Well, what little respect I had left for Ben Stein is rapidly evaporating. Apparently it’s not good enough for him to claim that “Darwinism” leads to genocide in Expelled, now he’s running the interview circuit making statements like this:
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.
or this:
Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.
Now, let’s leave aside all of the lives saved by medicine, engineering, and other applied sciences for a moment.
And let’s ignore the fact that Stein said this on an interview with the Trinity Broadcasting Network. On television. About a movie. Both products of science. (I wonder if he ever sees doctors, or takes medication.)
And let’s table the fact that he seems to think (or finds it convenient to claim) that evolutionary biology and Social Darwinism are the same thing.
And let’s not even bring up the fact that the Holocaust was rooted in centuries of anti-Semitism, and the most scientific thing about it was the means of execution. Or that even the ADL is upset that the film “misappropriates the Holocaust,” pointing out that “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.”
And God forbid that we mention all the people killed in His name.
No, let’s not mention any of that. Let’s focus on one specific item:
In internet culture, there’s a concept called Godwin’s Law. It was an observation that, as long discussions continue over time, eventually someone will compare the other side to Nazis. A tradition has developed that once this happens, the discussion is over because no reasonable debate can be had when one side thinks the other is just plain evil. Generally, whoever makes the comparison is considered to have forfeited the argument, because they couldn’t think of anything else to support their side but stooping to the basest ad hominem attack imaginable.
At least he’s come out in the open and admitted that the movie isn’t just about suppressing the theory of evolution, but is explicitly anti-science.
![[Opera Logo]](http://www.hyperborea.org/journal/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/opera-ooo1.gif)
![[Water Cooler]](http://www.hyperborea.org/journal/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/water_cooler.png)
If you work in an office, chances are there’s a water cooler somewhere. And if there’s a water cooler, chances are there’s a stack of disposable paper cups (or possibly, even in this age, styrofoam). And chances are that most people will walk up, grab a paper cup, take it back to their desk and then throw it away.
