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British understatement wins the day

By on • ( 9 )

Only the bloke on the left was allowed into the cinema to see Expelled in Minneapolis. The other bloke got expelled. Obviously, the horns were just too much. Read all about it.

inconspicuous atheist professors
Original image source: University of Minnesota (Morris).
Modified by tigtog and uploaded to Flickr

Updated to add: next morning, and I’m still laughing. Pwned, IDiots. Totally pwned.

Updated again: I’ve uploaded the image to Flickr. Feel free to share.

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Categories: religion, skepticism

Tags: , ,

9 replies

  1. tigtog's avatar
    tigtog
    2008-03-22 • 9:10 AM

    For those not up to speed on their evolution controversy news, Expelled is a documentary which purports to expose an evolutionist conspiracy against Intelligent Design (ID) so-called theory, failing to allow it to be properly presented in educational institutions as a legitimate alternate scientific theory (it’s true it’s not accepted as a scientific theory of origins, because it isn’t science-based, it’s faith-based).
    The producers secured interviews with several well known biological scientists under false pretenses for the film, having claimed it was merely about the controversy but not advocating ID specifically. One of the commentors at Pharyngula summed it up beautifully (at comment #395 on the thread).

    Here’s the deal.
    Irony breaker #1: PZ is one of their interviewees, whose appearance they secured under false pretenses, and yet they refused to admit him to the film in which he himself appears, for the obvious reason that they know he’ll get on his massive-trafficked blog and report every error, misrepresentation and falsehood in every frame, in encyclopedic detail.
    Irony breaker #2: In the process of ejecting PZ, they somehow failed to notice that standing right next to him in line was perhaps the most famous scientist, atheist, and evolution advocate currently alive, who’s wrapping up a promotional tour for a book that was a New York Times bestseller for over a year, with cumulative sales of over 1.5 million copies in English. This is reminiscent of the old joke about the actress who was so stupid about how to climb the ladder in Hollywood that she slept with the screenwriter.

    and at comment #396:

    The Expelled tools couldn’t have screwed up worse. They managed to identify a *LESS* well-known detractor (no offense PZ), while letting a globally-known and outspoken detractor with several best-selling books and an on-going tour slip by.

  2. Helen's avatar
    Helen
    2008-03-22 • 9:10 AM

    [Off topic, but movie related]
    Tigtog, having seen Quentin Tarantino’s latest Death Proof, I think you should make Zoe Bell your next Friday Hoyden. Make it two Zoes in a row!
    What a woman (and, a Kiwi!)
    Helen’s last blog post..Friday Dogblogging

  3. tigtog's avatar
    tigtog
    2008-03-22 • 9:12 AM

    Will check her out, Helen!

  4. su's avatar
    su
    2008-03-22 • 10:21 AM

    Gold! Got a whole weekend of LOLS in one hit, throwing out my zoloft now!

  5. Helen's avatar
    Helen
    2008-03-22 • 12:20 PM

    It certainly is uniquely priceless, especially the way PZ was liveblogging it from near the theatre from which he’d been ejected.
    Helen’s last blog post..Friday Dogblogging

  7. tigtog's avatar
    tigtog
    2008-03-23 • 10:41 AM

    Phil Plait has a post up about the abhorrence of the major theme of the movie, which is apparently that a “belief” in evolution was the direct cause of Nazi atrocities. As Phil says, what an abhorrent lie.

    Creationists love to say that Hitler used evolution as an excuse for genocide, but actually he makes it clear that religion played a major role in his decisions. For example, in a 1922 speech Hitler said “My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter.” Oddly, the creationists never seem to mention that.
    Despite whatever reasons Hitler gave for his reasoning — and honestly, how much can we trust him? He was Hitler — that doesn’t mean that evolution leads to atheism leads to Nazis. Evolution, like all of reality, is a fact, and how we use it is independent of that reality itself. I can just as easily point out how many people have been slaughtered in the name of Jesus. Both arguments are grossly unfair when used in this manner. I can use a hammer to build a house, or to beat someone’s brains in. In what way is either the fault of the hammer?
    It’s unfair to lay the blame of human faults on religion or the lack thereof. It’s how humans use or abuse these tools that’s important.
    For the producers of this movie to continue this Big Lie tying evolution and Nazis together is an irony almost too big to comprehend, given that this is precisely how Nazi propaganda worked. In a rich field of creationist ironies, this may be the elephant in the room. They are projecting onto their enemies the very thing they are guilty of.

    All emphasis and links in the quote above are in the original text. Go read the whole post.

  8. skepticlawyer's avatar
    skepticlawyer
    2008-03-24 • 3:28 PM

    Very good, am chuckling lots.
    skepticlawyer’s last blog post..The Labor left and Israel

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