I REPENT!!

Before you all get too excited, no, I'm not disassociating myself from Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. But I would like to correct something I published on my blog last night.

When I first heard what went down at the Minneapolis screening, I understood that PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins had attempted to sneak in under false pretenses and that PZ got caught. However, PZ claims to have followed the proper procedure--registering under his own name, not packing a video camera, etc.--and I believe him. (I have no idea if Dawkins did the same.) I also understood that the screening was by invitation only. I did not realize that there was an online form for people to sign up and reserve a spot. (I'm the writer, so I'm not really privy to the marketing side of things.) So if PZ followed the correct procedures, why was he still kicked out? I'll let the producers of Expelled speak to that--which they will do shortly. And trust me, it's not because they were afraid of him.

As for me, I would like to apologize to PZ for the misinformation on my blog. Contrary to several of the comments posted here, I am not ordinarily a contemptible liar. However, I can be accused of sometimes rushing to judgment--a trait that I suspect I share with 99.9 percent of my critics. So what I've done is revise my original blog post slightly to take out the incorrect information. But don't worry, PZ, I'm still game for a big old bear hug any time you're on the West Coast!

I would also like to say that it's very nice to know so many of you are concerned for my soul. I've never had so many people urge me to repent or warn me of the hellfire licking at my toes because I've broken the ninth commandment. I trust that this post will avert divine judgment until at least April 18, when Expelled hits theaters across North America (check here to see where it's playing near you). As for judgment from my fellow humans, well, that's another matter entirely...
 

Comments

[phantomreader42]

Yes, Kevin, what you need to repent now is your sickening and dishonest use of Nazi imagery to attack science. By doing this you disgrace yourself and defile millions of graves.

[Chad]

Thank you for apologizing.

Now, only if we could get an apology for using the religious/political motivated genocide of millions of jews and non-jews in order to dehumanize/demonize another social subset the same way nazis dehumanized/demonized jews.

[Holydust]

Spin, spin, spin.

Fess up -- the producers would have liked nothing better but to have not had any contrary opinions in that audience. They simply dropped the ball. The expulsion of PZ Myers from the audience was a belated continuance of their attempts to preach to the choir, and only to the choir.

Had whoever was checking IDs known who Dawkins was, they would have given him the boot just as hastily. No amount of lies is going to make that any less obvious -- the whole "this was exactly what we planned" routine has only served to show off just how transparent this propaganda-machine really is.

I'm an artist, and one thing I've learned from my own experience and from observing other artists is that when someone's art is not so stellar, and they post it online, and delete any comments that offer criticism or are in any way negative, the only thing the rest of the people viewing see is an insecure, scared person who doesn't want to get better or learn the truth about what they do.

That's what you guys are doing, and it's really, really not helping your cause. Your sycophantic crowd isn't going to fight for you or hold any strong, personal beliefs about what you're trying to show them because you aren't allowing any sort of opposing view to reach them. In the end, your message is going to fall flat purely because you all know too well how ridiculous your message is. Why else would you spin the truth, flat-out lie to get interviews, and try so hard to keep opposing viewpoints out?

We see right through all of this, and that's why every post gets hammered -- it's because most of us are SO appalled that no one at 'Expelled' can see how ridiculous they are that we can't help but let our jaws drop to the ground.

MAN UP, PEOPLE. Man up.

[Nullifidian]

Now, in the spirit of refuting my claim that you were doing bumper-sticker history, why don't you address the quote I posted from Adolf Hitler where he is giving private airing to views which are indistinguishable from those of the creationists?

In case you had forgotten, it appears in Hitlers Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier, 1941-42

"Woher nehmen wir das Recht zu glauben, der Mensch sei nicht von Ur-anfängen das gewesen, was er heute ist? Der Blick in die Natur zeigt uns, daß im Bereich der Pflanzen und Tiere Veränderungen und Weiterbildungen vorkommen. Aber nirgends zeigt sich innherhalb einer Gattung eine Entwicklung von der Weite des Sprungs, den der Mensch gemacht haben müßte, sollte er sich aus einem affenartigen Zustand zu dem, was er ist, fortgebildet haben."

"Whence do we get the right to believe that man was not from his very beginnings that what he is today? A look at nature shows us that, in the realm of the plants and animals, changes and adaptations happen. But no development is shown, inside a species, that includes a leap as large as man would have had to make to evolve from some apelike state to what he is today."

Sounds like most creationists I know: accepting 'microevolution' and denying what they call the monkey-to-man myth.

[Nullifidian]

"You haven't seen the film, have you Nullifidian?"

Yes I have.

I can even tell you where: AMC Mission Valley 20, in San Diego, back in October of last year.

[phantomreader42]

Heathen Dan wrote: "This is probably the only honest statement from anyone connected to the Expelled! movie."

It may, in fact, be the first time any of them have tried honesty in their lives. I wonder if it'll catch on?

[Kevin Miller]

You haven't seen the film, have you Nullifidian?

[Duae Quartunciae]

Thanks for that. I was one who called you a liar (and I think my comment got deleted).

It's encouraging to see this retraction. Thank you.

It's going to be hard to see this expulsion as anything but a dreadful error in judgment by Mark Mathis. PZ Myers has certainly given Mathis a very hard time indeed in his blog over recent months, and with excellent reason (in my personal opinion). But if Mathis thought there was any risk of PZ Myers misbehaving during the screening, he doesn't understand the man at all. Ask embarrassing questions afterwards ...as Dawkins did... certainly. But actually evicting someone who was interviewed in the movie and thanked in the credits, when the movie is supposedly about expulsions of IDists, is comedy gold.

I'm just curious to see if anyone will officially identify this as a bad call by Mathis, that should have been handled differently.

Cheers -- Chris Ho-Stuart

[Nullifidian]

Well, I haven't read Dawkins' criticism of the film, but my own analogy would be to walking through the ICR's creationism museum where they lay out, in posters on the wall, the malign results of evolution (which curiously, are exactly the same as in this film). It was bumper sticker history, and amateurishly put together. Granted, I saw it in October, so they might have punched up the editing a bit since then, but even so the nose-cam was in full effect.

Perhaps they were trying to evoke the scene in the first Left Behind film, where the camera operator pans over and up the nostril of one of the actresses.

[micketymoc]

Interesting, Nullifidian. Was Dawkins' comment, "a bit Lord Privy Seal", right on the money? Did the cameraman indeed have some unnatural attachment to PZ Myers' nostrils?

...and how was the writing? ;)

[Nullifidian]

"Heather, Heather... polemical drivel? Have you even seen the movie?"

I saw the movie, and "polemical drivel" is as accurate a description as I've seen so far.

I was also one of the people who "crashed" one of the screenings by going through the process laid out online for previews.

[Nullifidian]

"I trust that this post will avert divine judgment until at least April 18, when Expelled hits theaters across North America...."

After which, you'll have a whole raft of new things to apologize for.

Interestingly enough, where one *cannot* see it is in any of the planned future preview screenings, which have all, for some reason, been mysteriously cancelled.

Despite your assurances here to the contrary, I think someone on this production team has gotten intimiately acquainted with the meaning of the term "substantial derivation".

[micketymoc]

I for one can't wait to download it. ;)

[Kevin Miller]

Heather, Heather... polemical drivel? Have you even seen the movie?

[Karl Popper]

You know who else was a liar? Hitler, that's who.

[Danny Boy]

This is probably the only honest statement from anyone connected to the Expelled! movie. Bravo for the apology, but that still doesn't make the movie anything less than pure polemical drivel.

[ellazimm]

Still waiting on the producers explanation. Gosh Kevin, are you completely sure about these friends of your?

[RBH]

Bruce Chapman of the Disco 'Tute calls it "gate crashing" to follow the publicly available procedures laid out by the producers to reserve seats at the pre-release showings. Dawkins, by the way, was also appropriately registered and had his passport to show for ID at the door.

Spin as they will, I don't think the producers have yet come up with an even faintly plausible story about the incident.

[Physicalist]

Good on ya for the correction, Kevin.

[micketymoc]

You're very welcome!

[Kevin Miller]

I knew someone would, Mickety. Thanks for preserving the public record!

[Rich]

Fair play to you, Kevin. With hindsight I don't think Crossroads, erm, I mean Expelled has been the most honest endeavor.

[micketymoc]

That's big of you to apologize, Kevin.

Just to keep your readers informed, I saved an archive of your unedited blog entry, available for download on my blog. :)

[Reed A. Cartwright]

Kevin,

I'm glad that as more information came to light that you corrected your initial interpretations.

However, I am curious to know who told you that Dawkins and Myers crashed the screening "uninvited".

[Michael Lonergan]

Ummm, sorry about that....