<em>Expelled</em> is a new American documentary championing the cause of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design" target="_blank">Intelligent Design</a> movement. It is already making waves in the blogosphere and could repeat the success of the <em>What the bleep</em> series of inspirational newage science docs.

With a presumptious arrogance that might be misread either as stupidity or (more probably given the amount of space the magazine has subsequently dedicated to it) canny marketing <em>nous, </em>the film's producers held a special screening for <a href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=six-things-ben-stein-doesnt-want-you-to-know" target="_blank">Scientific American</a>, who here do a fine job of pulling its wings off, and then drive a stake through its heart for good measure.

While <em>Sci-Am</em>'s points are valid and revealing, I would suggest that the set-ups, misdirections and highly selective deployments of facts are accusations that could be levelled at any number of documentaries. This is not to diminish the importance of <em>Sci-Am</em>'s criticisms, only to point out that the deceptions they reveal are merely business as usual for the format and the medium.

<em>From <a href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=six-things-ben-stein-doesnt-want-you-to-know" target="_blank">Six Things</a> </em>Expelled<em>'s producers don't want you to know about their film. </em>

<strong>1) <em>Expelled</em></strong><strong> quotes Charles Darwin selectively to connect his ideas to eugenics and the Holocaust.</strong>
<strong>2) Ben Stein's speech to a crowded auditorium in the film was a setup.</strong>

<strong>3) Scientists in the film thought they were being interviewed for a different movie.</strong>

<strong>4) The ID-sympathetic researcher whom the film paints as having lost his job at the Smithsonian Institution was never an employee there.</strong>

<strong>5) Science does not reject religious or "design-based" explanations because of dogmatic atheism.</strong>

<strong>6) Many evolutionary biologists are religious and many religious people accept evolution.</strong>

Full story at <a href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=sciam-reviews-expelled" target="_blank">Scientific American.</a>

Via <a href="http://dailygrail.net" target="_blank">Daily Grail </a>