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The argument over Evolution verses Creationism has heated up classrooms and the scientific community for years.
Many in education claim they're only allowed to teach that man evolved from a lower life form.
Now a new movie is asking...Shouldn't we be allowed to question the status quo?
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed [1] is a provocative documentary looking for answers.
Producers say they're not trying to validate one theory over another, they just want their First Amendment rights.
In the movie trailer Ben Stein asks, "Excuse me?" Exasperated, his professor replies, "Yes Ben." As Stein says, "How did life begin in the first place?"
Social commentator Ben Stein wants an answer to that question.
He claims there is a bias against teachers and scientists who think there may be an alternative to evolutionary theory...
Later in the trailer Stein asks, "Could there be an intelligent designer?"
Stein's movie opened in limited release.
It's being met with success, making the Top 10 list during opening week.
Signal Mountain resident Greg Nance just watched the film, "I wish everybody could see it."
But many say creationism simply isn't science.
UTC Biology and Environmental Science Professor Tim Gaudin says, "Science is supposed to be about refining and testing our ideas."
Gaudin says science is based on observation and evidence and Intelligent Design doesn't fit the bill.
Gaudin says, "If I say, 'Well this is too complex for me to understand it, it must have been designed.' Where do you go with that?"
Gaudin is a practicing Roman Catholic.
He says Evolution and Creationism don't have to be mutually exclusive, and the Catholic Church agrees [2].
Standing in the lobby of the Rave Movie Theater in East Ridge Nance says, "If there is a God, which I believe there is... Then how did he do it? So science is not blocked by God, but science is blocking God."
Gaudin says, religious theory doesn't belong in science class.
He says many teachers in Tennessee skip over Evolution and that puts students at a disadvantage.
He says, "I don't think it's reasonable to expect people to be teaching those sort of ideas in a science classroom when clearly they aren't scientific."
Others say to rule out the possibility that man was created by a higher power makes no sense.
Nance says, "If you erase that from the picture I'm no better than another creature, a one-celled animal."
Ben Stein and the producers of Expelled just want to ask the question...
Stein says, "We don't think that we have all the answers. We don't think that anyone has all the answers. We just want free speech."
The movie has run into a bit of legal trouble.
Last week Yoko Ono sued the filmmakers over the movie's use of John Lennon's song "Imagine."
Producers say the nature of the film makes it legal.
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