http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Mein-Kampf/Adolf-Hitler/e/9780395925034/?itm=1
He was seeking to help humankind evolve to the next level by inserting himself into the process and pushing it along. Thus, Darwinism has an unpaid bill of 6 million lives according to the thesis of this film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_darwinism
The link is shown between Nazi eugenics in Germany and Planned Parenthood in America. It does highlight how Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood’s founder, wanted to get involved with and restrict the reproductive rights of those whom she viewed as “unfit to breed”. Again, Darwinism being applied to daily life as a philosophy. In this film, Darwinism as a world and life view takes you down the road to a very dark place filled with abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia.
The movie has both pros and cons.
The pros are #1 that after having to endure documentaries by the likes of Michael Moore and such, finally a documentary is out there that has taken time to get its facts right. Finally there is a documentary whose goal is to build up as opposed to tear down.
#2 I can tell that money was spent on it, as Ben Stein often travels to different states and even to different countries to interview authorities on this subject.
#3 I feel that the message, which is a call to action – it is a call to question and a call to think – is very relevant in our time in which education has become little more than indoctrination. Kids who question the status quo usually wind up in detention until they either conform or keep quiet. There is a mass exodus taking place as more parents become hip to this and rush to get their kids into home schooling and private school.
#4 Getting a movie like this into the mainstream box office is a coup, especially in a Hollywood dominated by socialists, one world multi-culturalists, and homosexuals.
#5 Ben Stein is to be applauded for his courage. He has put his career on the line. He is now a marked man, sure to be black-listed in many circles in which he once enjoyed membership. He has put convictions before reputation, and is willing to become unpopular for those convictions.
The cons are that #1 For those who have been familiar with the Naturalism / Supernaturalism or Creation / Evolution debate down through the years, there is not much new here. We have heard or experienced anti-theistic bigotry in education and employment before. We have read of the link between Darwin, Hitler, Stalin, etc. before. We have seen the weaknesses of Darwinian theory before. We have seen atheists and evolutionists turn red, shout, and become emotional about this before – all while calling us irrational. We have lived that many times over. In other words, while it put in film format some of the things we have always known about and experienced, not much new ground has been broken. But through the eyes of someone who has never seen this before, this film might look different than it did to me.
#2 One cannot control how a discussion unfolds or develops. So this was not within the realm of the filmmaker’s control. But I am just throwing it out there. There is a lot of use of specific jargon and terminology that only those who have read up on this subject will understand. But to those who are looking at this subject for the first time, since no effort is ever made to define these terms, it may be difficult for the average Joe to follow at times. This will limit the movie’s appeal to a niche crowd, those specifically trained with knowledge of the terminology involved. In other words, the film is not at the level of “Beginner”. It is at the level of “Intermediate”. So “Beginners” at this subject may be lost at times during their viewing of this film. A kindergartener cannot do algebra because they have not yet worked their way up to that point.
Overall, I give this film my recommendation. It brings things to the forefront that people are thinking about but are afraid to talk about. It encourages open dialogue, against the current way of doing things which seeks to silence open dialogue and force-feed people only one view. It is polarizing. You will either really love and feel inspired by it, or you will violently oppose all that it stands for and be angered by it. But if you are a student of the issues involved in Creationism vs. Evolution, or if you are a student of civil rights and academic freedom, this is a can’t miss movie.
As far as documentaries go, is it the best one that I have ever seen? No. But it ranks right up there!
