The Principle

Release

The film was released on October 24, 2014, when screened at the Marcus Addison Cinema in Addison, Illinois, according to the distributor Rocky Mountain Pictures. Box office receipts were $86,172.

Complaints from featured actors and scientists

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The film was criticized by some of the interviewed physicists, who say they were misled into appearing in the film, claiming that the documentary makes an invalid philosophical assumption that defining physical relationships among objects in space, one way or another, necessarily must limit what one can say about the relationship between God and humanity in theology, and treats science as a belief system dealing with the same matters as religion. The movie rejects the scientific consensus that the Earth orbits the Sun, and distorts other aspects of the actual Copernican principle.

Following the release of the film's trailer, narrator Kate Mulgrew said that she was misinformed about the purpose of the documentary and that Sungenis' involvement, which would have been a dealbreaker had she been hitherto aware, was not disclosed to her. Max Tegmark explained that DeLano "cleverly tricked a whole bunch of us scientists into thinking that they were independent filmmakers doing an ordinary cosmology documentary, without mentioning anything about their hidden agenda." George Ellis corroborated. "I was interviewed for it but they did not disclose this agenda, which of course is nonsense. I don't think it's worth responding to — it just gives them publicity. To ignore is the best policy. But for the record, I totally disavow that silly agenda."

Michio Kaku said that the film was probably using "clever editing" of his statements and bordered on intellectual dishonesty, and Lawrence Krauss said he had no recollection of being interviewed for the film and would have refused to be in it if he had known more about it. British physicist Julian Barbour said that he never gave permission to be in the film.

The filmmakers responded to these allegations in a short documentary, Thought-Crime: The Conspiracy to Stop "The Principle".

References

References

1. "The Principle".
2. [https://skepticalinquirer.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2015/01/p50.pdf ''Modern Geocentrism: A Case Study of Pseudoscience in Astronomy'']
3. "Why Physicists Are In A Film Promoting An Earth-Centered Universe". NPR.org.
4. (25 September 2014). "'THE PRINCIPLE - Rocky Mountain Pictures to Distribute Highly-Anticipated Documentary, Theatrically in North America. Film Set To Open in Chicago on October 24.". PR Web.
5. "The Principle". Rotten Tomatoes.
6. Krauss, Laurence. (8 April 2014). "I Have No Idea How I Ended Up In That Stupid Geocentrism Documentary". Slate.
7. (23 January 2015). "Film Review: 'The Principle'". Variety.
8. Bradley, Tony. "'The Principle' Is What Happens When Good Science Gets Twisted". Forbes.
9. Winograd, David. (8 April 2014). "Star Trek's Kate Mulgrew Says She Was Duped on Film Narration".
10. Newitz, Annalee. (7 April 2014). "Why Are All These Physicists in a Weird Creationist Documentary?". io9.
11. Lecher, Colin. (7 May 2014). "The Conspiracy Theorist Who Duped The World's Biggest Physicists". Popular Science.
12. Howell, Elizabeth. (April 16, 2014). "'Clever Editing' Warps Scientists' Words in New Geocentrism Film". Yahoo News.
13. Krauss, Lawrence. (8 April 2014). "I Have No Idea How I Ended Up in That Stupid Geocentrism Documentary". Slate.
14. Arnold, Ben. (9 April 2014). "Kate Mulgrew 'tricked' into narrating film that claims the Sun orbits Earth". Yahoo Movies.
15. Israel, Josh. (April 8, 2014). "Orange Is The New Black' Star Duped Into Narrating Film That Says The Sun Revolves Around The Earth".
16. (17 November 2015). "Thought-Crime: The Conspiracy to Stop 'The Principle'".