It looks like at least some good is coming from that Expelled nonsense — namely the free press for figures like Richard Dawkins and PZ Meyers.
I’ll be totally honest with you: I have no idea who PZ Meyers is. Apparently he’s been on the forefront combating the ridiculous “Intelligent Design is science” movement, which is very commendable, but I already have high enough blood pressure without having to think about that crap, so I’ll been a bit out of that loop. If not for his getting expelled from Expelled I probably would never have known about him, so thanks for that, idiots that made Expelled!
Richard Dawkins, on the other hand, is a name I do know, and have a great deal of affection for. Dawkins is the author of the absolutely spectacular book The Selfish Gene, which explains the concept of evolution so thoroughly that even yours truly was able to understand it. A professor of mine from college, Dr. Milton Saier (who is spectacularly wacky) loaned it to me after I asked him a bunch of (what are now clear to me silly) questions about the evolution of single-celled organisms. A professor handing me a book off his own bookshelf and telling me “Here, I think you’ll find this interesting,” was by far the most college-y thing that happened to me, which I suppose is a very sad comment on my college years.
Since then, I’ve recommended The Selfish Gene to everyone who I’ve thought was even mildly interested in matters of evolution or science, and, given the upheaval in the blogosphere over this stupid Expelled movie, I think now is a good time to remind people who are interested in this topic to get themselves a copy of this wonderful book. After all, knowledge is the real weapon we use against Creationist dogma, and the more knowledge you possess the more clear the ridiculousness of ideas like those in Expelled become.
A Word About Dawkins’ Atheism
So here’s the other thing: Richard Dawkins is a notorious atheist, with his more famous book being titled The God Delusion. I realize that doesn’t fly with a lot of people, and it gives the Creationist crowd ammunition with which to dismiss the very intelligent and important things Dawkins says about evolution elsewhere. Sensible but religious folks who really don’t have a great grasp of the actual concept of evolution are then easily lead to believe that the choice is between their faith and Godlessness.
The study of evolution doesn’t actually have anything to do with the philosophical or theological matters of God (which is why Intelligent Design is not, and has nothing to do with, science) and as such The Selfish Gene focuses on the science. I honestly don’t recall any religious aspects showing up in The Selfish Gene, and if they did my mind must have quickly dismissed them. I do recall, however, that there is a lot of truly excellent discussion of evolution, and what exactly it is that’s driving it at a molecular and chemical level.
In reading the book you should expect to come away from it as a more educated person, not as a Godless one.
