Flock of Dodos Movie Trailer (Custom)

I strongly recommend this film. It kept my interest from beginning to end, was light-hearted, and had very fair presentation and approach to this entire controversy... unlike another "documentary" released in 2008 that I won't mention.

All clips in this video were used with permission.

The Following Information is from Wikipedia:

Flock of Dodos is a documentary film by American marine biologist and filmmaker Randy Olson. It highlights the debate between proponents of the concept of intelligent design and the scientific consensus that supports evolution.

Flock of Dodos examines the disagreements that proponents of intelligent design have with the scientific consensus position of evolution. The evolutionarily famous dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is a now-extinct bird that lived on the Island of Mauritius, which is approximately 500 miles east of Madagascar. When Portuguese sailors arrived on the island, the possible combination of over-hunting and introduction of new predators (i.e. pigs, macaques) seems to have led to its extinction by approximately 1700. Due to its lack of fear of humans and inability to fly, the dodo was easy prey, and thus became known for its apparent stupidity. It failed to change with an evolving environment, which ultimately led to the birds' demise.

The film attempts to determine who the real "dodos" are in a constantly evolving world: the scientists who are failing to promote evolution as a scientifically accepted fact, the intelligent design advocates, or the American public who get fooled by the "salesmanship" of the Discovery Institute. While Randy Olson ultimately sides with the scientists who accept evolution, he gives equal air time to both sides of the argument, including intelligent design proponent Michael Behe and several of his colleagues.

The film begins by going over the history of intelligent design thought from Plato and Paley to the present day incarnation promoted by the Discovery Institute. Olson mixes in humorous cartoons of squawking dodos with commentary from his mother and interviews with proponents on both sides of the intelligent design evolution debate.

On the intelligent design side Olson interviews Mike Behe, John Calvart (founder of the ARN Network) and a member of the Kansas school board. Olson also unsuccessfully tries to interview Kansas school board member Connie Morris and members of the Discovery Institute.

Backlash to the film:

In early 2007 the Discovery Institute claimed a factual error in the documentary exists regarding the institute. In the film Olson claims "The Discovery Institute is truly the big fish in this picture, with an annual budget of around 5 million dollars." The Discovery Institute has responded that their budget is only 4.2 million, they spend close to 1 million per year funding intelligent design, and the yearly budget for the whole Discovery Institute has never even reached 5 million. The Discovery Institute's tax filings for 2003 and 2004 show the budget for the institute reached $4,233,814 in revenue in 2003 and $3,539,228 in expenditures in 2004. Most of the money was said by the Discovery Institute to have been spent on research in transportation, technology, and other topics.

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[RobAlone]

Thanks for the post Chris. I'll have to catch this one for sure.

[chrispalasz]

No problem, my pleasure. This documentary was brought to my attention and recommended to me by a Christian friend of mine who just got his Ph.D in evolutionary biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

Why am giving all this extra information? Just to make the quick point that, to everyone's relief, there ARE some Christians who care to study these things. :)

Take care

[nogogma]

Kind of like those tornadoes that destroyed the lives and homes of hundreds of people in the mid west just recently. A sure sign of an intelligent ass hole in the sky.

[drgoldteef]

"I don't believe in any way shape or form that man descended from apes." When you hear something like this, you can rest assured that the person has no clue whatsoever about molecular biology, comparative anatomy, and much less even a rudimentary understanding of what biologic evolution is. Why? Because man descending from apes is not a claim of the biologic evolutionary process. A statement like that is an exemplification of ignorance!

[vxenon67]

I do not believe in "Evolution". Have a COMPLETE inventory of all animals: in the salt water, fresh water, in the cold, in the desert, in the jungles.  Also since Plants are dependant on animals and animals dependant on plants, count how many different plants in the world. A venus fly trap lives on insects. Oh yeah count all the different INSECTS etc. in the world. So much variety, beautiful things...God is involved not by LUCK.

[petercourt]

I think we should stop seeing Science and Faith as two arguments, but combine them into one and I think alot of people would find that they compliment eachother

[LittleTruckingBozo]

Back hair is proof loved that line.

[thereallefank]

There wouldn't be so much debate over evolution and ID if people would just get the definition of "evolution" cleared up in the first place. My understanding of evolution is a process that isn't even that spectacular, but you do have people that make outrageous claims in addition to this theory. And that's where the debate truly starts.