I found out about it yesterday through an email from Classical Conversations, the homeschool program that my family—along with several others on the Homeschool Forum—participates in. The description on the web site states that “showstopping footage and powerful narration will open your eyes to the extraordinary glory found all over the animal kingdom.” It looks to be a visual feast, but the prominent endorsement by Ken Ham in the email I received makes me wonder if it is also a vehicle for heavy-handed antievolutionary propaganda. I quickly looked over the resources section on the site and couldn’t discern much beyond that the film has a strong focus on God as creator and designer. I also came across a youtube video of Ken Ham interviewing the producer (with that obscene giant ark in the background!) in which he decries the standard narration of nature documentaries and lauds this one for its “creationist” perspective. And I don’t think he uses that word to refer to anything other than his own, meager understanding of the term.
I’m preparing for the strong possibility that our community will organize and invite us to a group outing to see the film, and I’m trying to get a head start on how to respond.
I hadn’t heard of it before, but it looks like it’s based on a biology textbook written by Gordon Wilson, brother of pastor Douglas Wilson (a name that might be familiar to some of those in the homeschool movement).
The trailer does look pretty cool – but I have a hard time believing Ken Ham would endorse something that isn’t anti-evolutionary in nature (is that too cynical of me?). I’d at least be interested in reading reviews once it’s out.
This film will certainly be YECentric film with a heavy dose of ID philosophy sprinkled in. Wilson teaches at a YEC-affirming school and wrote his own textbook for his class. He is the only “natural science” professor for this small college. I think the unique designs of species will be emphasized but I am interested to see how much hyper-post-flood speciation is proposed.
Thank you, Elle and Joel. I didn’t realize that Gordon Wilson was the brother of Douglas Wilson or that he taught at New St. Andrews, a school that Jason Byassee described—in a splendid review of books on fatherhood—as a “blissfully odd little college.” The school’s statement of faith leaves no room for doubt about Wilson’s worldview; I’ve looked over a lot of those over the years, and they don’t come much more narrow and precise.
I’m still curious how much YEC ideology will be brought into the presentation, but I’m quite certain I won’t be spending money to go see this. I’ll stick with the BBC and National Geographic productions.
I like wildlife documentaries a lot, so part of me wants to watch it, yet also, part of me thinks anything promoting nonsense should not be given any more attention than it deserves.
, but yeah, that tidbit doesn’t help to endear me to this film either.
