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He Blinded Me Without Science
Ben Stein has a message for Darwin: "Fuck you!"
It seems incomprehensible that Stein -- former Nixon speech writer, game show host, eye drop pitchman and Neil Cavuto love interest -- could find a way to further cement his reputation as the smartest dumb person alive, but, bless his heart, he's done it. Today sees the theatrical release of a full-length documentary presented and narrated by Stein: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed casts the man with the velvet monotone as a sort of Michael Mooresque troublemaker -- a mischievous imp out to rankle the establishment and challenge the suffocating status quo, all in the name of getting to the truth that they don't want you to know about.
And against which authority figure is Stein playing the role of the uppity insurgent?
Science.
Feel free to stop reading if you've heard this one before, but Expelled assumes the position not only that the theory of evolution and the faith-based hypothesis known as "intelligent design" are on close-to-equal scientific footing, but that there's an Illuminatian cabal among the science community, no doubt sitting in a Star Chamber somewhere, seeing to it that any developmental view but Darwin's is suppressed at all costs. It's a hell of a parlor trick really, and one the religious right has become admirably adept at exploiting these days: to turn the tables on their adversaries by adopting the tactics and lexicon traditionally associated with the mutinous left, casting themselves as the victimized and oppressed -- the little guys, taking up the fight against (literally, as opposed to an omnipotent deity) "The Man."
In the end though, that's all it is -- a really clever trick, and one that's played to the hilt in Expelled.
Creating controversy where there is none is positively pedestrian by now, but taking it to the lengths that this new documentary does, and doing it with such a salient level of panache, borders on genius. The SNL writing staff, circa 1977, couldn't have created a more audaciously comical premise than Ben Stein -- a man so square he craps cubes -- writing "I Will Not Question Authority" on a blackboard while dressed like Angus Young. Stein is a Dangerous Mind only if you see mark-to-market accounting as a ballsy show of defiance, which makes him the perfect impertinent hero for the God-said-it-I-believe-it set.
Unfortunately, no matter how creative the packaging, the lesson being sold in Expelled remains little more than nonsense. Stein and company can wrap themselves in the American flag and the freedom to question that it provides; they can grab a handful of ostensible pop culture street cred by aligning themselves with the likes of Bono; in the end, it doesn't make so-called intelligent design any more logically sound. It's still a religious assertion, and not a scientific one. It doesn't stand up to even the most rudimentary evidential scrutiny, and while it's always important to ask questions and allow for healthy debate, no matter the topic, at some point a line has to be drawn separating fact from fiction -- or distraction. The truth is important because it's the yardstick by which we measure our reality, and Ben Stein -- or anyone else -- trying to pass off spectacular whimsy as legitimate fact is, yes, damaging. Not everything can be up for discussion, no matter how large a segment of the population might believe otherwise.
And that's the best part of all this: Stein and his supposedly rag-tag little group of freedom fighters are neither rag-tag nor little.
In fact, the idea that we're expected to believe that the religious in this country are few and persecuted is laughable, bordering on offensive.
Last Sunday evening, CNN aired something it called the "Compassion Forum." It was a live event, broadcast from Messiah College in Pennsylvania, in which an entire roomful of religious leaders -- mostly Christian -- were granted an audience with the two Democratic candidates for president, one of whom may eventually be the next leader of the free world. For two hours, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama talked not about war, education and the economy, but about how their faith guides them and, to some extent, who loves Jesus more. The fact that either candidate believes that he or she has the luxury right now to spout metaphysical platitudes is nothing short of staggering -- though certainly not surprising. Just a few days prior to the "Compassion Forum," the entire cast of American Idol, dressed in evangelical white, belted its way through Shout to the Lord not once, but twice on national television. And today, the city in which I live, New York, is at a standstill as thousands crowd the streets -- streets which have been shut down by police -- to reverently welcome an unremarkable man in ridiculous robes and a funny hat who believes that he has a hotline to the creator of the universe and who just wrapped up a meeting with the President of the United States.
In other words, don't even attempt to claim that the religious suffer for their beliefs in this country. Hell, as long as you insist that you're doing it in the name of God, you can swap wives and molest children in The Middle of Nowhere, Texas for years before somebody finally comes and hauls your lunatic ass off to jail.
Ben Stein can rage against the scientific machine all he wants. He can shake his fist and shout, "Don't try to keep me down with your, your gravity, man!" It won't make a spurious assertion -- that intelligent design deserves a seat at the lab station -- any more sound, nor will it make Stein anything more than a rebel without a clue.
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What is our country coming to with all of these "God Crazies" Don't you know that professors created the Universe in a lab? How intolerant and stupid of them!
http://djgoski.com
And one other thing about the Intelligent Design proponents: If they have but the faith of a grain of mustard seed, then why are they threatened by lack of proof for their version of Creation? Why are they threatened by proof of a conflicting version of Creation?
Aren't those who want to force Intelligent Design onto public school science curriculums and classrooms just being "Doubting Thomases", not able to believe Christ arose on the third day unless they can put their fingers into the scar on His side?
If there were irrefutable,mainstream scientific proof that God created the universe, we'd all just become Citizen Scientists, and churches would turn into labs and museums and Friends-of-the-Museum funding support groups to fund research. We wouldn't need religion any more. Just science.
The merger of religion and the public sector works both ways. The religious should fear it as much as the secular.
It really is funny that their "proof" of creationism is essentially the OJ Defense ("You have no evidence we weren't manufactured in a genetics lab"). Perhaps they're scared of the reason behind creation in the first place, that like in the Robert Doherty book series AREA 51 humanity was manufactured to serve as cannon fodder in some alien war on the other side of the galaxy.
Faith is a mind trick, and the person who has pulled this trick on himself knows it, in the underlayers of their mind. The clue is that one must DECIDE to believe in God (or whatever), because no PROOF of God's existence does or can exist. Before that decision, the believer was like us, not gonna believe on someone else's say-so. But crunch-time comes, and they want a divine shoulder to lean on, to take the burden of being alone in the universe off of their shoulders. So they repeat after the "spiritual assistant," asking "God" into their hearts, to rule their lives. And for at least a moment, they sincerely believe they want it, sense or no.
That's all it takes, that decision to place more trust in what they want, and in what someone tells them, than in logic. Once that step is taken, they can believe in the fantasy of love they feel, and they become addicted to the feeling of unconditional love they feed themselves.
Who would want to disbelieve in such an illusion, when it feels so good? Problem is, they really know better, and require the echoed belief from those around them, in order to keep believing. THAT'S why they are so desperate for the rest of us to believe it as well -- so they can keep believing themselves.
---
Exorcise your TV.
Very well stated.
You call faith a trick, but it worked very well for this country until people of faith sold their soul to the Republicans and put their man in power resulting in preemptive war and torture. Even now, faith could save face, all they have to do is repent and ask the rest of the world for forgiveness for the global horrors they have caused. I would forgive.
I'm of the mind, that ya just might to on to something there...Ol'LightiningJoe. Their denial is indeed pervasive, akin to a virus.
Lots of comments have dealt with the nature of the scientific method. Few comments have dealt with the nature of the scientific community, which in regarding the question why intelligent design is not a science, is equally if not more important
For a given scientist's groundbreaking work to be accepted in the larger scientific community, is no small thing. New ideas in science must undergo a daunting, sometimes messy, and adversarial gamut that may last years if not decades. Many scientists die before ever finding out if their ideas were widely accepted or not. To convince their peers within their respective fields, much less those in other fields, scientists don't get to pass out free ballpoint pens, do movie & TV product placements, or bribe Congressfolk. Or hold immortal souls for ransom. They earn it via hard work , fact, reason, perisitence, and withering third degree by their peers1
THAT's why I'll put more credence in a mere hunch by a respected scientist regarding something in his or her field, than in all the relgious-inspired and popular culture theories in the world.
I know it's a minor issue, and I agree with you, but don't give their conjectures the dignity of being called 'theories' or even 'hypotheses'. They're merely conjecture - the opinion that something is too intricate to have not been the result of ID, is nothing but an opinion.
I think the media - if they had a soul (so to speak - I'm an atheist) - would do more to educate the public about the true meaning of theory, hypothesis, and fact - as in there are no scientific 'facts'.
But, when news writers don't know the difference between regimes and regimens or perpetrators and suspects - you can't get your hopes too high. Now if it's alliteration you want or willingness to punch up a healine even if it beomes misleading - you've come to the right shop.
"as in there are no scientific 'facts'"
Yeah, science is all speculative and subjective none of it is factual.
You can't be serious, come to think about it, seeing the source of the statement, I guess you are.
I'm ROTF.
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I keep waiting for Intelligent Design proponents to explain my knees. They get a bit more wonky every month, it's been happening for years.
No intelligent designer would have designed knees like ours. Or lower backs like ours. They are clear evidence of natural selection working on random mutation. Good enough to get me past child-rearing age, which is all evolution demands, but no self respecting lord of the universe would have made them.
They were working just fine until the feminists got involved. Hey Adam, this fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, are you sure we'll die if we eat it?
Yum, honey, this taste great! Hey what's a BMW. I want to go to the mall!Why don't we have a bigger house? Where are my newest fashions? I'm naked.
I need to make a telephone call! and Now!
Eve, what in hell are you talking about? BMW, Mall, Shopping, big house? Fashion statements! What are these things that you are mentioning? Oh for God's sake girl let me taste that so you'll get off of my back! YUM!
Holy manure, Girl you are naked and wow check out your hooters! Yes! Oh snot my penis is showing and now I gotta worry about it's size from now on!
BMW, credit cards, big house means I gotta go to work! Everything thing was going great until you got smart! Jeeezzz! Eve! What in the hell have you gotten us into!
Hey Eve, why the headaches all of a sudden? Damn, my knees hurt and my lower back is throbbing! Oh, wait here comes God Let's ask him! No wait we gotta hid because we're smart and naked..... And the beat goes on.....da de da de dum.
This issue (Intelligent design) has been exposed for the the ruse and conspiracy that it *WAS* in a court of law. The PBS series NOVA had an expose' on it that everyone should watch:
Judgement Day, intelligent design on trial.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/
This is a great Nova. Also the movie "Flock of Dodos" addresses this. I liked the Nova episode better but the Dodos movie was worth watching. What I liked about both is that they provided a chance for the creationists to present their side, something I'm betting this movie does not do for the evolution side. Also, Richard Dawkins just created a great parody of this movie:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-dawkins/sexpelled-no-intercourse_b_97465.html
BEN STEIN'S EXISTENCE IS THE BEST ARGUMENT AGAINST "INTELLIGENT DESIGN".
When we poor creatures have evolved to the point where intelligence is a given for everyone, then Earthlings will look back and have one damn good laugh re: religious nonsense. They will shake their heads, which will finally contain a properly functioning brain, and wonder how in fuck they ever believed in such utter crap. Until then, we have to put up with morons who will believe in anything as long as there's mention of an afterlife and some divine hunk who's going to entertain us with a magical
show for all eternity.
The fact that the drunken merchants who wrote the bible, were oblivious to the existance of dinosaurs, pretty much proves that the bible, the supposed word of god, was written by humans. This text is a complete fraud, making the religions that point to it as proof of god's existance, utterly and completely moot. However, the fact that disease created the appearance of magical punishments being dispensed by an unseen force, is, in my opinion, why the majority of human civilizations latched onto the idea of unseen deities. At one point in time, the belief in gods was a logical one. The fact that humans are remiss to transition to superior and newer forms of obvious logic about reality is what I find fascinating. We are so compelled to copy our thoughts and behaviors from others that we will go to our graves ignorant rather than stepping up and breaking the mold of copy cat thinking. Our dna has us trapped into remaining relentlessly stupid. Quelle irony!
HUMANS ARE AFRAID THAT GOD ABANDONDED THEM HERE ON A ROCK IN THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE TO STOP THEM FROM INFECTING THE REST OF THE UNIVERSE.
You had a decent article there until you called the Pope an "unremarkable man"... Sure, he's only the leader of the largest religion on the planet. I guess they just pick anyone off the street for that job, huh?
If you had maybe done your homework before casually tossing out an incendiary comment like that, you would know that he is a brilliant theologian, even by pope standards, and has already done amazing things in terms of clarifying the misunderstandings of Catholicism and advancing the faith in general.
And who are you? Are you going to be remembered more than 10 days after you die? Are you going to effect the world beyond prompting me to take 10 minutes out of my day to write this? Okay, then.
You're right -- there's nothing more imposing and remarkable than being the leader of one of the largest cults of superstition in the world. Even better if that man can suggest that the best way to deal with abuse by priests of the faithful by suggesting that it be ignored until it goes away.
And he's "done amazing things" in terms of furthering the credulous superstition of hundreds of millions? Well, isn't that special?
He's nothing but a charlatan with a funny hat and red shoes taking advantage of the gullibility of the masses. Or, to put it another way, he's P.T. Barnum with a better ride.
You're correct that the Pope is the leader of the largest religion on the planet... which is quite frightening. "Advancing faith" is neither "brilliant", nor "amazing"... it's ignorant, if not dangerous. And, yes, they may as well "just pick anyone off the street for that job"... because that job is a fraud.
Another thought, regarding being remembered after death: The objective should be about life, not legacy, and certainly not afterlife. What kind of person do we want to be, and what kind of life do we choose to live? Will our lives matter while we are alive, while we can be effective? Will we care about and improve the lives of others? The truth is that when the lights go out, it's over. Don't put off the opportunity of the present because of some afterlife scam.
One more thing: "brilliant theologian" is an oxymoron.
The only motivations for people to believ in ID is the same fear that drives religion, fear of death, and fear of growing old. ID proponents are motivated by the same fears that give rise to the idea of an afterlife, and that's the elephant in the room. ID believers don't really care about origins in any meaningful way they merely want to have an irrefutable arguement that supports their already held belief in an afterlife. If ID had come before religion and afterlifes, then it might have been credible, but it didn't and we all know the fears and inspirations that gave rise to ID and their not credible in any way. All ID is, is the beliefs held by religion stripped of their tenets, theirs no morality and honesty in it. All intelligent design is, is the belief in god. And for me, the beauty of life and the universe just won't ever be good enough to believe in god, I need strong evidence, until then its all just speculation.
Man created god in his own image.
exactly!
There will be no end to the succession of people like Stein as long as people ponder the beginning and the end of the universe in time or space and as long as we need to find a way to emotionally handle mortality. Stein isn't retarded; he's just addled by these things. On the other hand, one poster here repeatedly wrote "intelligent(sic)," clearly showing either that he doesn't quite understand the word "intelligent" or that he thinks he could have done it better than the conjectural intelligence did. If you want to see some retarded stuff on this topic, check out the www.creationministries.org ad that came up with this article. The feather thing at their "science projects" link is amazingly lame.
The bible claims "God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." I claim that early humans were afraid of the dark, so as a means of calming the women, children and wusses, they said, "Let there be God," and there was God. Hundreds of them. That's fine, but intruding the idea into study of nature is an insult to the principle of parsimony (aka "Occam's Razor"). Science can explain the presence of life far better than faith can explain the presence of a supreme being.
Once time started running, something had to happen, and this is nothing more than what's happened so far. The transitory existence of the human race is nothing special to the cosmos.
Dear Mr.Pazienza,
Thank you for such an eloquently profound essay/post, and with excellent humor. Quite an enjoyable read without question. Agape. (Love in fellowship of our shared fragile Humanity.)
Some here have apologized for being anal in their accuracy--never do that! There's nothing wrong with being accurate, even tortuously so. Now, Pazienza, I will exhibit true anality: is it Illumination cabal or Illuminati cabal?
Let the record show then:
Illumination:
Spiritual or intellectual enlightenment.
Illuminati:
People claiming to be unusually enlightened with regard to a subject.
Any of various groups claiming special religious enlightenment
Either or would be correct.
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