Thoughts in a Haystack

I previously mentioned the new "documentary" about Darwin's voyage on the Beagle, The Voyage That Shook The World, from Creation Ministries International and the fact that it includes interviews with two of the best historians of evolution, Peter Bowler and Janet Browne, along with a number of legitimate scientists.

Now, in no surprise whatsoever, comes word from William Crawley's blog, Will and Testament, that the producers of the film were less than forthcoming with the people who participated:

Professor Peter Bowler, the author of a biography of Charles Darwin and many other books on the history of evolution, said he was interviewed for the The Voyage That Shook The World without realising that the film was being made by a Creationist group.

Professor Bowler, who has spent most of his academic career at Queen's University, Belfast, researching Darwinism, says he is unhappy to be appearing in what he regards as an "anti-Darwinian" film which offers an historically distorted portrait of Darwin. He claims that the film's narrative implies that Darwin's theory led him towards racism, whereas recent historical work by James Moore and Adrian Desmond shows that Darwin's scientific work was partly motivated by the naturalist's passionate opposition to racism.

Professor Bowler says he, along with his colleagues Sandra Herbert and Janet Browne, only discovered that they had inadvertently contributed to a Creationist film a month before the film's release. Peter Bowler also raised concerns about how the editing of his own interview could leave viewers with a false impression of his own perspective on Darwin.

John Lynch has, therefore, amusingly dubbed the CMI opus "Son of Expelled."

CMI was a little more honest than their Expelled counterparts, however:

I asked Phil Bell [CEO of Creation Ministries UK] if this method of securing an interview was "deceptive". He said: "Well, it could be called deceptive. But I think, at the end of the day, I would say that more people are concerned about how we've made a documentary, that's a world-class documentary, clearly with wonderful footage, with excellent interviews, and balanced open discussion."

But he still denied that they had broken the ninth commandment by "bearing false witness," stating that "Nobody was told any lies."

Presumably, Mr. Bell has never heard of "lies of omission." He certainly has heard of "the end justifies the means."

John 11:35.
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