This is where I was supposed to be telling you what I thought about the film Expelled after having paid (yes I know, “boo, hiss”) $10 to Biola university for a ticket to “Expelled! The Movie and the Event“.

Here is their description of the event:

EXPELLED!
The Movie and the Event
with Ben Stein

Intelligent Design: What happens when a group of scientists get terminated for thinking it is reasonable to believe in ID? Actor Ben Stein makes a funny and thought-provoking movie about it. Join us for an exclusive backstage film pass and hear from Stein himself as well as a panel of experts.

“The Movie and the event”, “backstage film pass“, sounds like you might actually see the movie right? Wrong! Instead all you get for your ten clams and your forty minute drive (one way) is essentially a commercial for the movie with a few clips and a lot of ID babble from Stephen C. Meyer, Ben (Mad Dog) Stein, and three or four also spokes.

Addenda (3-29): A couple of analogies I thought of regarding this being a “backstage film pass”. Imagine getting a backstage pass to a concert where you get to “go backstage” but the band doesn’t play. Or for the rednecks out there, imagine getting a pit-pass but there’s no race going on. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense does it? (End)

Needless to say I am a bit peeved about this.

It gets “better” though. After listening to Stein practically foam at the mouth (he almost seemed like he had a pulse for a minute there) about the horrible injustices supposedly documented in his film and a bunch of stuff about God—despite the fact that one of the clips from the film was one of the Discovery Institute muckety-mucks prattling on about how they want to talk about science and that it’s the “people with no argument” who keep bringing up the “red-herring” of religion—the night was topped off with Stein receiving the Orwellianly titled “Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth” for 2008. All of this to no less than three standing ovations from the crowd.

Along for the ride with me was Dr. Wilfred Elders (Prof. of Geology Emeritus UC Riverside), and Dr. Jim Hofmann (Liberal Studies Dept. Cal State Fullerton) and his wife, I’ll let them speak for themselves as to what they thought about the evening in the comments if they wish.

Good times…

I’m sure more about this disappointment will come out later (I have an audio recording) but it’s late and that’s it for now.