while I do not have a degree in physics, I understand it enough to question some of the theories. I know the universe, or at least what we can observe, is expanding. Because it expands does not automatically equal that at some time in the past it must have started from an infinitely dense point. balloons expand when they are inflated but if you pop the balloon, it does not shrink back to nothing. The universe had a beginning, and its expanding that is clear but I don't think we can definitely prove how it began or how it will end. There are theories based on what we've observed but we can't see everything.
science shows me the genius of God at work. when looking at the painting don't forget about the painter.
There are some wrong assumptions you're making about the Big Bang there, that science actually knows what happened. There are hypotheses, and inflation is a modification of the classical expanding universe theory, but it's very much not clear what actually happened at the "beginning" (maybe there even
wasn't one). By the way, particles get created and destroyed
from and to nothing all the time. That's one of the concepts behind which Stephen Hawking had his breakthrough black hole theory that catapulted him to fame
in the 1970's (among the scientific community at least). And, as the great Richard Feynman said, "if you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics", referring to the utter weirdness of the, regardless,
most accurate scientific theory there is (even
more than G. Relativity, which can calculate the difference in time passing in a plane and on the surface of the earth -- time in the plane goes by slower).
But the thing is, not to derail too much from the subject of this thread (Expelled and ID), that do you know how the ID movement, and consequently and ultimately, the "Expelled" production, got started? As I pointed out before, it was just creationists (
christian creationists) looking for better, more politically friendly PR. And the path is chock-full of dishonesty, from blatant lies, to organized mis- and dis-information campaigns. Give a look at
Judge Jones's opinion at Kitzmiller v. Dover. And he's a religious conservative Republican appointed by Bush. You can just read the conclusion, but the whole document is light reading and very interesting, if these things interest you. Basically all major players in this "controversy" had a say in front of the court. One snippet about "irreducible complexity", which is the IDers' best shot at something remotely resembling "evidence" (which has been shot down many times already): [Emphasis mine]
[...]Although in Darwin’s Black Box, Professor Behe wrote that not only were there no natural explanations for the immune system at the time, but that natural explanations were impossible regarding its origin. (P-647 at 139; 2:26-27 (Miller)). However, Dr. Miller presented peer-reviewed studies refuting Professor Behe’s claim that the immune system was irreducibly complex. Between 1996 and 2002, various studies confirmed each element of the evolutionary hypothesis explaining the origin of the immune system. (2:31 (Miller)). In fact, on cross-examination, Professor Behe was questioned concerning his 1996 claim that science would never find an evolutionary explanation for the immune system. He was presented with fifty-eight peer-reviewed publications, nine books, and several immunology textbook chapters about the evolution of the immune system; however, he simply insisted that this was still not sufficient evidence of evolution, and that it was not “good enough.”
And something from the conclusion (which starts on p. 136):
The breathtaking inanity of the Board’s decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial. The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources.
Even the Judge was not too kind to the IDers.
Now, how Ben Stein, a Jew, and presumably a religious one, got involved and shamelessly does
this throughout the movie, speaks of his cynicism and opportunism:
Even those who buy the thesis that star Ben Stein puts forward—that creationists are being unfairly locked out of the scientific establishment—should be disappointed by how Expelled spends almost no time explaining the specifics of intelligent-design theory, or presenting well-researched data to establish it as a legitimate challenger to evolution science.
[...]Few moments in cinema in 2008 were as shameless and disgusting as the Expelled sequence where Stein solemnly visits a Nazi death camp and unsubtly links "survival of the fittest" theory to the Holocaust. Don't worry, Darwinists: If the "bad as Hitler" argument is the best that ID pushers can muster, you have nothing to worry about.
Note that that site has a bad review of
Religulous as well, so you can't say it's a biased anti-religion site.
By the way, this is not about religion per se. It's about some organized creationists having a PR campaign to introduce "creation" into science classes. It's been going on for decades. That's how it all started, and that's still the goal. They've just realized that to do it, they have to undermine actual science, by PR.
