Intelligently Designed Films The youthful ID movement flexes its muscles in two documentaries. Reviewed by Thomas E. Woodward | posted 03/06/2003 Since its official launch in November 1996, the Intelligent Design movement has matured rapidly, like a teenager who outgrows his clothes every three months. As one who has followed the origins debate for nearly 20 years, I am convinced that a large part of the "persuasion" of Intelligent Design emerges not just from the specific arguments and evidences that it presents, but more in the narrative of the movement's history. Scientific facts are one thing; stories of converted Darwinists and persecuted id thinkers are another.When I set out to write my Ph.D. dissertation on the "rhetorical history" of Intelligent Design (that is, how id proponents have argued their case over the years), I was struck by the magnetism of the stories that cluster around key leaders like Michael Behe of Lehigh University and Phillip Johnson of UC-Berkeley. My committee of professors at the University of South Florida (including two self-described agnostics) said that they too found these characters captivating. Two high-tech video documentaries have now created, in effect, a sophisticated genre of "Design-telling." These two documentaries paint this story on a video canvas with a new degree of polish and intelligence. The two videos complement each other well. Unlocking the Mystery of Life (www.illustramedia.com) develops all of Intelligent Design's major molecular-based arguments for an "intelligent cause" of life's complexity, and thus presents the positive case. Icons of Evolution (www.coldwatermedia.com), on the other hand, spotlights the problems of Darwinism: its censorship of key scientific information in public schools, and the scientific misinformation it spreads through public textbooks. These films will help transform the debate over Darwinism and Design. The stories they tell challenge the myth that Intelligent Design is a movement driven by religious bias. Animating Complex Design For example, Unlocking features many segments with dazzling computer animation. Some of these segments result from a painstaking four-year project by Tim Doherty, a young man with two passions: science and computer-imaging technology. One of Doherty's sequences zooms into the nucleus to show the DNA spiral-ladder splitting open, then forming an RNA copy. The string of RNA peels away, zips through a porthole in the nucleus, then passes through a clamshell-shaped reading machine called a ribosome. The ribosome lines up the correct units of a protein like so many Scrabble tiles.This animation appears amid the story of biologist Dean Kenyon, who wrote a proevolution text 30 years ago, then responded to a student's challenge to rethink his position. After further research, Kenyon changed his mind. He abandoned his idea of "biochemically predestined" life and embraced the notion of an intelligent cause. Kenyon's story is captured in an enduring image: an unfeigned astonishment lights up his face as he describes the cell's complexity. The key animations consistently link scientific explanations with the vivid human element of leading researchers who grapple with the origin of a brilliantly designed molecular machine. Watching these segments, I saw the old "Bible vs. science" stereotype being quietly vaporized. A similar transformation of the story occurs in Icons of Evolution. Roger DeHart, a high-school biology teacher in Burlington, Washington, explains how he presented the scientific problems of Darwinism by using articles from the world's most prestigious scientific journals. School officials banned the articles and eventually moved DeHart out of the biology class.		Give Your Own Opinion   Trailers   Quicktime Real Player High Low High Low Give Your Own Opinion   Trailers   Quicktime Real Player High Low High Low Give Your Own Opinion   Study Guide     Preview
Restructuring the Debate Unlocking introduces crucial figures of the Intelligent Design movement, many of them young scientists offering articulate descriptions of the central issues. Listening to these young researchers, one sees how certain patterns of thought and criticism in Intelligent Design have restructured the entire debate about creation and evolution. For example, Jonathan Wells of the Discovery Institute, whose book The Icons of Evolution inspired much of the Icons video, is a frequent commentator in both videos. One segment in Unlocking shows philosopher Paul Nelson summarizing the flaws of Darwin's own theory, supplemented by shots of odd birds and reptiles on the Galápagos Islands. Leading Intelligent Design thinker Phillip Johnson makes a few brief comments in Unlocking, but the film devotes more time to his young colleagues Steve Meyer (who helped write the script) and William Dembski.Icons of Evolution offers its own cameo appearances by important figures. A segment on the Cambrian Explosion, the sudden appearance of dozens of complex animal phyla in ancient rocks with no apparent ancestors, features Dr. Jun-Yuan Chen. This legendary leader of digs in southern China has uncovered many precious Cambrian fossils, and acknowledges that current Darwinian theory is inadequate to explain the new discoveries. Icons also shows a U.S. Senate debate on whether public schools should present all sides of the evolutionary debate. I will not spoil the surprise of which senator spoke in favor of Rick Santorum's proposal to "teach the controversy." Icons of Evolution and Unlocking the Mystery of Life tell the story of an old scientific paradigm that clings to power, using bullying tactics that are an inversion of the scientific spirit. Darwinism still rules the classroom, but as these films show, it is now the target of scrutiny and piercing criticism from a growing university-based movement. In this rare case, I would not mind if my students watched the movie rather than reading the book. Thomas E. Woodward is the founder and director of the C. S. Lewis Society, which holds apologetics seminars on college campuses and in churches. He teaches the history of science, philosophy, and systematic theology at Trinity College of Florida.Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today.   www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/003/36.79.html The Remarkable Story of Roger DeHart A New Documentary about the "Icons of Evolution" Breakpoint By Chuck Colson In the early twentieth century -- during the Scopes Trial, for instance -- evolution was the new theory challenging settled opinions about divine creation. Now, however, said Bill Rice on National Public Radio, it's evolution that "is being questioned." Darwinian evolution has become the established view -- and those who want to consider alternatives to Darwinism have become the innovative thinkers challenging the status quo.Nowhere is this stunning role reversal better portrayed than in the new documentary, "Icons of Evolution." "Icons" tells the story of Roger DeHart, a high school biology teacher in Washington state who wanted to tell his students about evidence that casts doubt on aspects of Darwinian evolution. The evidence that DeHart hoped to discuss wasn't fringe stuff. It was the material already published in scientific literature. For example, biology textbooks have long featured drawings of animal embryos, purporting to show similarity. This was widely taken as proof that the species in question shared a common evolutionary ancestor. But the drawings are seriously inaccurate, omitting many details and falsely suggesting similarities among embryos. Stephen Gould, the noted Harvard paleontologist, called the drawings "scientific fraud," and he said that we should "be ashamed and astonished by the century of [their] mindless recycling" in textbooks. It sounds like something students ought to know about, yet, when DeHart wanted to bring Gould's article about the fraudulent drawings into his classroom, the school administration forbade him from doing so. He wasn't even allowed to discuss Gould's article or say anything questioning the drawings in the school district's officially mandated textbook. But the censorship didn't stop there. DeHart wanted to tell his students about the "Cambrian Explosion," the sudden appearance of the major groups of animals about 550 million years ago. The Cambrian Explosion has long been a puzzle for Darwinian evolution. Again DeHart was forbidden to bring in any supplementary materials offering an alternative explanation. It didn't matter that the issue is part of ongoing scientific debate. DeHart's students weren't allowed to see or hear anything challenging textbook orthodoxy.All this, and more, is retold by the participants themselves in the documentary "Icons of Evolution." You'll hear from Chinese paleontologists who worked with the Cambrian Explosion fossils and believe that Darwinian evolution fails to explain the data. You'll hear from Roger DeHart himself about his experiences and also from his school's administrators, telling why they wouldn't let him depart from the established curriculum. It's an amazing, even shocking, story -- shocking, that is, because most people assume that science ought to be a search for the truth about the natural world. While we may be cynical about advertising, or politics, or the media, science is still supposed to be above it all, pursuing what is really true. The "Icons" documentary will shake you up. Science teaching today has become indoctrination, but the good news is we can still do something about it.