Stein to Darwin: “Why don’t you just live quietly”
In this interview, Ben Stein answers the following:
5. What would you like to say to Darwin?
“You are a wealthy man, you married a wealthy woman, why don’t you just live quietly out in the countryside and not torture us with your half-baked suppositions, which have caused so much misery?”
So, in essence, Stein wants Darwin to not have the same freedoms he is supposedly fighting for? Why don’t you just live quietly… Half-baked suppositions? Misery? Even if evolution was later proved to be incorrect, it’s always important to be aware of other theories. Sounds like he’s closer to that of a Nazi than those who he accuses. How dare he! (I don’t normally say “how dare” anyone, but he’s completely doing what he accuses “big science” of doing.)
I want to emphasize, Darwin was not like the crazed neo-Darwinists of today. Darwin believed in the freedom of inquiry. He encouraged there to be further study and debate. He said that in writing before he died.
Neo-Darwinists? Of course he wasn’t like the ones who respect him today (that doesn’t even make sense); things are different, he could have even been killed if he was more vocal. He wanted more debate to continue because he was already considered heretical for not automatically accepting creationism on faith. To debate evolution to this day with old theories of creationism is nothing more than a manufactroversy. There’s no use to keep rehashing old failed ideas. In any case, “big science” is the one who has been persecuted by religion for centuries. Give science a chance.
Neo-Darwinists ask us to believe in things not seen. We’re not supposed to have an established religion in America, but we do, and it’s called Darwinism.
How is “Darwinism” a religion? It’s not even an ideology but a collection of facts that have been tested and retested… and proven. There is no belief or faith involved. It’s only unseen because you’re not looking. Creationism involves religious belief of some type. Evolution just explains how and why we came to where we are.
There is no established religion in America, except for general theism. Just ask any rational god-free person in America.
Make sure you also check out 6 Things Ben Stein Doesn’t Want You to Know (Scientific American). H/t toomanytribbles.
Expelled ~ Expelled ~ Expelled ~ Expelled ~ Expelled ~ Expelled
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I love that you keep putting the Expelled links at the bottom.
ben stein isnt as smart as he leads people to think. its funny…everything you quoted him saying about darwinism applies to christianity, not atheism. maybe ben should go live quietly in the woods somewhere
I believe in the theory of gravity, does that make me a gravitationalist?
I agree Stein is a moron and his twisting of the story obvious.
I also think that “Intelligent Design” is backed mostly by creationists trying to “beat scientists at their own game” by pulling the open inquiry card.
But the argument for Intelligent Design, minus its politically charged status at the moment, is all in all not an impossible theory, just an non-testable one, like the big bang.
Evolution is a fact in that we know it happens. But we don’t know how it works. Sure we have a good understanding of some of the basic workings of natural selection. But we don’t know how life began from nothing. We also don’t know how DNA or the ability to carry a modifiable genetic code came into existence as we have no clear link in archeology between non-DNA and DNA organisms.
The creation of life, however it happened, is still very much up for debate, although no doubt life itself does evolve.
The reason Darwin was more open to his theory being disproven back then was because he was a scientist and open to criticism. Most importantly though, there wasn’t a lot of evidence for it back then, just a few clues, that Darwin predicted would be discovered.
Stein doesn’t understand evolution, and promotes the idea that no progress has been made in the area. He doesn’t take into account all the evidence that science has put forth in order to support evolution. Because he’s too lazy or too unwilling to look it up, he closes his eyes, plugs his hears, and pretends it doesn’t exist.