My first introduction to Ben Stein was Ferris Bueller’s Day Off… monotone snoozer of a teacher for the prankester hero Ferris Bueller. My next revival of this character was a call to action for stoners to get the red out with Clear Eyes (Wow) and then as a smarter than thou game show host where you can win his money (I still couldn’t understand how he made the money in the first place *it was loaned*).
What I didn’t know about this Stein, I wouldn’t have known if I wasn’t pissed off about his latest movie, Expelled and furthered by his own personal conviction of its theory of Intelligent Design. Quoted during an interview on the Trinity Broadcasting System, regarding his latest movie:
Stein: “When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [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.”
Stein: “…Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.”
Science leads to killing people? Science? The methods and tools that have brought us inventions such as the light bulb, the telephone, film, the internet, automobiles, and the printing press – all items Ben has utilized in his existence. This guy has lost it and I’ve now completely wrote him off as an intelligent character. I should have know, an academic economist whom was once Nixon’s speech writer and now adamantly defends him, has no appreciation for the methods that have created modern progress.
Science is a repeatable method for discovery which is measurable practice which seeks to understand the nature life and justification for that reality. This practice is rooted in the development of human society from farming to nutrition, civil services such as plumbing, medicine, and technology such as the internet.