The Creation vs Evolution Controversy

In the documentary, Expelled : No Intelligence Allowed, Ben Stein uses the phrase “BIG Science” to great effect:

All over the world, Big Science is on the march, making sure that Neo-Darwinian Materialist Theory is protected, and that any challenges and challengers are dealt with…properly.

It’s pretty cute and a rather good 60 second sound bite. Today I’ve finally figured out where Ben got the idea for “Big Science”. You see, Stein is also known as a financial expert and frequent guest on cable TV money shows. But less well know is Ben Stein’s advocacy for BIG Government. In his blog posting on Larry King’s CNN website, Stein makes a rather shrill call for a BIG government, taxpayer-supported bailout of failing BIG companies.

Until now, I rather respected Ben Stein. It seems Stein is another wealth distributing useless idiot running around with his hair on fire saying we need IMMEDIATE action to save the BIG 3 car companies, the investment companies, the banks, and whoever else gave money to our politicians. Judge for yourself with this quote from Stein:

There is no other entity besides the government that can restore this situation to a full employment equilibrium position. State governments are suffering and so are municipalities. Corporations are obviously suffering. Only the federal government can literally print money to restore the situation.

No, this is not a quote from his Comedy Central quiz show, Win Ben Stein’s Money. It’s also not April 1st.

I’m extremely disappointed. While I think Expelled is a great documentary, my enthusiasm for promoting him and the DVD is all but gone.

At least Ben Stein doesn’t believe in social Darwinism…

cp

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3 evolution critics on advisory panel
by Terrence Stutz
The Dallas Morning News, p. 3.
October 16, 2008

Social conservatives on the State Board of Education have appointed three evolution critics to a six-member committee that will review proposed curriculum standards for science courses in Texas schools.

Two of the appointees are authors of a book that questions many of the tenets of Charles Darwin’s theory of how humans and other life forms evolved. One of them, Stephen Meyer, is also vice president of the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based group that promotes an explanation of the origin of life similar to creationism. The other author is Ralph Seelke, a biology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Superior.

Also on the panel is Baylor University chemistry professor Charles Garner, who, like the other two, signed the Discovery Institute’s “Dissent from Darwinism” statement that sharply questions key aspects of the theory of evolution.

read more…

Poor Denyse O’Leary! She gets no respect from evolutionists. And, we don’t see why she should get any respect from creationists either. As more of O’Leary’s opinion piece reveals, she’s certainly swallowed large amounts of evolutionary speculation when it comes to the origin of life and species. But like many of her fellow theistic evolutionists and progressive creation comrades, this doesn’t seem to bother her at all.

*SIGH* Perhaps O’Leary should just be quiet and stop talking about things she knows nothing about.

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Theory needs a paramedic, not more cheerleaders
by Denyse O’Leary
Calgary Herald (Canada), August 16, 2008
p. A26

Re: “What is it about evolution theory that Albertans don’t get?” Rob Breakenridge, Opinion, Aug. 12.

Rob Breakenridge has cobbled together key talking points of the American Darwin lobby. The resulting column is an excellent illustration of why one should not write about big topics without basic research.

The 2005 Judge Jones decision in Pennsylvania, to which Breakenridge devotes much of his column, has not crimped the worldwide growth of interest in intelligent design. That is no surprise. A judge is not a scientist, and Jones cannot plug gaping holes in Darwin’s theory of evolution. Evolution is — contrary to its (largely) publicly funded zealots — in deep trouble, for a number of reasons.

The history of life has not been the long, slow “survival of the fittest” transition that classical evolution theory requires. Life got started on Earth soon after the planet cooled. All the basic divisions of animal life took shape rather suddenly in the Cambrian seas, about 550 million years ago. Later, there was, for example, the Big Bang of flowers and the Big Bang of birds, where many life forms appeared quite suddenly. Modern human consciousness is one of these leaps, judging from the superb cave paintings from recent millenniums. The creationists whom Breakenridge derides may be wrong on their dates, but not on much else.

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Creative writhing
by Kyle Smith
New York Post, page 56
April 17, 2008

IS intelligent design a legitimate topic for discussion on the science faculties, or merely a hidden pocket to sneak creationism into the classroom? Ben Stein — best known as the comic actor who played Ferris Bueller’s teacher, but also a lawyer, author and economics columnist — pushes the former view in the frequently witty documentary “Expelled.” It puts a conservative twist on Michael Moore-ism, with campy stock footage, deadpan humor, mocking musical cues and less-than-ingenuous  questions.

All of this sweetens a high-level debate for the general audience.

Unlike Moore, Stein doesn’t resort to (many) cheap shots. He gives the opposition — stoutly represented by “The God Delusion” author Richard Dawkins — ample opportunity to make its case. In getting Dawkins to concede that there might be some intelligent source to life, Stein scores big.

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An intelligent discussion about life
by Bruce Chapman (Special to The Times)
Seattle Times, page B9
April 17, 2008

EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed” is a trenchant new film by actor/economist Ben Stein, the man first made famous in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” He’s now tackling with humorous dudgeon the classic example of ideological science, Darwinian evolution. Stein shows Darwinists insistently misrepresenting the scientific case against their theory. Where facts and reason might fail to persuade, personal attacks are employed, sometimes even by organizations supposedly committed to civil discourse.

When I was taught Darwin’s theory in college more than four decades ago, it was represented as unassailable. But I also was taught in those days to respect academic freedom, which is a good standard to apply in any field. In the 1990s, before intelligent design was added to the ideas studied at Discovery Institute, I learned about an assault on the academic freedom of Dean Kenyon, a biologist and author at San Francisco State University who had come to view Darwin’s theory as flawed. At first, the effort to restrain him from teaching seemed like just another skirmish over political correctness.

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