'The Mysterious Islands'--a New Film Shot on the Galapagos Islands which Challenges Darwin
by Staff
November 3, 2009
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, (christiansunite.com) -- As groups across the world host special celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's landmark book, On the Origin of Species, Vision Forum has announced plans concerning the premier of their new documentary The Mysterious Islands, filmed on the Galapagos Islands. The film debunks the conclusions Darwin reached during his storied trip to this island chain during the voyage of the HMS Beagle. Shot and directed by the award-winning Jon and Andy Erwin of Erwin Brothers Motion Pictures, the 90-minute documentary releases on November 12, just two weeks prior to the November 24 anniversary date of Darwin's influential book.The premiers of The Mysterious Islands will be held in San Antonio, TX (Nov. 12), Raleigh, NC (Nov. 17), and Chicago, IL (TBD), among other key locations. Members of the cast and production team will be on hand to meet the audience at these special screenings.
"The world has Darwin fever, and we think it's making our culture sick," noted Doug Phillips, Executive Producer of The Mysterious Islands and Founder of the Vision Forum. "Because of the implications of his famous theory of evolution, Darwin was perhaps the most influential man for evil in the last two hundred years. His ideas have contributed to the rise of Nazism, the proliferation of racism, Marxism, the horrors of eugenics, and abortionism. Nonetheless, over the next month America and the global community will be inundated with the most pro-Darwin celebrations in history."
This weekend, October 29-31, the University of Chicago -- the group that hosted the famed Darwin Centennial in 1959 that featured Sir Julian Huxley and John Scopes of the "Scopes Trial" -- will host Darwin / Chicago 2009. The university event is one of hundreds of commemorative gatherings being held worldwide to honor the patron saint of evolutionism, Charles Darwin. Other pro-Darwin activities occurring this month include numerous television documentaries, feature films, art exhibits, stage plays, and even a Paris fashion show.
"The release of The Mysterious Islands, and its screening in theaters presents a fresh response to Darwin fever by taking viewers on a thrilling adventure to the Galapagos Islands--ground zero in the war of the worldviews between evolutionism and Christianity," Phillips stated. "Rather than praising the founder of the modern evolutionary worldview, we demonstrate that he was part of a multi-generational legacy of bad science, anti-Christian sentiment, and cultural bigotry that began with his grandfather Erasmus Darwin and continued up through the work of the virulent racist Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood."
In The Mysterious Islands, Phillips and his crew join Captain Robert Fitzroy of the HMS Beagle in opposing Darwin. Captain Fitzroy walked where Darwin walked during their famous journey together. Like Darwin, he acted as a lay-naturalist, collecting the flora and fauna of the Galapagos. "But even though Fitzroy witnessed the exact same things as Darwin, he reached vastly different conclusions. And so do we," Phillips remarked.
The Mysterious Islands, a cinematically beautiful adventure film, was shot earlier this year and examines the same unusual creatures Darwin saw while on the Galapagos Islands and shows where he erred. Told through the eyes of 16-year-old Joshua Phillips, the documentary presents a remarkable quest to "Darwin's Eden" with Joshua, his father, and a team of scientists and investigators, including Dr. John Morris, president of the Institute for Creation Research.
"Fitzroy disputed Thomas Huxley -- grandfather to Julian -- concerning Darwin's ideas following the publication of Origin of Species as part of a famous debate that took place at Oxford University in 1860," observed Phillips. "We are following Fitzroy's example during this anniversary year by offering a counterpoint to Darwinism through our film that was shot where Darwin's Theory of Evolution was formed."
The Mysterious Islands takes viewers deep beneath the ocean waves among hundreds of white-tip sharks, over lava fields covered with salt-spitting marine iguanas, and to the unusual habitat of blue-footed boobies and flightless cormorants. Featuring the only team of Creationists and Christian scientists to shoot a documentary on the Galapagos during 2009 -- Darwin's anniversary year -- The Mysterious Islands brings a fresh perspective on Charles Darwin and his theory and presents sweeping cinematography of one of the most remote, desolate, and fascinating island chains in the world.
Visit the official The Mysterious Islands website at: www.themysteriousislands.com
