Customer Reviews

Darwin: The Voyage That Shook the World

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I watched this movie in an attempt to gain a deeper insight into Darwin's thought processes as he made the most momentous journey of his life.

As it progressed through various amateurish reenactments, I found myself shaking my head in disbelief - the presentation was progressively building a case for discourse on the existence of intelligent design based on supposed flaws in Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Their evidence comprised by a set of unverified statements and a set of massively edited panel of experts who words seemed spliced to suggest that the very foundation of evolution was at question. What is conspicuous in the presentation is remarkable absence of references to any published books or peer-reviewed journals supporting their claims.

I eagerly awaited the end of the movie and found what I expected, this piece of fiction masquerading as a documentary was produced by "Creation Ministries International". Google them out and come to your own conclusion on their standing as impartial evaluators of the truth.

The one good thing that I can say about the "movie" is that if you are a deeply religious believer and disturbed by arguments calling into question what your faith has ingrained into you, this DVD will help soothe the conflict in your mind. To hell with science, you want to hear the argument from your side of the aisle, people who believe as you do. Show this DVD to everyone you know who suffers from the same problem, that soothing is the one positive I can envision coming of this endeavour.

This video was fascinating, well made, but disturbing; I give it one star because I abhor propaganda. After watching this, I found it was a product of the "Creation Ministries". This documentary, among other distortions, cast aspersions on things like geologic time, which there is ample and overwhelming evidence. Just because there are a few events like an ice-age era breech of an ice dam that can carve out a canyon in a number of hours, or that earthquakes can push up mountains by a few centimeters does this question the overall slow pace of geologic change (continents drift by centimeters per year, but continents are separated by thousands of kilometers). If you look at their website, they try to claim that the formation of coal could happen within the time-frame of genesis. The makers of this video apparently believe in a literal interpretation of the bible and genesis. It seems to me that many of the interviewed scientist were quoted out of context.

Some scientists, like Matti Leisola, make some rather bold claims that are unsubstantiated in this documentary, and are left unexplained and undefended. Mutated organisms don't just die in the lab as Leisola suggests (though I may be missing his scope/context). If you spray a bunch of mosquitoes with DDT, some of them will live. If you breed successive generations from the resistant ones, the mosquitoes won't notice the DDT. If you DNA sequence them, you will see genetic differences, mutations; adaptations that help them survive their environment. The rate of genetic mutation is something that can be measured and quantified in the lab.

This documentary has many valid points, but they're too colored by their biblical agenda.

I picked this up at the library because I was interested in learning more about the history of Darwin. I saw this DVD and thought it might be good. When I got home I examined the DVD case more thoroughly and the first thing I noticed was it says Creation Ministries International at the bottom. After watching the video, it is clearly a video of religious propoganda designed to keep people confused & blind to everything except religion. If you're truly interested in learning about evolution, don't waste your time here. As an atheist, I am suspicious of the ethics of religious people in general & even I was suprised at the lengths they went to to trick the general public into watching their propoganda.

If you want to know why I am giving this one star, and if you think your faith can handle it (Of course it can, right? Or, are you scared of the truth?), may I suggest "On the Origin of Species" by Charles Darwin. What Darwin was able to figure out, and WHEN he was able to figure it out, speaks to his genius. Keep an open mind, and you will be surprised what you can actually learn.

Here we have another little treat.. a nice little documentary on everyones favourite Aunt Sally... I feel a little sorry for Mr Darwin, he obviously didnt realise that his participation in this film would garner such poor reviews, and must be regretting that his box office appeal has been severely curtailed. Never the less i am sure with Richard the "lionheart" Dawkins ready to minister the holy sacremant of infallibilty upon him, that Darwin will soon rise from the ashes of his own making to be regarded in the same esteem as Stalin, Marx And Hitler, all of whom worshipped at his feet.. as for those Creationists, well they will just have to keep highlighting the mess Atheism is in, and Darwinian Evolution in particular. As for me, the films production values are good, and an enjoyable and informative occasion was had. Must go now .. missing link to find.. oh there goes the phone ..er hello Charles thanks for getting back to me, read the book Rather a long title, bit racist as well me thinks ..

This is very sneaky and dangerous movie! It is CREATED by a very clever and sneaky creationisnts very carefully interviening known facts with twists of history, twisted fact and outright incorrect information. The movie has everything that creationists are so famous about. In particular - the chice of words. Right in the beginning of the movie - whole set about how Darwin lied or made things up, which immediately comes to a statement that making up things from nothing is a great gift of every scientist ?!?! The movie should be thrown away just for that! Again and again throughout the movie, in a very smooth and sneaky way? authors fit in small stetements that seemingly lead them to the conclusins that Darwin was incorrect and threfore the Evolution's theory is probably wrong.... It is not that much a careful choice of experts that bothered me in the movie, but parts of the interviews cut out and taken out of context. This is what creationinsts are excellent at. Because they have no other weapons, they reserve for "gentle deceipt". In culinary terms, they take a delicious muffin (Darwin's Voyage and Theory) and slowly and gently spread sweet and poisonous jelly over it. The movie is clearly targeted towards the less well educated portion of the audience. Well educated people can clearly see through the sneaky lines, "interviews", and stages science in the movie, but lack of knowledge can lure people in the creationist's trap....
Absolutely horrible and misleading! Sweetened poison! Absolute creationist's GARBAGE!

This is nothing but an insult to the great genius of Charles Darwin.
A sneaky, underhanded-and (typical of religious groups who are threatened
by the science of evolution)-an attempt to not only discredit Darwin's work- but to call into question the most rudimentary and fundamental concepts of geological science.
DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME ON THIS- just having Darwins name associated with this trash-is enough to make me sick!
If I could give this MINUS FIVE STARS-I would!
I am a geologist-and I have taught students geology & astronomy for 25 years-this is one of the worst videos I have ever encountered!
Good Grief!

Nice reenactment sequences and photography, but these are the only merits of the film. I wonder if the scientists interviewed approved of the edited snippets of their conversations on The Origin, since, as a Paleontologist who has not only read the book but practised in the field, I can hardly imagine any able Biologist himself/herself so characterizing the work. It is likely that the interviewed scientists are selectively quoted, w/ malicious bias.

Full disclosure first: I'm not an atheist. In fact, I was brought up in a staunch Catholic family, went to three different Catholic schools, a Catholic high school and got two degrees from a Catholic university. I might not be a particularly religious person, but I'm baptized, confirmed and got married following the Roman rite and can go to mass without feeling out of place or making a fool of myself in front of the congregation. I know my way around a rosary, can still recite both the Old and New Testament books in order by heart and remember not only the dates of all major Catholic celebrations, but also the day of almost every saint in the almanac besides having Saint Francis tattooed on my left arm. I even mourned the death of John Paul II and had a grudging respect for him while he lived, despite not sharing a lot of his opinions regarding politics and the Church's place in our contemporary world. I can only wish someday I'll feel the same about our current pope, but that's beyond the point.
The reason I feel I must share all this information about myself is very simple. In twelve years of formal religious education and a lifetime of living amongst staunch Catholics, the subject of Faith being incompatible with Evolutionary Theory was never brought up to me even once. In fact my high school biology teacher, who taught me about evolution in two different courses, was a Franciscan friar. He actually recommended me reading "The Blind Watchmaker" in my senior year to get a better understanding of evolutionary mechanisms, and when I asked him why he was endorsing a book by a virulent atheist he responded something along the lines of "the whole thing about God not existing is just Mr. Dawkin's opinion and I respect it, his book is still unbeatable when it comes to explaining evolution to a layperson". This might sound strange to a lot of people from the US, but the fact is that at least in the rest of the western world, the whole Evolution versus Creationism debate is simply a non issue, since even in the most traditional minded, non-secular Catholic countries, science and religion are taught as separate subjects without any further ado. I actually became aware of this so called polemic thanks to my brother, who is currently finishing his Molecular Biology PhD in the US. I was utterly surprised and ultimately disgusted then, and still am, with the knowledge that utter nonsense such as Creationism and Intelligent Design are still taught as scientific alternatives to Evolutionary Theory in parts of what is supposedly the world's leading country when it comes to science, and to add insult to injury, some groups are even actively lobbying to force the teaching of those disgraceful notions on secular schools, but that's the subject of another review altogether.
Simply put, this film is nothing more than thinly veiled Creationist propaganda, and incredibly dishonest, lazy and clumsy to boot. For starters, the credited producers, Fathom Media is actually a front company established by Creation Ministries in order to convince experts who would likely wouldn't agree to be interviewed if they knew the film was "overtly Creationist", as it was admitted by Creation Ministries UK CEO Phil Bell himself. So, ultimately, this movie tries, very unsuccessfully, to be a bait and switch by presenting itself as a respectable Darwin documentary that comes to the conclusion that modern science has proved him wrong, particularly when it comes to the length of time for geologic and biologic processes. The makers of this disastrous so called documentary never consider, as almost every scientist, religious or not does nowadays, that the universe began with the Big Bang billions of years ago and choose instead a literal interpretation of Genesis as a sensible explanation for the origin of life and the universe. Now, I'm not going to start exposing how ridiculous and unscientific Creationism (or, for that matter, Intelligent Design) is and how the Theory of Evolution is one of the greatest achievements in the history of science and still stands as the main cornerstone of contemporary Biology since that has been done to death.
The thing that makes me incredibly angry about this movie is that it feeds the stereotype that religious people are nothing more than superstitious, medieval minded zealots, unable to cope with scientific progress. Faith is only incompatible with science when it ignores the scientific method and nurtures intellectual dishonesty, something the so called Creationist "scientists" seem to be very familiar with.
I'm giving this movie one star simply because I can't give it even less. If you are a mildly intelligent or educated person, religious or not, my advice is to avoid this movie like the plague. The only real reason I can give for watching this movie may be laughing at the clumsy handling of science and historical fact by the clueless Creationist producers, but that can get old pretty fast too. If you must see it simply out of morbid curiosity, be forewarned: if stupidity offends you, this film is just not for you and will make you very angry regardless of your personal religious beliefs or lack thereof.

This is creationist propaganda. It attempts to look like a legitimate "tribute" film, and it starts out by making Darwin seem genuinely curious and intelligent, but that's just to draw you in. Before you know it, the creationist "alternative explanations" start creeping in, telling you the earth isn't really all that old, that certain parts of the body couldn't have been created by natural selection, etc.

See this article for specific misrepresentations, along with refutations by people who are well-versed in science history: [...]