Inside Higher Ed reports on PZ/Expelled conference
- From: Glend <interelectromagnetic@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:35:36 -0700 (PDT)
"A tightly managed conference call with Ben Stein and producers of the
upcoming documentary "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" became the
scene of yet another clash between proponents of intelligent design
and defenders of evolutionary theory. Fresh from a botched attempt to
crash a screening of the movie at the Mall of America last week, PZ
Myers, a biologist at the University of Minnesota at Morris, had more
success on Friday when he interrupted the call midway through a
discussion of whether Darwinism inspired the Holocaust. Soon after one
of the producers described ignoring Darwin's influence on Hitler a
"special form of Holocaust denial," Myers offered some thoughts of his
own (one participant in the call muttered, "You are a very
persistent"). "The idea that Nazism is derived from evolutionary
theory is pretty bogus," he said. "Have you heard of a pogrom? Those
have been going on for centuries.... You're trivializing the whole
thing to blame Darwin." After one of the call's organizers politely
asked Myers to "do the honorable thing" and stay silent, the professor
invited media to contact him for any clarifications about the
producers' "policy of lies." (His latest blog post mocks Stein's views
by explaining why Newton's theory of gravity is to blame for all
force- and mass-related deaths.) Given that Stein's new movie and
campaign have him attacking higher education and pushing views that
are widely seen as absurd by scientists and historians alike, he might
not seem an obvious choice to speak at a major gathering of university
leaders. But he is one of the featured speakers on the program of this
summer's annual meeting of the National Association of College and
University Business Officers. A spokeswoman for the group said
officials there were unaware of his latest campaign and movie when
they invited him to appear. "
But why did they invite him at all? Just because he's seen on TV?
He's a writer of some sort, and an actor of dubious quality, while his
recent track record in economics is not encouraging.
Anyhow, above is the entire report on that encounter, however more
stories are reported on in the same article here:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/03/31/qt
Actually, the more I hear about "Expelled," the more I think that
history might be more abused by that movie than science is. And there
is little question that Stein is something of a Holocaust apologist,
since he states quite blatantly that Hitler was right if life
originated randomly (and no, even abiogenesis isn't total randomness,
but Stein equates the two), here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4609561480192587449
Perhaps we'd really do better by now to attack "Expelled" for it's
appalling lack of morality, excusing of the Holocaust, and its
unwarranted historical revisionism, than even its attacks on science.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Prev by Date: Re: Problem for physicalist evolutionists
- Next by Date: Re: Inside Higher Ed reports on PZ/Expelled conference
- Previous by thread: Do creationists believe in black holes?
- Next by thread: Re: Inside Higher Ed reports on PZ/Expelled conference
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
