"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," showing in theaters nationwide, has been stirring controversy from the left and right of the political spectrum since it opened April 18.

It's also churned nearly $7 million in gross revenues, making it the fifth most successful documentary film in the last 24 years, according to entertainment business website Box OfficeMojo.com.

The movie feature actor/lawyer Ben Stein who conducts interviews with Darwinist scientists, and talks to college professors and others who have publicly criticized the theory of evolution, only to face dismissal from their jobs and denial of tenure -- and are thus "expelled."

Nationwide, the movie's gross revenues were $6.8 million by May 7. On a list of 87 documentaries released since 1982, BoxOfficeMojo.com ranks the film fifth. (The highest grossing was Fahrenheit 9/11, released in 2004, director Michael Moore's critical look at President Bush's handling of pre and post- 9-11 events and the Iraq War. That film grossed $119 million.)

AMC Theaters and other exhibitors serving Kansas declined to give any indication of ticket sale strength for the film in the state, saying that is proprietary company information they never give out for any film. But moderate and continuing attendance has been reported by movie viewers.

While not specifically promoting any specific religion or even discussing religion, the film clearly favors the idea that any academics or scientists should be free to question evolutionary theory, including by publishing papers about Intelligent Design, a theoretical concept that holds that an intelligent being likely created life in the beginning, and may have guided evolutionary changes in species at some points in the process.

ID proponents say an intelligent source seems likely because of the extreme complexity of DNA, unexplained gaps in the fossil record relied on by evolution, and statistical calculations estimating the slim chance of a random origin for life. Darwinians and other critics of ID say it is more likely life arose from only a random natural event, such as lightning striking a body of water that contained the unassembled chemical elements for life.

The movie tries to heighten its entertainment value by the frequent splicing-in of controversial images, including Nazi soldiers (referring to Adolph Hitler's use of evolution as a motive for genocide in World War II) and people knocking down the Berlin Wall (symbolizing critics of evolution hammering at scientists' wall of intolerance toward dissenting views). While liberal documentary filmmaker Michael Moore also used these methods, some leftwing critics have bashed "Expelled" as right-wing propaganda.

A New York Times reviewer, for example, called it, "One of the sleaziest documentaries to arrive in a very long time. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a conspiracy-theory rant masquerading as investigative inquiry."

Christianity Today, however, said, "The film succeeds in making the point that Intelligent Design should at least be on the table for discussion. But if you're looking for ammunition to argue your Darwinist friends under the table, you may want to look elsewhere. While Expelled certainly leans heavily toward the ID side of the debate, it's not trying to present an airtight case, or to shut the door on evolutionary theory."

The film's real core lies in the interviews with the academics who have been "expelled," and with Darwin's defenders, including best-selling atheist author, Richard Dawkins.

Since the movie promotes only one perspective of the debate on academic exclusion, the film doesn't make clear how widespread a culture of rejection and expulsion has actually become in colleges for those who question evolution.

But Bill Harris, PhD., a former professor at UMKC School of Medicine in Kansas City, and now a research professor at Sanford School of Medicine in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, said he believes there is a pervasive culture of ridicule and ejection at universities and science institutions against any colleague who questions evolution or who promotes Intelligent Design.

Harris, an ID proponent who was not featured in the Expelled film, said, "It is absolutely true there is a pervasive culture. I see colleagues with cartoons and jokes taped on their doors making fun of Intelligent Design."

He said that in while some cases professors and high school teachers who favor ID have been fired or denied tenure, others have not because their colleges and schools protect their freedom of speech.

"In my case, when I spoke out for ID in the Kansas Science Standards case, while I was working at UMKC, I first went to the dean of the medical school and we prepared a story for the media explaining my position. The school did support me.

"But for other professors like those in the movie, it is a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. They did get repercussions. One obvious case is professor Gonzales at Iowa State. He did good work and was published in Scientific American," Harris said.

Harris said he has experienced discrimination when someone tried to get him dropped from the list of speakers at a recent medical conference where he was to speak about Omega 3 fat research, his specialty. "Someone called the organizer of the conference and said that I was an ID advocate, so I should not be allowed to speak. The organizer replied that my scientific research was good and I would not be dropped."

Harris said he believes he knows why there's such opposition to ID proponents. "I think it's because there is an intense dislike of Christian fundamentalism," Harris said, adding that political views play a role, too. "Scientists have labeled ID as a right-wing issue," he said.

According to Harris, what many ID proponents object to is not that there is some evolutionary change over time in species, but that scientists have expanded the definition of evolution to include an "undirected, unplanned," theory of the origin of life and processes of change. "They cannot prove that," he said, "and to say so, and to put that under the banner of science, is unwarranted."

"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" is rated PG and runs 100 minutes. Viewers may recognize Ben Stein from his roles as the monotone teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and in The Wonder Years or as a TV personality and program host.

Expelled was produced by Premise Media, and was marketed by Motive Entertainment, the company that has spearheaded significant Hollywood blockbusters, including The Passion of the Christ, Polar Express and The Chronicles of Narnia.

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