This is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, a man whose name has become synonymous with science, controversy and religious extremism. Darwin is perhaps one of the greatest scientific minds to have come out of the 19th century, producing the first cogent explanation of species diversity through natural selection. His topics included geology, botany, invertebrate zoology, human evolution, and sexual selection. In recognition of Darwin’s pre-eminence, he was one of only five 19th-century UK non-royal personages to be honoured by a state funeral, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton.Given the enormity and significance of this man, a film named curiously enough "Creation," staring husband and wife team Paul Bettany (as Darwin) and Oscar Award winning actress Jennifer Connelly and produced by Academy Award winner Jeremy Thomas, was the opening film at this year's Toronto Film Festival (TIFF). The film had its British premiere on Sunday. The distribution rights to the film has been sold in almost every territory and country; except America.
An article in the London Telegraph outlines the outrageous details:
US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution.
Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder". His "half-baked theory" directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to "atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering", the site stated.
The film has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as "a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying."
The religious right, never shy to expose their anti-intellectual credentials have sought, through censoring the distribution of this movie, to slay their most loathed opponents; secularism and science. After eight years of having their man George W. Bush plunge America into a sea of economic and societal ruin, based on their no small support, they still continue with their drive to enslave us all with their dogma. When will these charlatans be expunged from modern society and be forced to toll on the periphery of civilization, where they belong?
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