Darwin Award

A British film about the life of Charles Darwin cannot find a distributor in the United States.
US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution.

Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder". His "half-baked theory" directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to "atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering", the site stated.

The film has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as "a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying".

Jeremy Thomas, the Oscar-winning producer of Creation, said he was astonished that such attitudes exist 150 years after On The Origin of Species was published.

"That's what we're up against. In 2009. It's amazing," he said.
The only that that's really amazing is that people are amazed that this kind of religious bigotry and hatred against science is rampant in this country. What did you expect when you have a major political party that panders to the this kind of ignorance and elected a president for two terms who said "the jury is still out" on evolution?

Via Andrew Sullivan.

Crossposted.

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