When a Christian girl, Rachel, goes to college and starts studying biology, Stephen, her equally religious father, becomes concerned that her teacher, Professor Kaman, teaches evolution and not Biblical creationism. When an annual debate event comes up, the professor invites Stephen to debate him about which is true.
Tropes
- Artistic License – Biology: The film reiterates a lot of Young Earth Creationist talking points, from "evolution claims life created itself out of nothing" to "evolution hasn't been observed":
- Evolution has been observed, not just by examining the available evidence in the fossil record, but also by observing the change of species in the present. Examples include insects becoming resistant to pesticides, and the Italian wall lizards who were introduced to the island Pod Mrčaru from a neighboring island and changed radically in just a few decades.
- Evolution makes no claim about how life at its most basic level came into existence on Earth: that field is called abiogenesis. Evolution explains how life exists the way it does now and how it changed over time into its current state.
- One of Rachel's classmates mentions Kaman teaching that humans came from apes. Evan interrupts him and starts asking him if his mother, grandmother or other recent relative "looked like an ape" and "which of them was a monkey". While it's presented as an Armor-Piercing Question that shoots the other student clean out of the sky, it is a tired creationist argument that fails for a couple of critical reasons:
- Nobody is saying a monkey-like species suddenly started giving birth to humans just a few generations ago. The transition into humans from ape-like ancestors such as Australopithicus afarensis and Homo erectus happened over millions of years.
- While apes and monkeys are both primates, they are not the same thing; they are separate suborders within the primate order and have very different physical characteristics. Humans are a branch of apes that shares common origins with the others, not descended from an extant type.
- During one of his classes, Kaman cites the fact that athletic records today are higher than they were decades ago as a proof of evolution changing us genetically. No real biology professor would chalk that up to evolution since humans don't change that much genetically from one generation to the next or the one after that; several other factors affect athletic records. Modern running tracks, for example, are made of synthetic carpets specifically designed to allow runners to move as fast and unhindered as possible, while older running tracks, like the one Jesse Owens set his Olympic record on
, were made of soft cinders that stole a lot of energy from the runners' steps and slowed them down. Then there's changes in rules of the different sports, advancements in technology and the differences in mentality between athletes then and now. Genetics do play a part as well, but only in the sense that an average build used to be considered ideal for all sports, but now professional sports tend to pick athletes with better suited physiques, such as extremely tall people for professional basketball and smaller people for professional gymnastics.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Evan claims that Kaman is one of these and that his friendly demeanour and generous grading policy (wherein students will get a C just for showing up) are all tactics he uses to "get students to doubt their faith in God and the Bible,"
- Big Damn Heroes: For the creationist side, when former professor Portland appears during the debate and takes over Stephen's place in it.
- Cessation of Existence: During the debate, Kamen states he believes death is the end, to Stephen's dismay.
- Character Filibuster: In the debate, after Portland takes over, he completely dominates it by a stream of long-refuted points against evolution, with the moderator just letting him do it. Kamen does not even attempt to answer them later when he's done.
- Cool Teacher: Professor Kaman makes genuine efforts to make his classes interesting and seems well-liked by students.
- Didn't Think This Through: After Stephen makes a big deal about Creationism and accepting the debate, he later realizes he does not know enough to properly defend his side. He is later reading from a high school level biology text book.
- Doting Parent: Stephen is this towards Rachel, going as far as confronting her college biology teacher. It could border on a gender reversed My Beloved Smother with how embarrassed she is by this.
- Double Standard: Professor Kaman doesn't believe in creationism and only teaches evolution in his class. Meanwhile, professor Portland is a creationist who taught it in his class and refused to teach evolution because he didn't believe in it (despite it being his job to teach it). Kaman is treated as the film's villain whilst Portland is portrayed as an unsung hero, even though he was doing the exact same thing as Kaman, just from the other side.
- Excuse Plot: The story of the film is really just there to present the filmmakers' idea of the evolution vs. creationism discussion. The actual debate takes up about the last third of the movie.
- False Dichotomy: The only options raised in the debate are naturalistic evolution versus creationism. In reality, many believers Take a Third Option of theistic evolution, claiming God at least started or perhaps guided the process. Of course, the film was backed by creationist groups which reject this, so naturally the idea isn't brought up.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Discussed. Portland claims that even if the stars fell from the sky to form the phrase "God is real", it would still be deemed a trick by atheist evolutionists.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Rachel met Evan when they were kids during the scene shown in the beginning of the film, though neither recognizes each other as adults until Stephen tells Evan about it. This also adds nothing to the plot.
- Gretzky Has the Ball: The debate is supposed to be focused on creationism vs. evolution, yet it quickly devolves into the idea of proving God's existence. Not once does the moderator try to get the debate back on track.
- Hollywood Atheist: Surprisingly subverted with Kamen, given that he's set up as the designated villain of the film. He's unfailingly friendly, patient and polite with others, showing none of the stereotypical traits. The nearest he comes is bruskly saying Stephen should "Wake up" and realize that there's no God or afterlife during their debate. Earlier he sincerely stated he's got no problem with Stephen's faith though, so this may have just been a bit of exasperation in their exchange, which had gotten heated. Despite the fear Stephen has, he never tries to convince Rachel and the rest of his students that his views are right as a result of the fact evolution occurred.note
- Informed Ability: Kamen is stated to be a skilled debater, but fails miserably in the film, not even attempting to rebut the points which Portland makes.
- Jerk Jock: Tyler Mathis and, to a lesser extent, his group of friends.
- Men Act, Women Are: Even though the film sets up Rachel as the main character, it is her father that has the problem with Kaman teaching evolution. From there the last half of the film focuses on Stephen and Kaman with their debate and practically sidelining her.
- The Moral Substitute: Of a sort, for God's Not Dead. A lot of creationist groups had problems with God's Not Dead, saying they wanted to endorse but couldn't because the main character argues that evolution is true and compatible with Christianity. This film provides creationists with a similar film, but from a strictly creationist perspective.
- Never My Fault:
- After Stephen barges his way in, tries to get Professor Kaman to teach creationism, and accepts Professor Kaman's offer to debate his side, Stephen seems to treat it like he was forced to do this debate.
- Professor Portland acts like him being fired was entirely Kaman's fault, even though he was knowingly violating the school's policy by not teaching evolution like he was supposed to and instead teaching creationism, despite it not being constitutionally allowed.
- No Full Name Given: Both Kamen and Portland are only addressed by their last names.
- Title Drop: During the debate, Professor Portland calls believing in evolution or creationism "a matter of faith".
- Token Minority: Portland is the only person of color in the movie with a significant role.
- Truth in Television: Not the scientific parts, but the parts where Rachel questions her faith after being taught about evolution in class seems to draw inspiration from a modern trend of college students who have grown up in religious households and been taught falsehoods about evolution learning about the subject from more qualified science teachers and, as a result, growing distant from their faith or leaving it.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The subplot involving Tyler abruptly ends without any real resolution. It goes along with
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character. - White Anglo-Saxon Protestant: Stephen, Rachel and their family, alongside every major character, are overwhelmingly white upper-middle class American Christians. In fact, Portland was the sole exception we see.
