Do you Believe in Magic?

It is no surprise that Ben Stein, a former speech writer for Richard Nixon, is willing to make patently false statements in order to attempt to win an argument. Stein was able to state, with a straight face, that the famous "Deep Throat" who gave inside information that led to the revelations of the gross misconduct of the Nixon Administration, was in fact a "fabrication of Bob Woodward". Of course Ben Stein has only one expression, so his ability to lie easily should come as no surprise. The Nixon insider whose conscience led him to choose his country over his political loyalties was later revealed to be a very real person, much to Stein's embarrassment.

Ben Stein continued, unabashed, following the motto of Lucy Van Pelt whom he resembles in more than one way..."If you can't be right...Be Wrong at the top of your Voice!"

With that in mind, Stein has decided to shill for Creationism and the Intelligent Design advocates, and he has done very well financially as a result. Does he believe that stuff? I doubt it very much...It's just another good gig for Stein in his role as a lobbyist for the Right Wing Christian movement, an oddity in and of itself since Ben Stein is a Jew.

Stein is an accomplished writer of propaganda and is very good at making things seem like something other than they are by presenting opinion and hyperbole as fact. After seeing the financial success of Michael Moore's movies, he came up with the idea of making a "documentary" attacking Darwinism, which he calls a brilliant theory with huge flaws. Just so you know, Darwinism is not a theory, it is a label given to people who understand the scientific framework of Darwin's theory, "On the Origin of Species" by those who do not understand a damned thing.

Stein equates Darwinism with eugenics and Nazism in a tortured ruse of blather: "Darwinism was very popular with Hitler's Nazi party, who explicitly said life is about the survival of the fittest. [That] led to horrible consequences." (Newsweek interview April 14, 2008)

Hitler also claimed to be a devout Christian and follower of Jesus Christ. Stein censored that information from his movie, which although he claims it is a "documentary" is nothing of the sort. It is simply another propaganda piece that censors factual information and presents wishful thinking and exaggerated claims in its place. By Stein's reasoning, Christianity would be evil.

Ben Stein's movie, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" will be released on April 18, 2008. Several of the people interviewed have already come forward and claimed to have been misquoted, after seeing screenings of the movie. Several scientists who are attacked in Stein's movie have been forcibly ejected from screenings even though they had tickets.

The premise of the movie is that the Scientific and academic communities refuse to allow creationists and ID'ers to be heard because they want to suppress a valid scientific theory. This has been debunked by every single court case and every single peer review panel that has ever considered either one. Academians who present any of the forms of creationism as science are not dismissed because of their religious beliefs...They are dismissed because they are simply lousy scientists and cannot reason fact from fiction nor evidence from belief.

The absurdity that Ben Stein is trying to make a case for is no more valid than trying to make people believe that Presbyterianism, for instance, is a science just like Mathematics. Science and Belief are simply two different things. "Science" is how we know that magic is an illusion...an obvious conclusion unreachable through any system of "Belief".

All Magicians know that there is no such thing as "Magic"...Stein wants to present magic as a valid science and is willing to lie in order to create this illusion. Just remember...Magicians don't really saw people in half. If you fall for the illusion and the "Belief" that it can be done, somebody will get hurt.

Peace,

Steve