Devoted reader Adrian dropped me a line about a funny bit of news regarding Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The producers of the movie have recieved the dubious honor of a "Pigasus" award, awarded by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) to people or organizations that have done their best in the past year to snuff out science and promote irrationality.
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed won under the category of "To the Funding Organization that supports the most useless study related to the occult, supernatural, or paranormal during the year."
As much as it tickles me to mention this 'award,' I have to say that I would define very little of Expelled's content as relating to the occult, supernatural or paranormal, and the elaborations on the Pigasus website offer little defense of their reasoning. To be fair, several of their other 'awardees' have only the slightest connection to these subjects. It seems this award is really just looking to lambast bad science, which is all well and good, but maybe not so fun.
The producers share the 'honor' with such luminaries as late night cable TV, some guy who claims he can shoot beams from his eyes, Jenny McCarthy (for her anti-vaccine hysteria), and Kevin Trudeau. I happen to have actually read Trudeau's book about "cures THEY don't want you to know about." A friend bought it and gave it to me, asking me for my opinion. I found it startling that the book provided not a single actual 'cure,' instead spending the vast majority of its time bad-mouthing such villains as Doctors, Gyms, and antibiotics. It was also one of the most eregrious examples of logical fallacies I've ever seen. Until Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed came along! ZING!
Congratluations to the producers of Expelled! Your movie is great proof that any publicity is good publicity!
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