Intelligent Design

Ronald Bailey at Reason magazine has reviewed “Expelled,” and is one of the few who has pointed out that: Yet despite its topic, the film is entirely free of scientific content–no scientific evidence against biological evolution and none for “intelligent design” (ID) theory is given. Which makes sense because biological evolution is amply supported by evidence from the fossil record, molecular biology, and morphology. For example, the younger the rocks in which fossils are found, the more closely they resemble species alive today, and the older the rocks, the less resemblance there is. In addition, molecular biology confirms that the more distantly related the fossil record suggests species lineages are, the more their genes differ. Instead of evaluating this evidence, Stein spends most of the movie asking various proponents of evolutionary theory, including Richard Dawkins, P.Z. Myers, Michael Ruse, and Daniel Dennett, for their religious views. Neither the producers nor Stein understand that offering critiques of a theory with which they disagree is not the same as proving their own theory.“Expelled” is standard creationist and ID fare, in that regard.

Click the image for the facts that “Expelled” doesn’t give you. This post is a placeholder to report on “Expelled”’s weekend box office and the accuracy of my five predictions about the film, as well as a few more I’ll add here. My five predictions were that “Expelled” will: (1) be on fewer than 800 screens, (2) will have an initial weekend box office of less than $2 million, with (3) a per-screen take of less than $2,500, (4) won’t break the top ten despite it being a slow opening week, and (5) will make less than $10 million in box office take by the end of 2008 (though it may make more than that through DVD sales).Prediction (1) is already falsified, since it’s opening in 1,052 theaters. Prediction (4) may well be wrong due to how weak this weekend is for new films–it’s pretty clear that #1 and #2 will be “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “The Forbidden Kingdom.” Al Pacino’s “88 Minutes” is also opening in many theaters and has the draw of its star, but it’s getting terrible reviews. C.S. Strowbridge at The-Numbers estimates that “Expelled” will only need a $3 million opening weekend to make the top ten, so my predictions are at least consistent with each other. Looking at the list of top Christian films below, I see that the most recent “Veggie Tales” movie, “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything,” came in at number 6 in January 2008 with an opening weekend of $4.2 million on 1,337 screens. I doubt that “Expelled” will do that well, though I expect (6) it will break the top ten in the Christian films category, probably about to the eighth position. Looking at controversial films, however, I think it’s unlikely to make the top twenty–(7) it will probably end up around 22nd at best, beating “The Last Temptation of Christ.” Documentaries are a bit easier, and it could very well make the top ten, but (8) I wouldn’t expect it to get above the seventh slot. Finally, (9) I expect to see its theater counts drop rapidly starting next week, losing at least 500 theaters by next Friday as its audience sees the film and more popular entries displace it in the new week. UPDATE (April 19, 2008): I expect that predictions (2) and (4) may be falsified; a weekend take of $3-4 million looks likely after Friday’s estimated take of $1,126,000 and its coming in at #8 on Friday. #1-#7 ahead of “Expelled” were: “The Forbidden Kingdom,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Prom Night,” “88 Minutes,” “21,” “Nim’s Island,” and “Street Kings.” Prediction (3) looks like it will easily be proven correct; “Expelled” earned $1,070 per-theater on Friday, making it #5 for per-theater take. UPDATE (April 20, 2008): Prediction (2) has been falsified as the current estimated box office take is $3,152,896. Prediction (4) looks like it will be falsified, with “Expelled” barely cracking the top ten–it has been passed by “Horton Hears a Who” and looks like it will be #9 for the weekend. Prediction (3) looks like it will be false, too, though in my defense I intended to predict a per-screen daily average take rather than a per-theater take for the entire weekend. Saturday’s take was $941/theater, versus Friday’s $1,145, and Sunday looks like it will be lower still (projected to be $911/theater). UPDATE (April 21, 2008): “Expelled”’s weekend take has been revised downward from the estimate, to $2,970,848, or $2,824 per-theater. So my prediction (3), taken the way I said it rather than meant it, was not wrong by much. It also came in at #10 for the weekend (#9 was Leatherheads), so prediction (4) was falsified in the most minimal way possible. Predictions (5)-(9) appear to be on solid ground. Sunday’s take was only $737/theater, and it’s all downhill from here. UPDATE (April 24, 2008): The-Numbers has posted its list of theater counts for the weekend of April 25, 2008, and “Expelled” isn’t on the list. I’d guess this means they just don’t have the information yet, rather than that it’s not appearing in any theater (since none of last week’s openers and only one of this weekend’s openers are yet listed), but we’ll soon find out if my prediction (9) is correct and it is down to 552 or fewer theaters. (If Arizona is an indication, the drop may not occur until next week.) Box Office Mojo is now reporting “Expelled”’s theater count at 1,041 for its second weekend, a drop of 11 theaters, which falsifies prediction (9). It looks like it’s not common for a huge drop in theater counts to occur in the first week, so this was probably a dumb prediction unless the movie was a total bomb, which it hasn’t been. I think a 500-theater drop is much more likely for next week, however–call that prediction (10). For this weekend, I suspect we’ll see each day’s average take in the $500-$700 per-theater range, or $500,000-$700,000 total per day; probably closer to the low end, and thus ending the weekend with a total take of between $5.4M and $6M, and leaving prediction (5) accurate unless it turns out to be popular internationally. It will also probably drop out of the top ten starting today. UPDATE (April 26, 2008): “Expelled” began its second weekend with (The-Numbers’ estimate) a $505,000 take ($485/theater) on Friday, even lower than I guessed yesterday. Box Office Mojo’s estimate is even lower: $450,000 ($432/theater). UPDATE (April 27, 2008): The second weekend’s estimated take is $1,378,867 ($1,325/theater, The-Numbers) or $1,379,000 ($1,324/theater, Box Office Mojo), which will put the total at about $5.2M, below the lower end of my guess on Thursday, with a total of about $5.2M. UPDATE (April 28, 2008): The weekend’s estimated take is now $1,395,000 ($1340/theater), with “Expelled” ranked at #13, according to Box Office Mojo. Looks like it followed the more normal pattern with a Saturday peak ($529,000) and less on Friday ($452,000; The-Numbers estimates $505,000 for Friday) and Sunday ($414,000), all still estimates. Today will probably drop well below $200,000. UPDATE (April 29, 2008): Monday’s take was $157,191 ($151/theater), though the rank went up to #12. UPDATE (May 2, 2008): “Expelled” is staying around longer than I would have imagined, but it has now dropped 386 theaters to 655, and its daily box office take will suffer accordingly. It looks like “Expelled” is going to end up doing about the same amount business as “Megiddo: The Omega Code 2,” and not as well as “The End of the Spear,” two Christian movies that were previously distributed by Rocky Mountain Pictures. Prediction (5) looks dead on (less than $10 million in box office by the end of 2008); prediction (6) looks like it was too generous (“Expelled” should easily break into the top ten on Christian films, but it now looks unlikely to reach #9, let alone #8); prediction (7) also looks too generous (hitting #22 on the “controversial” film list; #23 or #24 looks more likely, though Box Office Mojo has decided not to list “Expelled” in that category at all); prediction (8) is easy at this point (it won’t reach #7 on the documentary list; it looks like even breaking into the top 10 is out of reach). So my prediction accuracy was about as good as coin flipping. I was way off on theater count-related predictions, but more accurate on revenue and rank-related predictions. But enough about those predictions. I’ll continue to update this post with the data until it drops completely out of the theaters. Some websites for statistics: “Expelled” box office numbers and rating at The-Numbers: 4/19/2008: “Expelled” came in at #8 for Friday, with an estimated box office take of $1,126,000, and a per-theater take of $1,070 (ranked #5). The-Numbers rating: 3.75/10 (16 votes; 25% rated it 10 and 62.5% rated it 1). 4/20/2008: “Expelled” has dropped to #9 for the weekend, with an estimated box office take of $3,152,896 for the whole weekend, and a per-theater take of $2,997. 4/22/2008: The-Numbers gives different numbers than Box Office Mojo, though their weekend totals agree: Friday: $1,126,000 ($1070/theater), Saturday: $967,000 ($919/theater), Sunday: $878,000 ($835/theater), for an opening weekend total of $2,970,848 ($2,824/theater). Monday: $238,804 ($227/theater). 04/23/2008: Tuesday, April 22: $227,232 ($216/theater). Total: $3,436,884. 04/25/2008: Wednesday, April 23: $234,596 ($223). Thursday, April 24: $231,440 ($220). Friday, April 25: $505,000 ($485), ranked #13. Total: $4,408,000. 4/30/2008: Still no numbers for Saturday or Sunday. Monday, April 28: $157,191 ($151). 5/1/2008: Tuesday, April 29: $162,396 ($156). Wednesday, April 30: $159,273 ($153). 5/2/2008: Thursday, May 1: $158,232 ($152). 5/5/2008: May 2-4 weekend: $683,552 ($1,042/theater). 5/6/2008: Monday, May 5: $66,912 ($102/theater). 5/8/2008: Tuesday, May 6: $74,128 ($113), Wednesday, May 7: $73,472 ($112). 5/9/2008: Thursday, May 8: $78,720 ($120). Total: $6,906,488. 5/12/2008: Friday, May 9-Sunday, May 11: $328,836 ($818). Total: $7,235,324. 5/14/2008: Monday, May 12: $38,994 ($97); Tuesday, May 13: $35,778 ($89). 5/16/2008: Wednesday, May 14: $43,818 ($109), Thursday, May 15: $43,014 ($107). 5/28/2008: Monday, May 26: $16,019 ($193). Total: $7,598,071. Theater counts at The-Numbers: 4/18/2008: 1,052 4/25/2008: 1,041 5/2/2008: 656 5/9/2008: 402 5/16/2008: 210 5/23/2008: 83 “Expelled” ratings at Rotten Tomatoes: 4/18/2008 7:54 a.m. MST: 8% fresh (12 reviews, 11 rotten, 2.9/10 rating) 4/18/2008 11:48 a.m. MST: 7% fresh (14 reviews, 13 rotten, 2.9/10 rating) 4/18/2008 1:35 p.m. MST: 5% fresh (21 reviews, 20 rotten, 2.8/10 rating) 4/18/2008 2:56 p.m. MST: 9% fresh (22 reviews, 20 rotten, 3/10 rating) (Christianity Today review added) 4/19/2008 4:15 p.m. MST: 9% fresh (23 reviews, 21 rotten, 3/10 rating) 4/22/2008 6:23 p.m. MST: 12% fresh (25 reviews, 22 rotten, 3.2/10 rating) 4/24/2008 4:39 p.m. MST: 10% fresh (30 reviews, 27 rotten, 2.9/10 rating) 4/292008 8:08 a.m. MST: 9% fresh (33 reviews, 30 rotten, 3/10 rating) Top Critics: 0% fresh (13 reviews, 13 rotten, 2.6/10 rating) RT Community rating: 50% fresh (377 reviews, 188 rotten, 4.8/10 rating) “Expelled” ratings at IMDB: 4/19/2008 4:15 p.m. MST: Average rating is 3.3/10 with 402 very polarized votes–81 (20.1%) rated the movie a 10, 276 (68.7%) rated it a 1. Females like it more than males, and those under 18 and over 45 like it more than those in between. Average rating for males: 3.1 Average rating for females: 6.3 Average rating for under 18-year-olds: 6.7 (male 6.7, female 10) Average rating for 18-29 year-olds: 3.0 (male 2.5, female 7.7) Average rating for 30-44 year-olds: 3.0 (male 3.1, female 2.0) Average rating for 45+: 4.7 (male 4.5, female 5.5) 4/21/2008 10:36 a.m. MST: Average rating is now 3.6/10 with 659 votes, still highly polarized (22.2% 10, 61.0% 1), but now with a few more 7, 8, and 9 ratings (2.4%, 4.2%, and 4.7%, respectively), and a few more 2 and 3 ratings (2.1% and 1.2%, respectively). Average rating for males: 3.3 Average rating for females: 6.7 Average rating for under 18-year-olds: 6.5 (male 6.3, female 7.8) Average rating for 18-29 year-olds: 3.4 (male 3.0, female 7.7) Average rating for 30-44 year-olds: 3.3 (male 3.3, female 2.4) Average rating for 45+: 4.1 (male 4.0, female 7.7) 4/24/2008 4:41 p.m. MST: Average rating is now 3.6/10 with 2,332 votes (25.4% 10, 57.0% 1; 5.1% 9, 4.0% 8, 2.0% 7, 1.5% 3, 3.1% 2). Average rating for males: 3.4 Average rating for females: 5.4 Average rating for under 18-year-olds: 6.0 (male 5.5, female 7.9) Average rating for 18-29 year-olds: 3.2 (male 3.0, female 5.5) Average rating for 30-44 year-olds: 3.6 (male 3.6, female 3.4) Average rating for 45+: 4.6 (male 4.4, female 6.7) Expelled box office and ratings at Box Office Mojo: 4/19/2008 9:54 a.m. MST: Box Office Mojo readers rate the movie a B, with 110 votes (66.4% A, 3.6% B, 28.2% F). 4/20/2008 12:21 p.m. MST: “Expelled” took in less money on Saturday than on Friday–$990,000, or $941 per theater. Sunday’s projected take is $958,000. 4/21/2008 5:07 p.m. MST: The opening weekend box office take was $2,970,848, a per-theater average of $2,824. Sunday brought in only $775,000, or $737 per theater. 4/22/2008 6:25 p.m. MST: Monday’s box office take was $238,804, another 68.8% drop in daily gross, for a per-theater average of $227. Total take is now $3,209,652. Friday-Sunday have been updated: Friday: $1,208,748 ($1,149), Saturday: $996,244 ($947), Sunday: $765,856 ($728). The weekend total agrees with The-Numbers, but the daily totals do not. 4/23/2008 2:01 p.m. MST: Tuesday: $227,232 ($216); Wednesday: $234,596 ($223). Six-day total: $3,671,480. 4/24/2008 3:04 p.m. MST: Thursday: $231,440 ($220). Seven-day total: $3,902,920. 4/25/2008 6:56 p.m. MST: Friday: $450,000 ($432) (estimate), rank #13. Seven-day total: $4,353,000. 4/30/2008 1:58 p.m. MST: Saturday: $529,000 ($508), Sunday: $414,000 ($398), Monday: $157,191 ($151), Tuesday: $162,396 ($156). Weekend numbers are all still estimates. 5/2/2008 7:04 p.m. MST: Wednesday: $159,273 ($153), Thursday: $158,232 ($152). 5/5/2008 9:20 a.m. PDT: May 2-4 weekend: $684,000 ($1,042). 5/6/2008 7:40 p.m. PDT: Friday, May 2: $216,480 ($330), Saturday, May 3: $270,272 ($412), Sunday, May 4: $191,552 ($292), Monday, May 5: $66,912 ($102), ranked #15. Total: $6,680,168. 5/7/2008 7:53 p.m. PDT: Tuesday, May 6: $74,128 ($113). 5/8/2008 8:29 p.m. PDT: Wednesday, May 7: $73,472 ($112). 5/9/2008 5:17 p.m. PDT: Thursday, May 8: $78,720 ($120). 5/11/2008 4:01 p.m. MST: May 9-11 weekend: $328,836 ($818), in 402 theaters, ranked #21. 5/12/2008 7:39 p.m. MST: Friday, May 9: $100,902 ($251); Saturday, May 10: $120,600 ($300); Sunday, May 11: $107,334 ($267). Total: $7,235,324. 5/13/2008 3:55 p.m. MST: Monday, May 12: $38,994 ($97). 5/14/2008 8:04 p.m. MST: Tuesday, May 13: $35,778 ($89). 5/16/2008 7:40 p.m. MST: Wednesday, May 14: $43,818 ($109); Thursday, May 15: $43,014 ($107). Total: $7,396,927. 5/18/2008 6:13 p.m.: May 16-18 weekend estimate: $89,000 ($423) in 210 theaters. 5/21/2008 11:14 a.m. MST: May 16-18 weekend: $102,690 ($489). Total: $7,499,617. 5/28/2008 12:38 p.m. MST: May 23-26 four-day weekend: $46,314 ($558). (May 23-25: $35,109 ($423).) Total: $7,598,071. All-time top box office for documentaries at Box Office Mojo. All-time top box office for controversial films at Box Office Mojo. All-time top box office for Christian films at Box Office Mojo. ...

Hugh Ross’s old-earth creationist organization, Reasons to Believe, has issued a statement on “Expelled”: Dear RTB Chapter members, With the impending release of “EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed” (April 18), the Reasons to Believe scholar team thought it best to prepare a statement of our position, a guide for answering questions from chapters, networks, and apologists. Keep in mind that the mission of RTB centers on reaching out to science-minded people with two purposes: ...

The Atheist Blogger points out that “Expelled” is violating the license terms on the blog theme used at their blog. A commenter at The Playlist blog points out that while they did indeed purchase a license to use The Killers’ song “All These Things That I’ve Done,” they did so in a deceptive way. Here’s how they described the film that they wanted the license for: The film is a satirical documentary with an estimated running time of 1 hour and 50 minutes, exploring academic freedom in public schools and government institutions with actor, comedian, economist, Ben Stein as the spokesperson.No mention of intelligent design or evolution. That’s a similar tactic to the deception they used to get some of the interviews in the film.

The folks at XVIVO have argued that “Expelled” has engaged in copyright infringement by directly copying from their film, “The Inner Life of the Cell.” The “Expelled” producers have responded by claiming that they constructed their film based on original research: However, the latest claim concerning the copyright status of our proprietary animation is so ridiculous, bogus and misinformed that we must respond. Premise Media invested significant time and money into the research and original creation of the animation used in our film to illustrate cellular activity. Our own team of experts created the highest quality of animation that is available. In fact, the animation we use in the theatrical release of our movie is only a small portion of the animation we have created and plan to use in future projects.Darwin Central has proposed a paternity test in the form of a series of image comparisons. On the left hand side, images from a variety of sources showing a particular process in the cell that is depicted by “The Inner Life of the Cell.” On the right hand side, a comparison image from the “Expelled” segment at issue. Surely, if the “Expelled” producers are correct, there should be no reason to find any special similarity between the image on the left that comes from XVIVO’s film and the image that comes from “Expelled” versus any of the other images on the left. See for yourself. It also appears that other parts of “Expelled”’s animations have been taken from other sources, to which John Wilkins has a connection! Yet Premise Media is suing XVIVO, seeking a declaratory judgment in Texas! This sounds like venue shopping or “forum shopping," since XVIVO is in Massachusetts. UPDATE: ERV has a copy of the complaint and a summary. She also includes a new video, that she speculates has replaced the XVIVO-copied video in the final film. UPDATE (April 19, 2008): The footage copied from XVIVO was apparently removed from the film before yesterday’s public release. ...

The NCSE’s “Expelled Exposed” website has now gone live, and it contains a wealth of factual background information about the alleged cases of suppression of intelligence design presented in the film “Exposed,” as well as highlighting other information left out of the film and the story of the deceptive methods used by the producers of the film. The home page of the site features the story of Chris Comer, Director of Science for the Texas Education Agency. Unlike any of the alleged victims of persecution in “Expelled,” she was actually forced to resign from her position. Not because she was an advocate of intelligent design, but because she sent out an email announcing a university lecture by Barbara Forrest, a philosopher critical of intelligent design. The next main area of the site is titled “The Truth Behind the Fiction," which has the following sections: THE SCIENTIFIC CLAIMS EvolutionIntelligent DesignChallenging ScienceScience & ReligionHitler & EugenicsTHE “EXPELLED”Richard SternbergGuillermo GonzalezCaroline CrockerRobert MarksPamela WinnickMichael Egnor The next area of the site, “Behind the Scenes," explains the deception, dishonesty, and hypocrisy of the makers of the film: What is Premise Media?Questionable Interview TacticsMarketing with a MotiveSilencing the Dissenters Finally, the last section of the site is a collection of resources which has been on the site for some time, but is constantly growing–a list of news coverage and reviews of the film. Check out the site for the facts that the makers of “Expelled” don’t want you to see.

John Lynch has discovered an unintentional irony in “Expelled." While the movie tries to argue that Darwinism led to Hitler, one of the anti-Darwinists interviewed in the film, Maciej Giertych, also happens to be an old-fashioned anti-Semite who thinks that Jews intentionally create ghettos to live in, are unethical swindlers who do not have any moral respect for the law, and who move to rich countries in order to exploit them. One commenter points out that Giertych has also praised Spain’s fascist leader Francisco Franco (who is still dead). Another observes that Giertych is, in at least a small way, a Holocaust denier, denying that gentile Poles carried out the Jedwabne pogrom of 1941. Giertych has also been published by Answers in Genesis’ Creation magazine, in 1995, and is a signatory to the Discovery Institute’s “A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism” statement. Clearly, racism does not require a belief in evolution. ...

Wesley Elsberry points out that Ben Stein has reported in an interview that he was approached for the “Expelled” project, described more or less as it finally came to be, back in 2006. Part of the pitch was that he was shown XVIVO’s “Inner Life of the Cell” video. Yet in April 2007 (a month after the “expelledthemovie.com” domain was registered), Mark Mathis obtained the cooperation of Genie Scott, P.Z. Myers, and other participants by pitching the nonexistent film “Crossroads,” about the intersection of science and religion, from “Rampant Films,” which had an innocuous website and an address at an empty apartment complex in Los Angeles. Stein’s interview provides further evidence that “Crossroads” was a dishonest subterfuge and that the “Expelled” crowd fully intended to use XVIVO’s film in their movie and did not commission their copy until after William Dembski was sent a cease and desist notice in September 2007, delaying the film’s release from February to April. See Wesley’s Austringer blog for more details.

At Richard Dawkins’ blog, David Bolinsky of XVIVO explains the extent of the copyright infringement and reveals a previous copyright infringement action against William Dembski: To the anti-ID community which is giving XVIVO support in our ideological battle against the microcephalic apostates of “Intelligent Design”: XVIVO created The Inner Life of the Cell for Harvard, through fourteen months of painstaking examination of how a myriad of systems, functional structures and proteins in a cell, could be depicted in a sweeping panoramic style of animation, reminiscent of cinema, that fundamentally raised the bar on the visualization of molecular and cellular biology for undergraduate students. In depicting what we did, other than merely maintaining the intent of the syllabus, we needed to edit like mad. A cell has billions of molecules, millions of active functional proteins and tens of thousands of structural elements separating, sequestering and joining compartments and systems into a functional whole. An initial foundational decision process of our creative vision, consisted of editing out 95% of the contents of our cell in order to gain, for our virtual camera, a vista to visualize what elements we left in. The decisions we made blended aesthetics with science. They were not made lightly, nor were they made without extensive consultation with researchers at Harvard, and an extensive body of literature, including protein data libraries and new findings by Harvard researchers. Given the vast number of structures to be removed, and given the structures remaining “on camera”, whose positioning and relationships, both aesthetic and functional, needed to remain true to the function and beauty of molecular biology, it is inconceivable, mathematically, that the animator hired by EXPELLED’s producers, independently and randomly came up with the same identical actin filament mesh XVIVO depicted in one scene, which had never before been rendered anywhere in 3D! It is astonishing that among well over a dozen functional kinesins from which an animator might choose, we both chose the same configuration of kinesin, pulling the same protein-studded vesicle, on the same microtubule! Can YOU believe we coincidentally picked the same camera angles and left in the same specific structures in the background, positioned with the same composition? Equally astonishing is the “Intellgent Design” treatment of these and other proteins surfaces, which XVIVO derived using procedural iso-surface skinning of the PDB cloud data of our proteins’ atom placement. There are an infinite number of possble “correct” solutions to that problem. Coincidence? Given their “access to the same literature” we had, where Graham Johnson at Scripps so brilliantly worked out the real motion of kinesins, I am simply blown away that the “Intelligent Design” animators slavishly made the hands of their kenesins move exactly as we did, even though we intentionally left out the stochastic Brownian motion which actually characterizes the tractive force and periodic pedicle placement of these tiny motivators. We simply did not have the time or budget to render these, and a dozen other details, to the level of insanity we would like to have done! This was, after all, an underfunded proof-of-concept piece. The cellular biology that serves as “filler” material, between scenes copied from Inner Life, is riddled with biological errors. Imagine “Intelligent Design’s” depiction of protein synthesis without ribosomes! To Mr. Dembski: The only reason I am involved in this discussion is because I do not want the reputation of my company, hard-earned as it is, to be sullied by even oblique affiliation to your sort of smarmy ethics, if only through works of ours, purloined to fit your agenda. Last year you were charging colleges thousands of dollars to give lectures showing a copy of The Inner Life of the Cell, you claimed you “found somewhere”, with Harvard’s and XVIVO’s credits stripped out and the copyright notice removed (which is in itself a felony) and a creationist voice-over pasted on over our music (yes, I have a recording of your lecture). Harvard slapped you down for that, and yes there is a paper trail. One can only assume that had we not taken notice then, we would be debating The Inner Life of the Cell being used in EXPELLED, instead of a copy. You have enough of a colorful history that Harvard, in its wisdom, decided to ‘swat the gnat’ with as little fuss as possible. Imagine our surprise earlier this month, to see our work copied in a movie trailer for EXPELLED! And you are in the movie too! Not quite a star, but brown dwarfs are cool. XVIVO has no intention of engaging alone, in asymmetrical fighting against an ideological entity with orders of magnitude more resources than we have. That might make great theater, but would resemble a hugely expensive game of whack-a-ID. Boring! It makes me happy, though, that you decided to implicate your friends in print, on your blog (http://www.uncommondescent.com/legal/expelled-plagiarizing-harvard/#comment-229619), in what is legally, malignant infringement, since you no had doubt discussed with EXPELLED’s producers, Harvard’s previous legal infringement action against you, the Discovery Institute, where you are a fellow and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where you teach. Once we uncover the EXPELLED animation dollar trail, and bring it to light, we will have even more fun. The sublimely ridiculous claim that EXPELLED uses completely original animation, in light of copying our work so closely that a budget was reserved to pay for an infringement suit by Harvard, is delicious! Why should I try to take you guys down when you are doing such a splendid job yourselves? For free! So go ahead and release your movie. Just keep track of how many tickets you sell. We may just find that data valuable, too. David Bolinsky For more on David Bolinksy and the animation see: (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/147)UPDATE (April 12, 2008): P.Z. Myers comments. Blake Stacey also has a nice post summarizing the copyright infringement issue. UPDATE (April 19, 2008): The footage copied from XVIVO was apparently removed before the film’s public release yesterday.

“Expelled” producer Mark Mathis says that Christians who believe in evolution were intentionally excluded from the film because they “would have confused the film unnecessarily.” (Don’t confuse people with the truth!) He goes on to say that “the form of Catholicism that Ken Miller [biology professor at Brown University and co-author of a popular biology textbook] accepts and practices is, is nowhere near the form of Catholicism that is followed by Catholics who are members of the Catholic church, who believe in Catholic doctrine." Mathis, who is not a Catholic, is apparently unaware that Miller’s view of evolution is consistent with the official position of the Catholic Church as set forth by both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. The Catholic Church’s position on evolution has been that it’s not in conflict with Christianity, since Pope Pius XII. Mathis should also take a look at the NCSE’s Voices for Evolution, where he’ll find that a lot of other Christian sects similarly have no problem with evolution. “Expelled” and its producers seem to want to force a false dilemma of a choice between Christianity or evolution, just as the young-earth creationists do. They don’t seem to realize that this kind of forced choice is one which will make any honest, inquiring mind who accepts the false dilemma to choose against Christianity. J.P. Hunt, a student in Ray Baird’s 1980 “balanced treatment” class on creationism and evolution at Emma C. Smith Elementary School in Livermore, California, said on the 1982 PBS show “Creation vs. Evolution: Battle in the Classroom”: Someone that I know has become an atheist because of this class, because the creationist theory was so stupid, he thought. Well, if religion requires me to believe this, then I don’t want to have any part of it.I don’t find this too objectionable as a consequence, personally. Learning that I was lied to by young-earth creationists was a significant factor in my abandonment of creationism, then Christianity, and then theism. The rampant dishonesty of the “Expelled” crowd will no doubt serve the same effect for others like me, and cause them to look to see if they’ve been similarly lied to about other things. Odds are, they will find that they have. (Via Stranger Fruit.)