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Win Ben Stein's Ignorance!
July 04 2008 13:57 Filed in:
Poop
One of my little guilty game show pleasures back in the late 90s was Win Ben Stein’s Money with Jimmy Kimmel and Ben Stein. If you’re a little lost, Stein was catapulted to mainstream fame by his appearance in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off -- “Anyone...anyone...Bueller...”
If you don’t remember that, don’t worry. Stein was a former Nixon speech-writer and a pretty damned smart guy, which was the premise of the game show. Contestants would pit themselves up against Stein in a test of knowledge on a variety of subjects.
Well, fast forward to last year and Stein is the “star” power behind Expelled, a disgraceful documentary created by proponents of the “Intelligent Design” lobby to continue to disguise Bible teachings as science in an effort to get them into public school classrooms by circumventing the establishment clause of the constitution.
I’m still seeking the documentary to watch it, but having seen clips and quotes from it there is a strong and direct attempt to tie Charles Darwin and Evolution into being indirectly behind the Holocaust, or at least sympathetic to it.
First, let’s establish this without belaboring the argument. Evolution is a fact. It’s observable on our planet and is one of the longest standing most supported pieces of science that has ever been. It IS fact. The theory of evolution only refers to specific lines of evolution being traced through historical study of the fossil record.
Cut to the chase, the “Intelligent Design” con-artists know that they can not in any way shape or form promote the theory of creationism with any evidence at all…and countless attempts are instantly taken apart as disprovable, so the only recourse for these people is to try to discredit science, and specifically Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, which is what this apparently deceitful and fraudulent ‘crock’umentary Expelled does.
In an interview on a religious program while promoting the film, Stein, who narrates Expelled actually made this statement:
“I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.
…Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.”
SCIENCE LEADS YOU TO KILLING PEOPLE
SCIENCE LEADS YOU TO KILLING PEOPLE
Even with my limited scope of knowledge in history and science, I could begin a dissertation for a rebuttal, but my web space and bandwidth is limited. To equate science to the Nazis gassing the Jews and them making the “killing people” assertion in general is beyond what could be described as ignorant.
I’m floored.
You could start by talking about how science has improved quality of life, human health, reduced infant mortality...but it doesn’t matter, because you could go on forever.
On top of that, this statement is made in the name of organized religion which is arguably the cause of more death, suffering and hate than anything in the history of the planet.
GET THESE PEOPLE OUT OF MY PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND OUT OF MY KID’S HEADS. Ignorance is contagious.
Just an addedum to this, I was so moved by this that when I was doublechecking some facts for this entry and I came across Ben Stein’s home page I left him a guestbook entry. I’m sure it won’t make it through, but it is as follows:
THANK YOU, Ben. I just found your insightful comments regarding science recently and they have changed my life. How could we all be so ignorant as to not see that science is behind all the great atrocities of human kind! Science has never helped anybody, but as you pointed out, the gassing of the Jews in World War 2 is a DIRECT RESULT of the horror that science has brought us. Putting Intelligent Design into public schools is not going far enough, you've convinced me that public schools should immediately CEASE any and all teaching of science. In your own sacred and wise words "Science leads you to killing people."