Monday, May 05, 2008

Stein is proud to be a prat.


In chatting with the religious media, Ben Stein was eager to mock those that disagree with his ill considered film, and science in general. Not even a smart or sound attack either, as much as he would like to claim to be a wit.

Bad Astronomer:
...
Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. [PZ] 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.
Yes, Ben Stein went there. He equates PZ with Nazis who gassed Jews by the hundreds of thousands.

...

And then he turns around and talks about "God’s love". What an evil hypocrite.
Crooks and Liars (with some video from Stein's film, Expelled)shows a broader quote, showing how he digs in even deeper.

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Stein: 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.
I vaguely recall the point, not too long ago, when Stein was considered something of a mainstream figure at the intersection of politics and entertainment. He’d show up on Fox News, and then make a cameo on “Married with Children.” He seemed quirky, conservative, and harmless.

And now he’s going on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, telling a crazed televangelist that science kills, and that modern biology led to the Nazi Holocaust. It’s breathtaking.
You may know Godwin's Law, dealing with the use of Nazis and Hitler in an argument. Suffice to say it does not speak well, in many cases, as so many try to use it to attack another.

This film of Stein's is a huge old big screen trip up of Godwin's Law. It is enough so that it has peeved off ADL (the Anti-Defamation League).

RichardDawkins.net:

New York, NY, April 29, 2008 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today issued the following statement regarding the controversial film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

The film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed misappropriates the Holocaust and its imagery as a part of its political effort to discredit the scientific community which rejects so-called intelligent design theory.

Hitler did not need Darwin to devise his heinous plan to exterminate the Jewish people and Darwin and evolutionary theory cannot explain Hitler's genocidal madness.

...

Stein tried to use his Jewish ancestry to protect the creationist attack on evolutionary theory. But it seems to have backfired by drawing out the ADL to react negatively to his little film.

Here is a look at the overuse of Hitler, by The Daily Show.

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