Flock of Dodos

By PvM

Update: Carl Zimmer reviews “Flock of Dodos”

Olson makes his point about the emptiness of Intelligent Design more effectively than a lot of scientists themselves have.

and additional links

Check out the Flock of Dodos website where filmmaker and marine biologist Randy Olson explores Intelligent Design versus evolution issues.

Various reviews are available online. And don’t miss the trailer which is quite funny.

  • Physorg, Science losing war over evolution
  • PZ Myer, The image of scientists

    Carl Zimmer reviews A Flock of Dodos, and also brings up that worrisome issue, the image of scientists in this country. Cosmic Variance is talking about image, too. Scientists get called “inarticulate”, “high-handed”, “stiff” and “arrogant”. “Arrogant” is terribly unfair as a criticism—a bit of arrogance is a virtue, and is exactly what you need in someone who is going to stick his neck out…and the creationists from Gish to Behe have possessed a superabundance of arrogance themselves.

  • Scientist Wednesday, Victories and Warnings for Evolution, Brendan Maher

    From the reviews and the short preview I saw on the web a while back, it has the style and flair of a Michael Moore piece – approaching sources with a friendly honest tone, but leaving them on camera just long enough to hang themselves. Indeed, this tactic works both ways, and the caricature of scientists he paints apparently places them in the ivory tower a bit. The characterization has stirred up some dust amongst scientist bloggers. Inarticulate and high-handed, their descriptions of real science can’t compete with IDers slick presentation of nonsense. Perhaps that explains the polls that say most Ohioans still want “controversy” in the curricula. ID is off most scientist’s radar, and if it doesn’t help one’s career to be able to explain science simply, many mightn’t bother, contends PZ Myers of Pharyngula.

  • Harvard University Gazette, Science losing war over evolution? by Alvin Powell
  • Lawrence Journal, ‘Dodos’ circling around I.D.: Film explores intelligent design-evolution ‘circus’, by Scott Rothschild
  • Kansas City Star, The dodos have come to Kansas: Filmmaker’s documentary a sold-out premiere in his hometown by Robert Butler
  • Bostonist, March of the Dodos, by C. Fernsebner
  • Washington Post, Kansas crowd flocks to ‘Dodo’ film on evolution, Reuters

    A sold-out crowd of about 300 attended the screening in Overland Park, Kansas, of “Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus.”

  • ABC News, Kansas crowd flocks to ‘Dodo’ film on evolution, Reuters