Getting Down and Dirty ... In Science

Taken from: woub.org

Is science strictly the pursuit of knowledge, or are there some other ugly competitions and quarrels underneath?  For a long time, I thought of science as an “untainted” study, but biologist Kenneth R. Miller (through his discussion of Ben Stein and his movie Expelled) has made me doubt [Argument! 393].  In his article, “Trouble Ahead for Science,” Miller appears to be too biased to truthfully review the movie, and instead he condemns it from every angle.   By examining Miller in his shaky assumptions, reliance on inference rather than fact, and personal grudge against the movie-makers, it will be clearer to observe Miller’s dirty fighting with Ben Stein.

First, Miller assumes too much in the article, and he irrelevantly connects occurrences outside of Expelled to cause a public disliking of Ben Stein and his movie.  In his review, Miller cites a separate interview where Stein expresses his belief that the Darwinism theory influenced the Nazis to create their superior race ideals and commit the horrors of Holocaust [Argument! 393].  Then, from out of nowhere, Miller concludes that Stein believes that all science is murder, and that there is nothing good (only evil) in its study. 

The overwhelming presence of opinion, and not of fact, is the next aspect that discredits the article “Trouble Ahead for Science.”  Miller first vaguely mentions the inadequacies of Christian creationism, and then continues to negatively point out all the things he dislikes of Stein and Expelled without giving any fact about the movie.  His sentences are distressing and loaded, such as, “The story line is that Intelligent Design advocates are persecuted and suppressed.  Expelled tells of this terrible campaign against free expression, and mocks the pretensions of the closed-minded scientific elite supposedly behind it” [Argument! 393].

Finally, Kenneth R. Miller should have never condemned the movie Expelled as he had a bone to pick with the movie beforehand.  Miller openly states that Mark Mathis (the co-producer of Expelled) did not pick himself, Kenneth R. Miller, as an interviewee, which sounds like a particular tender issue for the writer.  In his own words, he writes, “Mathis cited me by name, saying “Ken Miller would have confused the film unnecessarily” [Argument! 393].

Overall, with Miller’s hasty (and negative conclusions), over-dependence on opinion rather than fact, and personal grudge with the filmmakers, it is easy to see that he is too biased to be a credible writer.  His overall negative tone, in particular, causes me to wonder how much of what Miller says is true.  However, one fact does stand strong: scientists, just like Hollywood celebrities, do quite of bit of dirty fighting in their own way.  

Work Cited:

Miller, Kenneth R. ""Trouble Ahead for Science"" Argument! 10th ed. N.p.: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 393-94. Print.