Questioning Darwin (2014) Reviews

• Ignoring Darwin

  abitrowdy2014-03-04

  I gave this "documentary" a 4 for some nice photography and reenactment of Darwin's time period. Otherwise, this film is superficial and trite on both sides of the controversy. There is little shown of the massive amount of physical evidence, gathered by thousands of scientists from different cultures over the past hundred years, which supports the theory of evolution. Mainly the film dwells on Darwin's angst at where his studies led him. The religious side is treated unseriously, mainly being a string of earnest Christian fundamentalists stating that they can't believe in evolution because then they would have to reject the absoluteness of the bible being literal truth (God's word). There is actually no "Questioning" in "Questioning Darwin". Everything portrayed is either accepting or rejecting the notion of evolution. Nor do I recall much attempt to explain any pseudo scientific alternative to evolution, such as "intelligent design" or "irreducible complexity", other than a brief visit to the silly Creation Museum in Kentucky. Pretty well missing were representatives from the millions of believers in God who do not see a conflict between evolution and a belief in God. (Or a mention that some atheists insist that there is a fatal conflict between evolution and religion.) Also missing are representatives of other religions who also adhere to creationism. It is not just a Christian eccentricity. This film is basically a shallow, missed opportunity to thoroughly dissect an important issue.

• Ignorance Galore

  trini_christmas2014-05-14

  Everyone in this documentary assumes that the bible is the word of God. They have no real understanding of evolution, they simply don't like it because it contradicts with their religion. This is more like a video about people preaching about Jesus rather than an actual attempt Questioning Evolutionary Theory with a good basis of reasoning. The reason why there's no good reason to go against evolution, is because evolution is true. I'm sorry if you hold on to a religion book dear to your heart, but that book is written by man. Please try to approach the world with the approach to learn and try to have the best understanding of the world rather than just believe in a dogma under the assumption that it is the word of God.

• A movie showing a specific group of biblical literalists with Darwins loss of faith as its' background.

  rainybeet2015-10-16

  This movie has several problems, but the biggest one is that this documentary does not present any information or point of view that might give the viewer a reason to ponder either evolution or creation. Rather, this movie consists almost entirely of short segments describing the life of Charles Darwin after he began his research into evolution followed by declarations of belief by the strict creationists that this movie is about. First of all, this movie is not a Christian propaganda film. The director is an admitted agnostic that agrees with the handful of scientists in this documentary, not with the creationists. It is great that he was able to keep his views from clouding the documentary, but the fact that the majority of people reviewing this movie on this site and others think that it is a Christian propaganda film means that he went too far in the other direction, never questioning or exploring the beliefs of these people in any critical or academic way. No Christian in this documentary ever gives any rationale for their belief that the Bible is 100% true and the word of God other than that the Bible says so and this is good enough for them. Their entire view of the world starts from the idea that their religion is true and their God and the Bible are infallible, and then everything else is either derived from that basis or twisted to coexist with that truth. To them, there can be no evidence that contradicts that view without that evidence being obviously (for them) wrong, and if there seems to be contradictory evidence they will set their "scientists" at the Creation Museum among other places to the task of trying to make this evidence fit with what they already know to be the ultimate truth in the Bible. This is all a very fascinating idea, and the mental hoops that these people have to jump through in order to continually justify their rigid belief system are amazing, but none of that is explored in this documentary. The results are on display, but all of the fascinating stuff under the surface is just left sitting there. There is absolutely nothing deep or revealing in the documentary, which, in my opinion, is really what a documentary is supposed to be. Rather, this is just a superficial parade of quotes by strict creationists surrounded by a very, very shallow and weak description of Darwins' life and the history of the fight over scientific education. Truly, the sections dealing with Darwin and science education take up maybe 25% of this already short documentary, revealing nothing that anyone with even the most cursory familiarity with either subject would not already know. The people in this Documentary are fascinating and strangely likable even when I disagree with their views, mostly due to their convictions and the purity of their belief, and hopefully someday someone will make a decent documentary that actually explores these fascinating people and their beliefs.

• I, too, Could Make a Documentary with Raving Lunatics

  byhring22014-06-23

  I'll keep this short; the movie tries to explain the Christian views of those who oppose the theory of natural selection. However, instead of using any form of the scientific method, or any legitimate rationale to disprove the theory of natural selection, the movie shows interviews of ordinary citizens explaining why they believe God is real and Darwin's theory is false. What ends up happening is that a lot of intuitions are thrown around, and "miracles" are given credit to God, as opposed to doctors, biological processes, etc. It is VERY frustrating. What I did like was learning about Darwin's family life, and what his life was like after he wrote The Origin of Species. The movie could have been a decent historical documentary if this was all it showed. But alas, I couldn't take it serious because of the raving lunatics that were given screen time. If I wanted to make a similar film, all I would do is walk down to the local food shelter and/or church and ask why God exists. I was not expecting it, but I wanted legitimate explanations of beliefs, but like everywhere else I have looked in life, the movie proved that Christians still have not been able to point to one piece of scientific EVIDENCE that shows evidence that God exists. Here are a couple of quotes that had an effect of both infuriating me, and making me laugh at the same time. "I would love to encourage Mr. Darwin, and others just like him, to try God," said one recovering crack addict and former prostitute. Really?! You would like to encourage Mr. Darwin, a man dead well over 100 years no, to try God? "God knows the amount of hairs on my head," said a BALD pastor from a Church trying to disprove Darwinism. Really, bud? I can tell you how many hairs are on your head too; it's 0 bucko! How could anyone believe that Dinosaurs and Humans lived together, or that the world is 6,000 years old? I can't take anyone who thinks this seriously...and this movie was full of people like this. I am worried for our future when there are still parents out there teaching their children creationism, and completely overlooking the importance of scientific advancements.

• Interesting window into Creationism

  emer_kelly2014-05-12

  The movie tells the story of Darwin's journey from a man of faith to a man whose faith is challenged by his own scientific discoveries and personal tragedy. Alongside this story are interviews with Creationist ministers and their congregation who explain why the do not accept Darwin's theories. The movie is clearly sympathetic to the Creationist position but it is not dismissive of Darwin. The movie does fall short on science. If you are looking for scientific justification of Creationism, you will not find it here. Also, the movie does lose objectivity as it goes along, ultimately wallowing in self-pity as it portrays Creationists as victims of "culture" and "society". While this is not a highly sophisticated analysis I definitely found it an interesting insight into a mindset and religious tradition that seldom gets more than sound-bites.