I used to love Ben Stein. That is, until I found out he was a raving lunatic creationist.
About a year ago I heard he was involved with a documentary on Intelligent Design and I didn’t give it much thought. Perhaps this was because I always found him to be fun, witty, and more importantly, scientific. This is apparently not the case (the scientific part, he’s still very witty, of course).
An article in the Orlando Sentinel, Is Ben Stein the new face of Creationism? by Roger Moore, tells the story well.
From the Article
I urge you to read the entire article, but here are some key points I found interesting (also the juicy Ben-bashing stuff).
“He uses ’straw man’ tactics to attack, mainly The Origin of the Species, as Darwin wrote it in 1859. That’s like a music critic reviewing ‘the latest’ by only referring to Edison’s wax cylinders. He sets up false theses that ‘the other side’ must hold (classic Limbaugh) and knocks those straw men down. Citing scientific research as recent as 1953, he can’t understand why no peer-reviewed scientist thinks his ‘fairytale’ version of the emergence of life is worth his or her time. No, not having a definitive answer about the moment life began…YET…is damning enough for Ben.
Most despicably, Stein, a Jew, invokes the Holocaust, making the Hitler-was-a-Darwinist argument, this AFTER he’s used the Holocaust denier’s favorite trick, probabilities, ‘math,’ to show how remote the chances are that life was created by natural, not supernatural processes. There were plenty of reasons eugenics caught on as an idea among certain nationalist-conservative and even scientific circles in the early 20th century, and most of them have nothing to do with Darwin. It reminded me of the phony slump Michael Moore showed walking away from ambushing crusty old Charlton Heston in Bowling for Columbine.
Animation, similar to that used in Columbine, makes its mock points about how science comes to conclusions and how the culture is structured to accept them. Snippets of The Wizard of Oz, Inherit the Wind and other films (if this polished, credited, scored film is indeed ‘unfinished,’ it may be from unresolved rights-clearance issues) to make his points funny. Not really. The Stalin and Soviet and Nazi clips are used in a not-quite-subliminal seduction way to demonize the people who might hold a contrary view.”
2 Responses to “Is Ben Stein the new face of Creationism?”rss
Dave from Millington, on February 3rd, 2008, said:
“I used to love Ben Stein. That is, until I found out he was a raving lunatic creationist.”
Your comment is exactly why that documentary need to be made.
Travis, on February 3rd, 2008, said:
Dave,
I’m still a Ben fan, of course. I had just held him up to a higher standard of reason and logic than what is apparently the case. He’s a very intelligent person. Which is why I found this effort of his so surprising.
And why does the film have to be made? Because crazy people think there’s some conspiracy of science? That science and medicine somehow don’t actually want to know the truth? I think a better use of your time would be studying history and the severe oppression of science by religion throughout.
Simply stating “We do not, as scientists, cover this supernatural nonsense” doesn’t begin to come close to the historical flip side of that coin with religion vs. science.
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