In 1957, reacting to the devastating potential of Soviet missile armament, President Eisenhower pressured Congress to pass The National Defense Education Act (NDEA), which funded curriculum changes in public schools, particularly in math and the sciences.

According to film-collector and restorer Skip Elsheimer the increasing resources allocated by the NDEA, the fearful demand of Americans for educational videos and the abundance of film equipment left over after World War II encouraged small, goal-oriented groups to produce highly focused educational films.

On Tuesday, Sep. 15, Elsheimer hosted a group of students and faculty from various programs, including biology, communication and film studies. The group viewed and discussed two films from The Moody Institute of Science: The Electric Eel and The Prior Claim.

Elsheimer views these educational films as a reference for “cultural history,” specifically describing the fears and values of Cold War Americans. Through his collecting, Elsheimer also recognized a recurring allusion to creationism. This “jab at evolution,” he said, seemed to use accurate science as evidence for the existence of God.

“It’s kind of a strange thing to see in a film from public schools,” he recounted. “I started buying films from schools and eBay, and I started finding more and more films from this Moody [Institute of Science].”

Elsheimer did not recognize the similarity between the content of the Moody Institute’s films and the “theory” of intelligent design until he read about the lawsuit, Tammy Kitzmiller et al. v Dover Area School District, in which the plaintiffs successfully argued that intelligent design is a form of religious creationism.

“Intelligent design is almost verbatim to what’s in these films,” Elsheimer related.

The case inspired Elsheimer to perform research on the Moody Institute of Science. In 2007, he co-published an article in the film collector’s journal The Moving Image with Marsha Orgeron. The article details the religious background of the institute’s founder and on-screen spokesman, Dr. Irwin A. Moon (“Dr. Moon” is actually a minister).

Beginning in the 1930s, Moon united his clerical speeches with demonstrations, conducting “Sermons from Science” or “Wonders of Science”. According to Elsheimer, Moon would perform scientific experiments to excite crowds, and then he would attribute the scientific oddities to God and creationism.

His experiments dazzled crowds — according to a 1953 article by the director of the Moody Institute, F. Alston Everest, Moon once allowed one million volts of electricity to pass through his body.

In 1945, Elsheimer said, Moon joined the Moody Bible Institute to form its evangelical branch, the Moody Institute of Science, which eventually prepared educational films for students of all grades, including students of the United States Air Force Academies.

“These films were done well and done at the right time,” Elsheimer said.

The films reviewed the scientific research of the time, accurately demonstrating modern knowledge. Each film ultimately concluded with an evangelical sermon.

Because it was not a relevant theory during the filming of the institute’s early movies, the term “intelligent design” was never used. Nor was the theory of evolution by natural selection ever explicitly referenced. Instead, through his sermons, Moon attributed the complex relationships of the scientific demonstrations to God’s supposed blueprint.

For instance, The Electric Eel examines the traits of Joe, an electric eel. These traits include his blind eyes, his underwater sonar, his undulating muscles and his electric-producing organs, known as electroplaques. In fact, Moon tests the usefulness of the eel’s electrical sonar by temporarily stunting Joe’s electrical transmission.

According to biologists, the ancestor of modern eels possessed functional eyes, but because natural selection favored eels with diminished sight, eels gradually evolved to lose vision. However, the descendents of these eels retained non-functional eyes, and evolutionary biologists view these vestigial eyes as evidence of unorganized, unexplainable change.

Whereas evolutionary biologists often provide these vestigial eyes as evidence for evolution, Moon used the complex electrical systems of eels as support for “how God created us all.” According to Moon, God endowed all organisms to function in unique, complex ways.

In The Prior Claim, Moon relates a series of technological achievements to natural conventions. From a Venus Fly-trap that closes like a bear-trap to a spider that builds a door from string and dirt, Moon posits that mankind has never developed a single original technology, instead suggesting that God designed every natural and artificial mechanism.

Once again, Moon uses textbook examples of evolution to support creationism. Whereas evolutionary biologist use prides of sea lion as evidence of sexual selection, Moon uses the prides as evidence of God’s design of community structure, suggesting that, “God has a claim over our lives because he made us and has redeemed us.”

“Irwin wasn’t really a scientist; he was a magician,” Elsheimer said. “He used [science] like a magic trick. He did, however, fancy himself to be quite a scientist.”

Irwin and The Moody Institute of Science continued to make educational films into the 1980s, but the end of the Cold War and stricter educational policies diminished public demand for the institute’s films.

Though the Moody Institute of Science no longer exists, the Moody Bible Institute continues to train ministers to, according to their website, “communicate the truth of God’s Word in today’s world.”

Elsheimer continues to restore and to distribute educational films through his organization, A/V Geeks Educational Film Archive.