The Voyage That Shook the World

The Voyage That Shook The World is a dramatized documentary film commissioned by Creation Ministries International, a Christian Young Earth creationist organization, and produced by Fathom Media, a makeshift "front company" to approach experts like historians featured in the film. One of them, Peter J. Bowler historian of biology, stated that the creationist backing of the film had been concealed when he agreed to take part, he also stated that the editing of his words could give a false impression of his views as well as present a historically distorted portrait of Darwin. All three historians featured in the movie subsequently issued a statement that they had been misrepresented by the film company's selective reconstruction of Darwin's voyage.

I have just finished reading "The Origin" and since I am about to deliver a presentation on Darwin's take on the origin of language I have been looking for video material on the theory of evolution and Darwin's legacy. After watching Richard Dawkins' brilliant documentary under the title of "The genius of Charles Darwin" I have also stumbled upon this other film which was supposedly celebrating the 150th anniversary of the most important publication the world has ever seen. Eager as I was to learn yet another thing about Darwin and the theory I approached the film with burning enthusiasm only to be severely disappointed. Throughout watching I felt that something was completely out of place partially because the film proved to have no concept at all. But more importantly, the things all these people were talking about had almost nothing to do with the ideas Darwin presented back in 1859 or anything concerning his life that I have read so far. The few things that were related to the facts regarding the theory and Darwin's life were completely distorted. It took me the entire film to understand it was creationist rubbish simply because I was expecting to see something remotely truthful and supported with scientific facts. Finally, the title of the film is misleading, as are the untruthful accreditations and obviously manipulated and misused statements of the majority of the people in the film. I guess without the misleading title no one would feel like watching, so no wonder I have just only now stumbled upon it instead of being made familiar with the film couple of months ago when real scientists were celebrating Darwin.

You obviously have people reviewing the show with preconceived ideas which they have no intention of changing. With the above noted reviews it goes both ways but I must say I would go so far as to say periphilla possibly didn't even watch the program as he had already made up his mind.

It was an interesting documentary, great scenery, worth while seeing. Like all documentaries they have their own spin but I did not find it outlandish by any stretch of the imagination.

If you watch this film with an open mind it does get it's point across that

Everyone in the scientific community should see this! It's interesting that many of those giving this one star say it isn't scientific, despite the fact that most (all?) of those interviewed hold PhDs in some scientific discipline. They seem to be prejudiced against the conclusions drawn from the science. Their low ratings have nothing whatever to do with the quality of the filmmaking, which is superb.

At least one reviewer says the scientific community is in 100% agreement that evolution is the reason for today's biodiversity, but that statement is false. There are 2.5 million scientists who believe God created the world.

In this time of uncritical acceptance of anything Darwinian, this movie clearly exposes the man's geological, biological and theological weaknesses, whilst as truly as possible chronicling his life and work. Whilst his actual scientific research and work was meticulous, his conclusions were not - few know how heavily he relied upon other's conclusions. For instance, the incredible importance of lawyer, Lyell's, work on 'Uniformitarianism' which meant Darwin incorrectly and vastly 'over-aged' certain S American river deposits on his Beagle voyage - he had little geological experience himself - as covered in this film. Or his final conclusions on the 'evolution' of the Galalpagos Finches, whose bills are now known to change almost instantly to accommodate seed size, and can all interbreed - thus demonstrating only 'breeding after their -Biblical - Kinds' - built-in variety, and not evolution = no slow, blind, random actions, no new genetics, no new info etc. Although Darwin knew well the strict limits to breeding from both his own life's work and many others, his final conclusion that 'simple' - no such thing, as they all possessed the same incredible complex DNA from the beginning! - cells had somehow turned into people is as tragic as his own life turned out to be. See this film, and Wake-Up! Unlike his mentor's geological ignorance of how rapidly rocks form - 'The Time is Short'...