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I saw the trailer for this despicable, pandering-to-the-ignorant, emotion-based, misleading-the-uneducated, cherry-picking movie. As an educator and freethinker, it made me want to hurl! If this piece of crap succeeds in any way, it will only add credence to Mencken's quip that "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

Actually, having seen the lengthy trailer, I feel I most certainly DO know something about the movie. The writer, Stein, narrates his own trailer, and he uses propaganda techniques to attract attention, most notably the "straw man" technique. Here are some quotes from the trailer, out of Stein's own mouth, in which he paints a false and misleading picture of both evolution and evolutionists. (My comments follow the asterisks.)

Some believe we are the result of "pure dumb fate and chance"..."nothing more than mud animated by lightning"..."a cosmic mistake."

**Anyone with even a passing familiarity with evolution knows that natural selection is anything but "dumb fate and chance" and that no evolutionist claims we are "mud animated by lightning" or a "cosmic mistake." These are inflammatory and misleading comments intended to make those who have no understanding of the actual theory hate evolutionists and evolution.

"...many scientists face similar persecution. They're losing their jobs, can't get tenure, denied publication in scientific journals..."

*** Biologists who don't believe in evolution, given the overwhelming evidence in its favor from various branches of science, SHOULD be in danger of losing their jobs (especially if they fail to teach students evolutionary theory and substitute some unsubstantiated theory instead)! And shouldn't get tenure. And shouldn't get published in scientific journals--any more than a physicist who denies the theory of gravity or the heliocentric model of the solar system. Or a linguist who teaches students that the thousands of languages on earth came from the Tower of Babel story. Stein implies--in his trailer and I feel safe in assuming, therefore, in his movie--that there's some kind of repression of these people, that they are being denied tenure, etc., because they dare to question evolution. Note to Ben: Nope, it's because they're incompetent and are ignoring the evidence.

"...people confident in their ideas are not afraid of criticism, so that tells me Darwinists are afraid. They're hiding something."

*** Oh, I get it. It's a conspiracy. All the biologists, anthropologists, biochemists, zoologists, physiologists, and so on really know that evolution is a sham, but they've built their careers on it and they're afraid the secret will get out! They're all hiding it! All the advances in modern biology and medicine that they attribute to evolutionary theory and Darwinist thinking are really illusory or the result of lots of people praying for cures.

"...the media are in on it, the courts, the education system. Everyone is after them."

*** Speaking of conspiracy theories..."EVERYONE IS AFTER THEM"!!!

some believe that "Darwinism is not only improbable, it might actually be dangerous."

***Yeah, don't you just hate the way medical researchers keep using evolutionary thinking to come up with new cures? Seems dangerous.

Finally, here are some quotes from his conclusion to the trailer, in which he pulls out all the stops:

"I began to wonder why we tolerate free speech in every other area of society but not here. (***Yeah, all those folks in jail because they questioned evolution--you'd have to throw half the country in jail if that were true!)

"I have to warn you, feel free to watch this movie--and I hope you do--but you've got to know that doing so could land you in a heap of trouble. Some of you are going to lose your friends; some of you may even lose your jobs."

*** From watching a movie? C'mon, get real. My republican boss didn't fire me for watching "Sicko." More scare tactics. Trying to make moviegoers feel real independent and brave if they watch his movie. So, you're right, I haven't seen the movie, but I think I know propaganda when I see it. I'm not a scientist but I have read about and studied evolution a great deal, and I can tell when someone--even in a movie trailer--is misrepresenting it to make a buck.