Ben Stein edition of Why do people laugh at creationists?

In this episode Ben Stein is taken to task over his inability to distinguish science from free speech. Stein claims that those who question evolution are discriminated against, whereas in reality this 'discrimination' is merely people getting held accountable for demonstrating their pathetic grasp of both the scientific method and scientific literature.

In simple parody terms it would be like a medic claiming that 'I don't believe in sterilizing medical instruments, and if you say otherwise you are discriminating against me, and censoring my free speech.'

The scientific literature is an open arena. Anyone who can sustain their claim with research and reason will get a fair hearing.

Creationists think the only reason they cannot compete in this arena is due to prejudice, when in reality it is merely the fact that they don't do ANY research, let alone anything worthy of being published.
rembarsays...

One point being brought up - that university professors have much more important things to teach than why creationism/ID is not science....well, yes, and no. Teachers and professors have more important things to teach, but I believe by this point we can no longer justify NOT covering this issue, even if in brief, because MOST PEOPLE IN AMERICA DON'T UNDERSTAND THAT CREATIONISM IS NOT SCIENCE. Yes, there is a shitload of real material to cover during classes, but what use is all that if students listen during lecture and then toss all that information out as they walk out the door because they think the idea that some bearded guy in the sky created all life on Earth by pointing his finger is scientifically feasible? We've turned up our noses at teaching against stupidity, and because of that we're now facing an epidemic of idiocy. We need to start taking a few minutes out of the first class of any intro bio course to lay the fucking beatdown on creationism, and then start the actual lecture.

siftbotsays...

Tags for this video have been changed from 'thunderf00t, creationism, intelligent design, evolution, darwin' to 'thunderf00t, creationism, intelligent design, evolution, darwin, expelled' - edited by kronosposeidon

gwiz665says...

Within the scientific community there is absolutely no controversy, obviously. But elsewhere, the controversy is being "created" by ignorant or malicious creationists, and therefore rembar is correct in that it is a wise choice to use some time to, well, blow ID out of the water.

Dr_Qsays...

It takes 5 minutes to explain than Creationism isn't a science but a propaganda tool for nutjobs and fundies. Then you can go back to teaching science.

Don't forget the "Science : it works, b!tches" poster.

Crosswordssays...

Is there a creationist scientific claim that hasn't been blown out of the water? Or rather one that can actually be disproved. I know the common tactic is to say, oh gee the rate of radioactive decay used to be much faster hence why radiometric dating is wrong. Okay so it can't be disproven everything was in fast forward until 10 thousand years ago, but there's no basis for suspecting that's the case in the first place. I can submit that 400k years ago the sun was a giant heat and light radiating tomato, but its properties miraculously changed into that of one based off the nuclear fusion of hydrogen.

The biggest problem I have with teaching creationism in science class is that its a waste of time. Were it possible I wish there was enough time to explore every facet of creationism in a science class, to be able to pick it apart and have a lovely class room discussion about how it does or doesn't stand up to scientific scrutiny. But from my experience there isn't even enough time to glaze over scientific claims that have a mountain of supporting evidence. As a kid I'm not sure we ever actually got through our whole text book. Hell it seemed half the time was spent relearning what we supposedly didn't learn the previous year. Imagine how bad it would be if time were taken out to discuss every half baked scientific theory?

I suppose the creationists argue evolution (or Darwinism as they apparently like to call it) is a half baked theory. To that all I can say is the Majority of the scientific community seems to think its not, based on the evidence supporting it that has accrued since its inception.

10882says...

What do you expect? The guy wrote speeches for Nixon, hes the ultimate bullshit artist.

There really needs to be an academic revolution in this country. There is no way we are going to keep up with China's explosive growth and economy in the future when we still have dumbshits trying to push creationism. These fucking waterheads NEED to be stifled, for the good and the growth of our country.

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