Questioning Darwin

I rarely write reviews, but I am moved to chime in after reading the surprisingly low (albeit few) ratings of others. I happened upon this documentary (that's all it is) on HBO. At the outset,it presents an interesting statistic that impressed me: Forty-six percent of us believe the biblical version of creation. That's OK. However, this film presents a fascinating overview of the history of Darwin's work along with belief of creationists. It was informative, not didactic-- an excellent use of the documentary form. I suspect the lowish ratings and negative reviews are the opinion of those who misunderstood the film as an attack on religion, which it is not.

Judge the film on its intent to inform about the work of Darwin and the belief of creationists. Nobody is wrong except, perhaps, those who don't want to learn. (That's why I like documentaries.)

I learned a lot watching this. I liked the inside tour of the creation museum and I liked the story of darwin and the images it presented. I don't subscribe to a particular religion and I wasn't turned of by people and their beliefs. It was fascinating to watch and I appreciated the doc.

The information we learn about Darwin's voyage, work, and faith will reward a viewing. That information takes up about half the film. The other half, consisting mostly of comments by fundamentalist Christians, is much less interesting.

This documentary was actually just half of one, and then not even the documentary that was promised, thus my judgment of 4/10. It didn't even really question Darwin. It interwove an abbreviated biography of Charles Darwin and how he changed from someone who in his youth who took the Bible literally into the author of Origin of the Species with random vignettes of Christians that frankly, seem to make them look stupid.

The documentary is careful to say that what changed in Darwin was not a belief IN God, but a belief in what that God was. He was no longer convinced he was a benevolent God. The head scratcher to me here was that he had to take a trip to other lands on a sailing vessel to come to that conclusion.

As for the Christian stories, there is a trip to the creation museum where it is insisted that the world is only 6000 years old, there is a preacher in a pulpit saying that if Darwin's theories are true then everybody in that church is "an ignoramus", and one Christian lady who is working with the poor and homeless as far as feeding them and trying to house them. Now this lady takes the cake. First she says that evil is a result of the devil, and then she says that without hardship we really don't learn anything. So which is it? Is it the devil that causes the homelessness of the people she serves or God trying to teach a lesson? And if it is the latter why doesn't she give away everything she has - starting with those nice ear rings - so God can teach her something in her poverty and hunger? The one thing the documentary never does is go into any depth on why there is so much antipathy towards Darwin in the modern Christian community and what are the alternative Christian theories and their basis in something other than the literal interpretation of the Bible.

I'd say if you already know about Darwin and his life and work, this won't add to your knowledge. I'd skip it.

Everyone in this documentary assumes that the bible is the word of God. They have no real understanding of evolution, they simply don't like it because it contradicts with their religion. This is more like a video about people preaching about Jesus rather than an actual attempt Questioning Evolutionary Theory with a good basis of reasoning. The reason why there's no good reason to go against evolution, is because evolution is true. I'm sorry if you hold on to a religion book dear to your heart, but that book is written by man. Please try to approach the world with the approach to learn and try to have the best understanding of the world rather than just believe in a dogma under the assumption that it is the word of God.