want to throw in my two cents.

If you’re a science teacher and you get fired for teaching ID in your classroom it has nothing to do with scientists being a bunch of heathen God haters. It has to do with the fact that you’re teaching unfounded, unscientific beliefs in a science class. If evolution turns out to be an incorrect theory (I don’t think it will) and a better theory is presented with more, founded, convincing facts than the theory of evolution (unlikely – due to the vast amount of evidence supporting evolution), science as a whole must, by definition, embrace that theory. Darwin was the first to say that if a better explanation comes along evolution should be thrown out. The problem is the more the subject is studied the more evolution starts to look like fact and the more ID looks like silliness.

If you want to preach that the earth is a few thousand years old and that we were all zapped out of God’s finger because the Bible says so, go for it. No skin off my nose. But keep it in church and don’t pretend like those claims have any real basis in science.