MORE EXTRA CREDIT!

EXPELLED! and the Scopes Monkey Trial

OBJECTIVE: We have gone full circle?...

We just studied the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 and its affects on the education system of America - that evolution was not only permitted to be taught in public schools but protected speech. 

But what about our present education system? What happens when a teacher wishes to explore SCIENTIFICALLY an alternative to the complexities and origins of the universe? 

Watch and analyze Ben Stein's monumental movie, EXPELLED, No Intelligence Allowed and answer the questions below (and you'll get extra credit, even).

DUE: No later than Friday, May 11th

WORTH: 10 points on any quiz/test from this quarter (in other words, the grade of one quiz)

EXECUTION: Watch the film then answer the questions below.

WARNING, the movie is about an hour and a half so it will take a couple of hours.

You may email your answers to me if you prefer:

• Compare the issue the movie addresses with the Butler Act of 1925.
• What exactly did Richard Sternberg, Caroline Crocker, Michael Egnor, Robert J. Mark II and Guillermo Gonzalez do that caused them to be ostracized - be specific?
• Imagine you are a High School science teacher and you want to provoke your students into thinking (that pesky thing we try to do at Classical Christian - actually allow you to think and debate the issues, silly us!). So you ask your students to debate Darwinism and Intelligent Design. Should you be fired for such teaching if the school board declares you may only teach the official doctrine of evolution? Why should they not fire you?
• Henry Drummond, the Clarence Darrow-like lawyer in the movie Inherit the Wind makes the climactic statement:

"Can't you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools? And tomorrow you may make it a crime to read about it. And soon you may ban books and newspapers. And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the mind of man. If you can do one, you can do the other. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we'll be marching backward, BACKWARD, through the glorious ages of that Sixteenth Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind!" 

          In the movie EXPELLED, Ben Stein interviews world-renowned evolutionist, Richard Dawkins. Compare Henry Drummond's comment with Dawkins' comments.

SEE ME if you want to complete this assignment and I will provide you a copy of the film.

So...have we gone full circle?...

THIS EXTRA CREDIT OFFER IS NOW CLOSED!