Movie Review: "Questioning Darwin"

Title: Questioning Darwin
Producer: HBO
Length: 58 minutes
Rating: 4/5 stars

Recently, about a week or so ago, I had the opportunity to sit down and watch the HBO Documentary “Questioning Darwin.” I own a few books on the theory of evolution including a digital copy of Darwin’s own “Origin of Species” and fancy myself as someone with enough knowledge to explain at least the basic concept behind Darwin’s idea of common descent via natural selection. A part of me wishes that evolutionists could’ve done a better job of educating the general public sufficiently enough to the point where evolution was “common sense”, which is why I rather enjoy documentaries of the sort geared towards doing just that. Or so I thought. “Questioning Darwin” is neither an exposé on the science behind evolution, nor the “scientific” dissenting views; in fact none of the objections to evolution in the documentary could be regarded as scientific. This entire film is really about how the mind of fundamentalist evangelical Christians work.

The documentary starts off at the ground zero of all zany creationist ideas – the Creation Museum. We see an audience completely captivated by a high resolution depiction of how God fashioned man from dirt and put him to live in the Garden of Eden, and prior to that a classroom of children going through their daily indoctrination of the Hebrew creation myth. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the Creation Museum, it is a multimillion dollar facility (which happens to be bleeding money), erected for the sole purpose of giving its attendees a high quality visual depiction of what life would've looked like 6000 years ago when God created the entire universe, complete with humans walking around in Eden with vegetarian T-Rex. This portion of the film was interspersed throughout with commentary from celebrity creationists like Ken Ham, CEO of the Creation Museum, as well as a few others who were more interested in putting forward their own personal incredulity and ignorance as an objection towards evolution. It is clear that in the mind of creationists, the theory of evolution was devised as a method to lure people away from the church and ultimately turn their backs on God. The core fundamentalist mindset could best be summed up by Pastor Peter LaRuff's quote in the picture above. It is at once the most honest and sincere depiction of how closely guarded the faith belief is, as well as at the same time a frightening testament to the extent to which creationism can impact one mentally. I've encountered scores of fundamentalists like Pastor LaRuff, but he was the first I've seen to so plainly declare that he really couldn't care less about what actually exists in nature if the Bible's depiction of reality is contrary. 

Thankfully, the producers didn't allow the fundamentalists to completely frustrate the audience with their mindless Godspeak for the entire film, and by 12 minutes into the feature we are at sea with young Darwin on the HMS Beagle. Most who are familiar with the story of how Darwin devised the theory of evolution would know that his voyage to the Galapagos Islands would be THE definitive moment in his entire academic career. What is usually left out of that story is how Darwin, a man brought up in the Anglican church and destined for the clergy at one point, was bursting with curiosity and exuberance and eager to set out to see to "find himself." We also learn of Darwin's own internal struggle with cognitive dissonance as he had to face the cold hard reality that the origin of life tale he had been force-fed since birth just wasn't true. The filmmakers went to great lengths to show just how serious Darwin was about getting to the truth, but more important than how serious he was, was the extreme caution which he exercised. We learn that Darwin spent over two decades collecting fossils and animal specimens from all over the world, constantly checking and cross-checking his findings with other leading scientists in their respective fields, and sending out staggering amounts of correspondence to associates and colleagues with questions about his research. Had the producers spent a little more time unpacking this thrilling detective adventure, I would've easily granted the full 5/5 stars.

But, as I said earlier, this documentary wasn't really about Darwin. It was instead about the most vocal dissenters to evolutionary theory and how this particular scientific fact completely upsets their psychological comfort. In the latter portions of the film questions about the source of morality, the existence of evil and human worth make their appearance as they often do when evolution is being discussed. In some ways, it's understandable if one does indeed feel a sense of sympathy, if not pity, for these evangelicals. Questions about the origin of life and humanity, and the implications the answers have for the value we place on the human experience, are easily the most troubling questions for mankind. And in the absence of proper tools to address these questions, all that remains is a reliance on intuition, guesswork, and mythology. Questioning Darwin, despite its shortfall in failing to educate the public on the nuances behind evolution, manages instead to show exactly why such a task isn't a straightforward undertaking. With a whopping 46% of the American population believing in a literal Genesis account (and possibly higher in less scientifically developed countries), and fundamentalism and it's harmful sociopolitical impact spreading like wildfire globally, it might indeed be hard to focus on a biology lesson about natural selection and random mutation. Especially when it just won't "feel" right to the persons who need that information the most.

If you haven't checked it out this documentary as yet, do so when you get the chance. The team at Yardie Skeptics highly recommends it.

Cool Dude.