Chris Krapek’s April 22 review of Ben Stein’s documentary, “Expelled,” gets a D for: 1) Not trying very hard to be objective 2) Being devoid of facts to back up the review and 3) Dung (another four-letter word might have been more appropriate). Also, let me make it clear this is not a critique of Chris, but just his poorly reasoned article.

Stylistically and syntactically, Chris’s article is sound – good even. In some parts, he even sounds like he’s trying to be objective. I applaud him for all that. But consider the 3/10 rating: Does “the bad” really outweigh “the good” that much?

No. All the negative points have nothing to do with hard facts and everything to do with someone’s opinion. The review accuses Stein of: using “subtle right-wing theories” and making “all of the scholars commenting on Darwinism seem like liberal extremists,” while making “those who argue for intelligent design ... well-mannered and articulate.”

Chris’s review uses the word “bias” multiple times in critiquing intelligent designers (IDers), but those opinionated accusations are full of subtle bias themselves if anyone would care to look.

However, more objective movie-viewers will recognize how unfair Chris’s comments are and remember that Stein asks hard questions of both sides, not just the evolutionists. Moreover, does evolutionist/atheist superstar Richard Dawkins look bad because IDers made him look that way?
No; he makes himself look stupid by believing that life arose on our planet because intelligent life forms (aka aliens) “seeded” it on our planet. This doesn’t even solve the origin-of-life problem anyway – how did the aliens come about, then? But nobody cares. The problem is that some people, even brilliant ones like Dawkins, do not want to give a nod to God (because of the moral implications, not lack of evidence) and would rather try to explain him away any way they can.

Even by using aliens. Even by writing blatantly biased movie reviews.

Josh Ortloff
Senior, English and accountancy

Editor’s Note: Chris Krapek’s April 22 piece, “‘Expelled’ takes a biased look at the evolution vs. creationism debate” was a review and not a news article. Reviews are inherently works of personal opinion held by the reviewer and objectivity nor explicit factual evidence are necessarily required in their composition.

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