Science and the First Amendment

An important movie is going to be released this Friday—Expelled, the Movie. This is a movie by Ben Stein that confronts the widespread hostility in academia to any scientific inquiry that opposes Darwinism. I haven’t seen the movie, but I have read some of the stories of people that Stein talks with in the movie.

The specific theory that is being suppressed is Intelligent Design. Some out there will support ID and some will not. The point of the movie is not that ID is fact. Rather the point is that it is a scientific theory that attempts to deal with significant gaps in Darwinian Theory and the academic/scientific community is not allowing it to be discussed. Stein may deal with the issue of being able to mention the theory in classes, but even that is not the real issue. Scientific papers on ID are not published in peer-reviewed scientific journals—not because of the merits of the research, but because the subject matter is not acceptable. Scientists are losing their jobs or having their careers cut short for even supporting the idea of discussing ID.

(Read more after the leap)

This scenario is not unique to Intelligent Design and Darwinism. I will give two other examples—one familiar and one less familiar. Opposition to Manmade Global Climate Change is another area where true scientific discussion is not accepted. Weathermen have had their jobs threatened if they oppose the approved theory (not fact). Those who point out the obvious flaws in Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, are labeled “deniers.”

I have a son who is on the Autism Spectrum. In looking for therapies for him, you continually bump into the idea that there is only one that has been “proven to be effective” (Applied Behavior Analysis). Looking a bit deeper, you find out that individuals who are trying to get other therapies published or reviewed are being shut out by the scientific journals.

Intelligent Design is the tip of the iceberg. The scientific community is not very big on free speech right now. Worse yet, they are not very big on the scientific process right now. The sources of this phenomenon are worth examining. To that end, I recommend Ben Stein’s movie. It is being widely released to “a theater near you.”

Movie Website