The Volokh Conspiracy

Yes, Reader, how awful of Mr. Myers to want to view a movie which he was interviewed for -- of course, without his knowing he was being interviewed for it because the producers misrepresented the nature of the film -- so he can determine to what extent his words have been twisted.

Sean, I don't really know what you're talking about. I hope he does see the movie. But if he goes to a private event and is kicked out (maybe because the producer was acting like an ass, or maybe because he was), should we read about it: i) on his blog only; or ii) on his blog and/or from an objective source? I vote for ii.

I giggled incessantly when I read that Myers was booted but Richard freaking Dawkins, the antichrist of all antichrists in the eyes of the creationist movement (among others), was allowed to amble in and watch the movie, and even got called on in the Q&A session. Comedy gold.

Teach the controversy!

For biographical information about P.Z. Myers, see this Wikipedia article. In a nutshell, he is an associate professor of Biology at the University of Minnesota, Morris, and has been a longstanding outspoken critic of creationism, religion and intelligent design. He has had many arguments (public and private) with proponents of intelligent design.

In April 2007, Myers was interviewed for a movie ostensibly titled "Crossroads". It was presented to him as a documentary about religion and science -- not about the 'expulsion' of intelligent design from the realm of scientific debate. Parts of that interview are now in "Expelled".

Thus it would be natural for Myers to be interested in how he is being portrayed in the film. I find it hard to believe that he would want to cause a disturbance before even entering the theater. Why screw up the chance to find out how he appears in the movie? And given how secretive the producers of the film have been with respect to reviews (especially those that might be negative), the account Myers provided on his blog strike me as very plausible.

The claims that "Expelled" was 'invitation only' or required tickets appear to be false. Anyone can go to the RSVP page on the Expelled website and sign up to see it. No invitations or tickets are required (only an ID that matches the name provided on the signup page).

In April 2007, Myers was interviewed for a movie ostensibly titled "Crossroads". It was presented to him as a documentary about religion and science -- not about the 'expulsion' of intelligent design from the realm of scientific debate. Parts of that interview are now in "Expelled".

Indeed. The producers of the movie are now claiming that "Crossroads" was merely a "working title" that evolved naturally -- if you will excuse the phrase -- into "Expelled." But it turns out they are lying....they registered the "Expelledthemovie" domain before the interviews in question, but never registered "crossroads." They used the lie about what type of movie they were making to get interviews which they could cull for out-of-context clips.

I suppose technically there is nothing wrong with the proponents of Intelligent Design using the same movie-making tactics that Borat uses to show bags of his feces to Southern dinner guests.

And I'm sure that the fact that Ben Stein wanted to call the movie "From Darwin to Hitler" is no stain at all on its credibility. After all, cleanliness is next to Godwinness.

I had to presume [Dawkins] had flown a long way to see the film.

And Myers hadn't come a long way? Clearly this is someone who has no idea how annoyingly far Morris MN is from civilization. :-p

Never met PZ, but his kids, who I went to high school with, seem quite nice and laid back. I'd be a bit skeptical that he was misbehaving.

I was a militant atheist once. Now I'm just an atheist. People move on, man.

Myers' obnoxiousness, paranoia, and deep bile is what you'd expect from a teenager entering into the creationist nut-baiting game for the first time. Sign of arrested development in my view.

I enjoy reading Russell or even Hitchens, who some may consider rude but to me is coruscating and retains a grain of elegance in his writing. Attack-dogs like Myers, by contrast, are just a pain to read. Lots of foam, spittle, and adolescence that is offputting in the extreme.

I think the likelihood here is that everyone concerned is acting like an ass.There may be some cause for concern if the 'police' were in fact real police but absent that, it just looks like tendentiousness-all-around; a playground squabble, in fact.