I found this revealing video on YouTube today while watching another climate change related video. Al Gore is speaking with Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes about global warming. He makes an incredible statement about all those who disagree with him. Then, just when you think that he is making a joke and exaggerating things to make his point, he’s not! Yikes! – he’s talking about me!
Today, a friend of mine told me about a video he recently received and saw that really impressed him. He found it on YouTube, and sent me the link. I’ve just finished watching it. He’s right – it is very good! I offer it here for your educational benefit.
I think it raises the serious question whether or not we we willing to look at all the evidence, and study every possible explanation scientifically, no matter what the potential outcome. I think many are already so politically committed to what they think is the reason, that they can’t afford to be wrong.
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
My wife and I went and saw the newly released movie “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” last night, and I’ve got to say it is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. We had not heard about it before yesterday, and we knew very little about what it was about. It just sounded more interesting than anything else playing. It turned out to be not only interesting, but also entertaining, thought-provoking, and it actually draws you in like a good drama with a compelling plot and interesting characters. Yet, it’s a documentary!
Ben Stein is a well-known actor, comedian, speech writer, syndicated columnist, economist, lawyer, professor and TV game show host, author, commentator and financial adviser – to name just a few of his accomplishments.
In recent years Ben has taken on “Big Science” and what he calls the Darwinian Evolutionists establishment, charging them with suppressing free and open scientific inquiry, and persecuting those who do not toe the line in the politically correct academic environment.
As Ben writes on his blog: “America is not America without freedom. In every turning point in our history, freedom has been the key goal we are seeking: the Mayflower coming here, the Revolution, the Civil War, World War II, the Cold War. Tens of millions came here from foreign oppression and made a life here. Why? For freedom. Human beings are supposed to live in a state of freedom. Freedom is not conferred by the state: as our founders said, and as Martin Luther King repeated, freedom is God-given.”
Of course there are critics in the media and in the scientific community who claim the movie is propaganda, or just a sleazy cover for creationism. This will no doubt continue as the film gains more viewers in the coming weeks and months.
I particularly enjoyed the interviews with Richard Dawkins, John Lennox and Alister McGrath because of my personal connection with Oxford, England having studied there with the Zacharias Trust in the summer of 2006. I heard lectures from both Alister and John, and heard other lectures in a lecture room down the hall from Richard Dawkin’s office.
My hunch on this film is that most people who have thought about these issues before will either love the film or hate it depending on their pre-existing worldview. However, I think there is a large number of people in the middle, who are not aware of there being a growing “issue” with Darwinian Evolution, nor the growing Intelligent Design movement within the scientific community. This movie will be the first exposure to the issue for most people. For this reason alone, I personally think it is fantastic… even if all it does is get people aware and thinking about it, and asking questions.
The scientific method is based upon free, open and honest inquiry. I don’t see how anyone who understands this should have a problem with an open debate between Darwin’s theory of Evolution, and the proponents of Intelligent Design. Let’s have an open, fair fight and may the best theory win!
Watch the official movie trailer:
All I can say is to go see the movie and draw your own conclusion.
According to reports from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), almost all the allegedly “lost” ice reported by Al Gore and other global warming alarmists, has come back. The report shows that ice levels which had shrunk from 5 million square miles in January 2007 to just 1.5 million square miles in October, are almost back to their original levels. I addition, a Feb. 18 report in the London Daily Express showed that there is nearly a third more ice in Antarctica than usual.
Last night at 7 PM Chicago time, a debate was broadcast on Moody Radio Network between Richard Dawkins, author of “The God Delusion,” and John Lennox, professor of Mathematics and Philosophy of Science, both at Oxford University, England. Dawkins is considered one of the leading intellectuals in science today, and a spokesman for the “New Atheism.”
The debate was held at The Alys Stephens Center at the University of Alabama, and was sponsored by a group called Fixed Point Foundation. I heard about the debate from my brother Barry, and also saw it advertised in Christianity Today magazine.
The debate was positioned to center on Dawkins’ views as expressed in his book, and their validity over and against the Christian faith. Lennox is a well-know Christian apologist, and has written a rebuttal to Dawkins’ book entitled: “God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?” Dawkins was given the first and last words for the evening debate out of “Christian charity” as the host humorously noted.
I was able to listen to the first 30 minutes before attending a previous commitment. In that time I heard introductions of the speakers by the moderator, and a 5 minute biography introduction by each debater.
I plan to purchase the DVD of the event through the Fixed Point website as soon as it is available. I’ll do a more detailed analysis after viewing that.
What I found personally interesting is that when I was in Oxford in 2006 for the RZIM Summer School (see my 2006 Summer School Posts), John Lennox was one of the lecturers that I heard on a daily basis. We also heard our evening lectures from Ravi Zacharias and other RZIM speakers, in the British Museum of Natural History, where Richard Dawkins has his office.
Kind of ironic!
Many of you who know me, also know that I have been very suspicious of the “global warming” fad, since it began. The assertions I hear in the popular media from the sky is falling, global warming proponents are:
- The earth is in a warming trend
- This trend is unusual and will keep going indefinitely unless we do something radical to reverse it
- This trend is caused by human beings and their activities, so it is therefore changeable by human beings altering their activities
First, no one denies that temperatures are about a degree warmer than they were a hundred years ago. The question is what is causing this to occur? The reasons for my objections for the human causes of global warming are many, but to simplify them, they are:
- My suspicion of the “science” used to support the human causes of global warming claims. It looks like bad science to me.
- The astonishing intolerance and hatred from global warming proponents, against any who dare to question their beliefs or underlying presuppositions, or biases. This reaction is very unscientific, if I understand “the scientific method” at all.
- The “political” and “power” nature of the human cause of global warming movement. I suspect there are other motives and agendas at work here.
- Hollywood fawning all over Al Gore and his “documentary” called “An Inconvenient Truth.” That Oscar was a sham and not deserved.
- The hypocricy of the global warming proponents who are mostly centered in rich, developed countries, who don’t want to allow poor, third world developing nations reap the same benefits enjoyed in developed countries. They don’t seem to understand the catastrophic effect that holding back the third-world will have on the lives of millions of people, mostly children.
I recently watched a very good documentary film produced by BBC Channel 4, that captures most of my objections in one, interesting, fact-filled, intelligent, one might even say “scientific,” thought-provoking piece. “The Global Warming Swindle” has not been aired in the US (I can’t imagine why!) but is fortunately available for online viewing here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4520665474899458831. I encourage any person seeking after the “truth” to make this a part of your search. One must deal with other points of view on the “theories” of the human causes of global warming. To ignore evidence or deny other points of view, is simply foolish and is unscientific by definition.
The other great resource is a novel by Michael Crichton entitled, “State of Fear.” This is an entertaining thriller, in the style of so many Crichton books, only this one actually has footnotes in it supporting the author’s views on “global warming” as expressed through the characters and in the plot of the story.
I highly recommend both of these resources for anyone serious about learning more on this important topic. I believe the global warming frenzy is one of the biggest deceptions being perpetrated today. The fact that millions of people believe it, is a sign that our world and our society is losing it’s ability to think critically, and it doesn’t question things seen, heard and experienced though media and entertainment. The fact that this media is an industry, with individual people behind it, wielding the power to sway the minds of millions, is of great concern to me.
The loss of critical thinking skills is one of the trends that is contributing to the decline and extinction of western civilization itself!
Read this great article by the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network (CBC).
I highly recommend that you subscribe to their e-newsletter to stay educated and informed on these highly controversial and complex human issues!