Posted on 02/06/2009 6:21:07 PM PST by blueplum
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Comedian Ben Stein has withdrawn as the University of Vermont's commencement speaker because of complaints about his critical views on evolution in favor of intelligent design. UVM President Daniel Fogel said he chose Stein based on the warm response to a lecture he gave on campus last spring. Fogel said, however, he was deluged with e-mail messages from people offended by Stein's views of science. When told about the criticism, Stein — who was to be paid $7,500 — backed out of the May 17 commencement, Fogel said. "I did not ask him not to come," he said. "I was not going to let him be blind-sided by controversy." The former host of Comedy Central's "Win Ben Stein's Money" quiz show, Stein has drawn fire previously for criticizing evolutionary theory and speaking in favor of intelligent design. That view holds that life is too complex to have developed through evolution alone, implying that a higher power must have had a hand in creation. Stein told the Burlington Free Press that he was not "anti-science" as some critics have labeled him. "I am far more pro-science than the Darwinists," Stein wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper. "I want all scientific inquiry to happen not just what the ruling clique calls science." He said the controversy over him as commencement choice was "laughable" and "pathetic." Fogel said he was sorry that he did not anticipate the extent and intensity of the concerns expressed about Stein.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
His saying that modern science was responsible for the Holocaust didn’t make him many friends.
“When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [i.e. biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, 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,”
“Crouch: That’s right.”
“Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.”
“Crouch: Good word, good word.”
“Six Things in Expelled That Ben Stein Doesn’t Want You to Know...”
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=six-things-ben-stein-doesnt-want-you-to-know&sc=rss
I don’t agree with his position either (at all) but people still get too defensive about it all.
When the country is doing well, places like this are rioting. There just aren’t enough riots on college campii today. They struggle to find something to whine about.
The only thing that the left understands is emotion. They look to the personality first and to the intellect second if at all. Horowitz, Coulter, and Ben Stein are not really the cuddly type.
He was wrong about the theory itself but he is spot on right about the suppression.
All of these leftists spend their lives attacking the assumption of the fact that we have a Creator. (as these God haters are speaking from the true fringe, they falsely label those who accept the Creator as the fringe.)
They want our rights to come from Big Government, and Mr. Stein is a threat to their secular religious fanaticism.
You know what’s great about Vermont... Not much... President Bush kicked VT to the curb, not visiting once during his 8 years in office.
VT... go pound some snow.
“a conspiracy-theory rant masquerading as investigative inquiry”
You mean like like a Micheal Moore film?
yeah, well, it was AP titling the story after all.
I’d really be curious as to exactly whom was doing the objecting. Personally I think the guy is amazing. There was lack of leadership on the part of the university president imo jmo moo
for those who don’t know much who Ben is:
[Stein] graduated from Columbia University in 1966 with honors in economics. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1970 as valedictorian of his class by election of his classmates. He also studied in the graduate school of economics at Yale. He has worked as an economist at The Department of Commerce, a poverty lawyer in New Haven and Washington, D.C., a trial lawyer in the field of trade regulation at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., a university adjunct at American University in Washington, D.C., at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. At American U. He taught about the political and social content of mass culture. He taught the same subject at UCSC, as well as about political and civil rights under the Constitution. At Pepperdine, he has taught about libel law and about securities law and ethical issues since 1986...
He has written, co-written and published thirty books, including seven novels, largely about life in Los Angeles, and twenty-one nonfiction books, about finance and about ethical and social issue in finance, and also about the political and social content of mass culture.
http://www.benstein.com
IBTZ?
How can we sane people get rid of the Northeastern states?
don’t put us in the position to support a man who supports Al Freaklin........
As for Rotten Tomatoes, one must remember that these "critics" gave Michael Moore's "documentaries" something like a 90% approval rating.
You may not believe in a intelligent design, so are you saying that you believe in Darwinian evolution? That is like being a flat earther. No one takes Darwin seriously anymore.
This controversy is not now nor has it ever been a debate about “science”. It is about metaphysics. It is a philosophical struggle between those who hold a naturalistic/materialistic worldview and those who believe in a higher power. The materialists have been largely successful in framing the debate as “science” vs. “anti-science” (or superstition, ingnorance, etc.), but this simply is not true.
Buncha thugs. They clearly are INTOLERANT of those who hold different viewpoints than their own.
Except for those using genomic research to develop better crops and cures for diseases.
Stein really didn’t need to piss off his allies by financing and endorsing Franken. Now, nobody is going to rise to his defense.
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