Ben Stein movie takes on free speech suppression in academia
Ben Stein, in the new film EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed
His heroic and, at times, shocking journey confronting the world’s top scientists, educators and philosophers, regarding the persecution of the many by an elite few. Question Darwinism and your freedom of speech is squelched!
Coming to a theater near you Spring 2008
Ben travels the world on his quest, and learns an awe-inspiring truth…that bewilders him, then angers him…and then spurs him to action!
Ben realizes that he has been “Expelled,” and that educators and scientists are being ridiculed, denied tenure and even fired - for the “crime” of merely believing that there might be evidence of “design” in nature, and that perhaps life is not just the result of accidental, random chance.
To which Ben Says: “Enough!” And then gets busy.
January 29th, 2008 at 7:23 am
Senator, you’ve got some paranoia about this free speech thing don’t ya think?
January 29th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
I would say that it is not paranoia, and that when a person dares mention that there is compelling evidence of a design and a lack of evidence for the currently taught system. People get so definsive as to not even consider the opposing view points. What do you call it when someone wont listen and indeed even punish those with a differing point of view?
January 29th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
“…there is compelling evidence of a design and a lack of evidence for the currently taught system.”
This is false. It’s nice to keep repeating it, but it doesn’t make it any more true than repeating “the holocaust did not happen.” In science, you do not support a theory by lying about another.
There is no positive evidence for ID/Creationism. It exists to ignorantly, and unsuccessfully, poke “holes” in modern Biology by a certain sect of religious people.
Science is not a Democracy. It doesn’t care about your opinions or world-views. Modern Biology is supported by scientists from all walks of life, from religious to non-religious, from Republican to Democrat. ID/Creationism is a fringe science that it used politically to insert a specific religious view into our public schools.
If you want your views taught as science, then try performing some actual science instead of using the courts to insert a non-scientific claim into our classrooms.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
The truth of Charles Darwin’s observation, “Great is the power of steady misinterpretation.” is made clear yet again by Ben Stein. It seems that no matter how much evidence scientists accumulate for evolution, and no matter how many times tired creationist arguments are publicly demolished, there remains a never-ending supply of people who wish to remain willfully ignorant.
One question I like to pose to my creationist minded students is this: Why would scientists support evolutionary theory if there were such fundamental problems with it? The answer Stein and his movie seem to push is that scientists are engaged in a huge conspiracy. For entirely mysterious reasons, they have perpetuated a cover-up of impressive international scope for the last 150 years. Another possible answer is that scientists are too stupid to see what is obvious to people who have spent 15 minutes researching on the internet. Scientists may seem intelligent, and the unwary might be deceived by all those advanced degrees they have, but clearly they are actually idiots who just don’t get it.
If, like me, you find these possibilities a bit of a stretch, here’s another possible answer: scientists are actually intelligent people sincerely interested in finding the truth. They have excellent reasons, not just for believing in evolutionary theory, but for holding it up as one of the greatest scientific advances of the last 200 years. Some of these reasons can’t be easily summarized in a sound bite – science is sometimes complex, believe it or not. This, of course, leaves an opening for people who think they know far more than they actually do and who have all sorts of ulterior reasons not to be objective. I am perfectly happy to let fair-minded readers decide which of the answers to my question is more likely to be true…
February 6th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Hey, if that little spam protection test is an indicator of the math skills of SC respondents, we’re in trouble.
But it might explain why some will embrace of Ben’s facile deception and believe it. Ben Stein will probably make some money from this film. But he demonstrates a profound ignorance of science and scientists.
If the story is that a scientist who champions an unpopular idea will be criticized, this is true. All ideas are available for criticism.
But really the story is that the scientist is afraid to state the idea for fear of political or professional repercussions. AND, they can’t come forward to make this claim publicly because of the same fear.
This is a circularity that is common to all sorts of conspiracy theories, and impenetrable to reason.
However, this kind of fear has not stopped countless researchers from coming forward to have their ideas discredited in the past. How better to learn our mistakes? What makes these persons any different?
I could counter-argue that because these persons are not taking a more courageous approach and confronting their fears in the scientific arena, they actually may be using this argument to cover for weaknesses they already know for those ideas. Another way of putting this is that until they join the process, their thoughts are as good as non-existent.
But if, for the sake of argument, every one of Ben’s flawed claims was granted, there would remain not a single piece of supporting evidence for the discredited and dishonest claims of those promoting intelligent design.
For most of us, science is a free and open process in which we exchange ideas and arguments. Science is self-critical and self-correcting and it promotes, rather than stifles, open and honest critical examination.
For most of us, science has given us evolutionary theory as the best way to understand the elaboration of life. Science also, correctly, rejects failed or outrageously dishonest ideas such as intelligent design.
For most of us science is working really well.
For the rest of us, contributing to Ben’s retirement fund, there’s aluminum foil to line our hats.
February 6th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
But the music was kind of nice.
February 26th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
How many of you folks in the Scientific community actually witnessed and or set up an experiment that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that evolution was indeed a factor bringing forth man from ape without bias? Darwin himself stated that the biggest drawback to his theory of evolution was the human eye. Oh and for those of you who “OWN the TRUTH” Darwin was a Christian.
Science does not own the truth, it discovers it and assimilates it putting to use by mankind. Truth is Unchangeable,
Theories are changeable because they only Postulate a possible truth proposed due to lack of what? It is lack of actual Truth or better yet, lack of knowledge. Bottom line is the Universe goes about its business without help from the likes of homo sapiens. The only evolution there is lies in Science itself as it constantly redefines itself in light of Truth versus Theory. This is how Science adds to the body of knowledge , what we know to be true.
It wasn’t too long ago that the earth was believed to be flat and at the center of the universe. If anything Science and the observation of what is both seen and unseen IE., the world and everything in it, the Universe etc., should teach people to be Objective in their
thinking not merely Subjective.
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:44 am
“How many of you folks in the Scientific community actually witnessed and or set up an experiment that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that evolution was indeed a factor bringing forth man from ape without bias? Darwin himself stated that the biggest drawback to his theory of evolution was the human eye. Oh and for those of you who “OWN the TRUTH” Darwin was a Christian.”
- Tests are being setup and demonstrated everyday that confirm and support the theory of evolution. The fact of evolution was confirmed when your mother gave birth to you, even. And an opening paragraph misrepresenting Darwin is just priceless. Please go back to your “Origin of Species…” text and read the next paragraph following the problems with the eye. It’s not nice to quote-mine. See here:
http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CA/CA113_1.html
And for primate evolution, see here:
http://www.theistic-evolution.com/transitional.html
“It wasn’t too long ago that the earth was believed to be flat and at the center of the universe. If anything Science and the observation of what is both seen and unseen IE., the world and everything in it, the Universe etc., should teach people to be Objective in their thinking not merely Subjective.”
- That’s ironic. Where did those “scientific” beliefs come from?