Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed Page #9

[chuckles]

Half the people in this country

think that drugs

Is what you have to regulate

to make us safer,

And half the people

think guns--

That's what

you gotta regulate

to make us safer.

But I always think

that if you're

going to regulate

One thing that has

the most potential

To cause death

and destruction--

religion.

You gotta start

with religion.

[audience applauds]

Religion is an idea that

gives some people comfort,

And we don't want to take

it away from them.

It's like knitting.

People like to knit.

We're not going to take

their knitting needles away.

We're not going to take away

their churches.

But what we have to do

is get it to a place

Where religion is treated

At the level

it should be treated.

That is, something fun

That people get together

and do on the weekend

And really doesn't

affect their life

As much as it

has been so far.

Stein:
so what would

the world look like

If dr. Meyers got his wish?

Greater science literacy,

Which is going to lead

to the erosion of religion,

And then we'll get

this nice positive

feedback mechanism going,

Where as religion

slowly fades away,

We get more and more science

to replace it.

And that will displace

more and more religion,

Which will allow

more and more science in,

And we'll eventually

get to that point

Where religion has taken

that appropriate place

As a side dish

rather than the main course.

Stein:
but will

eradicating religion

Really lead

to a modern utopia?

Hmm.

Let me try to imagine that.

And let's let history

be our guide.

Berlinski:
in part,

I think matthew arnold

Put his hands on it

when he spoke about

Um, the withdrawal

of faith.

There is a connection

between a society

That has at least

a minimal commitment

To certain kinds of

transcendental values

And what human beings

permit themselves

To do one to the other.

That got me thinking.

What other societies

have used darwinism

To trump

all other authorities,

Including religion?

As a jew,

My mind leapt to one regime

in particular.

The connection

between hitler and darwin

Is of course historically

a difficult connection

Because they were separated

by a good many years.

One was english,

one was german.

Nonetheless,

if you open mein kampf

and read it--

Especially if you can

read it in german--

The correspondence

between darwinian ideas

And nazi ideas just

leaps from the page.

Of course you have to add

every historical caution.

Not everyone who read darwin

became a nazi, obviously not.

No one is making that case.

Darwinism is not

a sufficient condition

For a phenomenon

like nazism,

But I think it's certainly

a necessary one.

This was a connection

I had to explore personally.

[church bells tolling]

Filmstrip narrator:

american officers arrive

at a nazi institution

Seized by first army troops.

Under the guise

of an insane asylum,

This has been

the headquarters

For the systematic murder...

[filmstrip audio fades]

Stein:
so, what

is this place?

During

the second world war,

15,000 people

were killed here.

Why were they killed?

They were killed

because they were

people with handicaps.

Why kill them?

What's the point

of killing them?

People who were

not able to work,

People who were not able

to live by themselves,

That they were

"useless eaters."

"useless eaters."

And "life

unworthy of living."

George:
this idea

grew up in the '20s,

So long before

national socialism,

Biologists,

anthropologists,

They thought that

maybe mankind could--

Or the government

could interfere

- into the growth

of the population.

- stein:
I see.

And they had the...

Utopia?

- utopia.

- utopia...

That they would

have a society

Without illness

and without handicap.

[man speaking german]

So this was

a darwinian concept.

- yes.

- and also

a malthusian concept,

Very much malthusian.

- malthusian?

- thomas malthus, who said

That there was

a shortage of resources.

English philosopher,

said there was a shortage--

Yes, but the nazis,

they relied on darwin.

- they relied on darwin.

- yes, darwin

and german scientists.

Patients were led

down this hallway

To nazi doctors,

Who decided who would live

and who would die.

They were accompanied

by 15, um, 15 nurses.

- nurses.

- nurses.

Male and female nurses.

So nurses were helping

lead them to their doom.

Yes.

So, were the prisoners told

they were taking a shower?

Yes, they were

taking a shower,

And here was

one or two showers.

So, how many people were

brought into this room?

Sixty to seventy.

So, what is this?

This is

the dissection table.

Do you ever think

to yourself

The sane ones

were the ones

Lying here having

their brains removed--

The insane one was

dr. Gorgass and all

the other people--?

No, no,

I don't think that

Because I think

those people who killed here,

They were very sane

because they had

their purposes.

They had purposes?

Yes. I don't think

they were insane.

- they had

two crematory ovens.

- I see.

And they killed

about 70 people.

- a day.

- a day, so they had--

That's barely enough time.

They had their work--

They only killed from

Monday to Friday, so...

Because the people who

were doing the killing

Needed to have

the weekend off.

If you met dr. Gorgass today,

what would you say to him?

I don't know.

I don't think that

it's my--my role

To--to tell

him something.

It's difficult to describe

How it felt to walk

through such a haunting place,

To know that these cold

stone and tile walls

Were the last things

the victims of hadamar

ever saw.

I wanted to explore

this connection further,

So I met with the author

of from darwin to hitler,

Dr. Richard weikart.

Hitler and many

of the physicians

That carried out

this program

Were very fanatical

darwinists

And particularly wanted to apply

darwinism to society.

[hitler speaking german]

Many of these people

in the 19-teens, 1920s

Who were putting forward some

of these ideas about racism

Were considered

the leading scientists.

These were darwinists

who were taken seriously

by fellow academics.

It's not to say

that all academics

believed it.

These leading academics,

were there any of them

who were americans?

There were plenty

of americans

Who were saying

similar kinds of things.

Not only were americans

saying such things,

They were pioneers

in this fledging science

Known as eugenics.

They thought

they could help

evolution along

By sterilizing

the so-called feeble-minded

And prohibiting them

from getting married.

Physicians who

are aware of the history

Of 20th-century

american medicine

Harbor some bad feelings

towards darwinists

Because of eugenics.

And eugenics--

Which was an attempt

to breed human beings--

It was the darkest chapter

of american medicine ever.

There were 50,000 people

involuntarily sterilized

Because they were deemed

unfit to breed, basically.

Stein:
eugenics

isn't just history.

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