KANSAS VS DARWIN – The DVD Review

Review by Roger Carpenter
Back in 2007, the state of Kansas asked educators to revise the science standards for all state public schools.  It was perhaps no surprise when the initial draft of these standards was released to the public for comment that creationists took umbrage at what they perceived as godless science intentionally ignoring the theory of Intelligent Design while overemphasizing the concepts of evolutionary theory.  For their part, the evolutionists summarily dismissed creationist thinking as modern day alchemy.  As the controversy simmered, three school board members were chosen to hold a set of hearings to determine the fate of how scientific thinking was presented in the classroom—as well as the fate of an entire generation of Kansas schoolchildren.

Both sides took offense at being asked to defend their thinking so, in typical narrow-minded fashion, many important players from both sides boycotted the proceedings.  What was left were a handful of passionate pseudo-intellectuals who attempted to put on a dog-and-pony show for the media by parading a circus of clowns before the school board.

There are two topics I choose never to debate: politics and religion.  I’m no lawyer; neither am I a politician nor a cleric.  But in my somewhat limited experience in these arenas of thought what I have discovered is that these two topics are unwinnable in debate.  Not even cold, hard facts can sway a person’s opinion with respect to either politics or religion, no matter how cold or how hard those facts may be.  Debating either topic is the ultimate exercise in futility.  Inevitably each side comes away claiming victory.  Don’t believe me?  Think back to the last political debate you heard and the post-debate analysis.  Have you ever heard the Democrats decry the Republicans while touting their platform?  Of course you have—and vice versa.  But have you ever heard a Republican openly admit to the media, “Yeah, the Dems put it to us tonight.  It was a clear win for them.”  Of course not; nor would the Democrats ever consider conceding to the Republicans.  Religion is exactly the same.  Ultimately, no one will win yet both sides will claim victory.

Going into a documentary about politics and religion with this understanding is also an exercise in futility. Add to this the colossal mistake director Jeff Tamblyn makes by allowing all three school board members to announce during the first quarter hour that they are all creationists and what we have here is possibly the least dramatic courtroom drama ever filmed.  That’s right folks, barely 15 minutes in and we know the outcome of this hearing.

So what do we have left to view for the next 75 minutes?  Frankly, not much.  The good folks who support Intelligent Design are portrayed in the usual fashion; that is, as passionate goofballs.  Two of the board members—ironically, both female—openly admit during the proceedings that they get “lost” by the science of evolution while one of the two ladies feels the need to “forgive” several evolutionists during court proceedings.  This comes across as particularly obnoxious because…well, it is obnoxious.  In one particularly heinous (and hilarious) segment, a molecular scientist testifying for Intelligent Design is asked what information he has for backing up his theory.  His reply is simply, “Data,” to which the next question posed is, “Where is this data?”  The scientist replies, “Open any journal of molecular biology.  It’s on every page—you just refuse to see it!”  Powerful argument, that.

Director Tamblyn does do one thing right.  He balances out the goofy passion of Intelligent Design with the stuffy, holier-than-thou rhetoric of the evolutionary side.  Though I fall firmly on the side of evolution, I disliked all the evolutionists in the film.  Every. Single. One.  They were as mean-spirited and rude as the creationists were patronizing.  In the end, the hearing was every bit as worthless as holding a hearing about whether the end of a toilet paper roll should be pointed up or down.  And all to the tune of untold tens of thousands of Kansas taxpayer dollars.  Ultimately—and if this is a spoiler for you I’m not going to apologize—Intelligent Design wins out…only to be overturned two years later during a political changing of the guard.  See what I mean?  Complete futility.

Some say a quality documentary should evoke powerful emotions from the viewer.  Watching KANSAS VS DARWIN did that for me, but not because of the arguments within the film or the concepts presented concerning evolution and Intelligent Design.  Rather, I was upset at the taxpayer dollars spent on this Clown Court.

Kansas vs. Darwin was originally produced in 2007 but has just been released in a new edition by Kino Lorber.  This edition features extended interviews as the major special feature—about 35 extra minutes, if the 90-minute film wasn’t painful enough for you.

The KANSAS VS DARWIN DVD is available through Kino Lorber’s website at kinolorber.com or through Amazon.