Australian Media on EXPELLED
| April 30, 2008 | Posted by William Dembski under Expelled |
In reading an Australian news report on Ben Stein’s EXPELLED, I came across this paragraph (go here for full story):
Stein is [a man] with a mission: to prove US academics are being expelled from universities for daring to suggest creationism should be taught in science classes. And to prove that creationism — the belief that God created everything in six days, a creed accepted by 80 per cent of Americans — is the only riposte to Darwinism. Evolution, in Stein’s narrative, is linked to “communism, the Berlin Wall, the Holocaust and planned parenthood”.
Whereas the American media by now understands that ID is different from young-earth creationism, it appears that some of the foreign media are still clueless. I would encourage readers of this blog to contact the author of this ridiculous comment — John Harlow — and try to talk some sense into him.
38 Responses to Australian Media on EXPELLED
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KTR, be honest, it really doesn’t matter how many times Ben Stein says that Darwin is not responsible for Hitler does it? The fact he said it in proper English within the movie itself doesn’t matter either does it? It doesn’t matter how many times Berlinskli says it, nor Weikart?
You’ve got your obvious line; by all means use it again and again. The subtleties of the reasoning be damned.
“It’s interesting though that almost every discussion on ID turns its eye (irreducibly complex, since it’s a man-made eye in this case) to morality.”
Nothing exists in a vacuum and besides, it is actually the Darwinists that have been turning to questions of morality for decades already.
Reason, is it your contention that neo-Darwinian evolution carries no moral connotation? Is it your contention that Dawkins, “The God Delusion” has no base in neo-Darwinian evolution?
Reason, is it possible that there are two separate phenomena titled “ID”, a science, and a movement. Is it possible that the science is purely conserned with the scientific evidence, that it suggests that a new paradyme does a better job of explaining the evidence than the current neo-Darwinian one? Is it possible that the ID movement is quite conserned about the social and moral effects of the science of neo-Darwinism, and of the science of ID?
Here is what I may write:
Mr. Harlow,
Your article “Ferris Bueller’s way off as creationist damns Dawkins” has some factual misstatements, and given that people in the newspaper industry pride themselves on accurate reporting, I think you’ll be swift to acknowledge that you recently made some factually incorrect statements in that article.
You mentioned Ben Stein’s movie was about academics advocating the teaching of six-day creation. That is factually incorrect because the following individuals featured in the movie reject the notion of a literal six day, young earth creation:
Guillermo Gonzalez
Caroline Crocker
William Dembski
David Berlinski
Gerald Schroeder
Richard Sternberg
William Dembski
Stephen Meyer
Walter Bradley
I would hope someone with a desire for accuracy in reporting wouldn’t be so sloppy to fabricate facts just to make a few headlines. I hope a retraction from you will be forthcoming.
If you doubt my statements, perhaps you, as a reporter can ask them yourself and get the facts straight rather than pulling them out of the air (or some place more vulgar).
Salvador Cordova
G’day scordova,
2 points: Firstly I start off with, “Maaaate”; Secondly, I’d probably not be too worried if he never retracts his number of errors.
It can’t hurt sending it but, as we are both well aware from many years of this type of stuff, it is virtually impossible to get a gracious and truthful response from someone such as he.
I would add in so many words …
“creationism is not related to any of the tenants of IDT and the names above constitute virtually ALL of the participants in the film. The film was about professionals in various different fields being disciplined, ostracized and loosing their jobs because they support IDT not six day creationism or creationism of any kind. An infinite universe where matter is neither created nor destroyed is compatible with IDT.
Well, all of us can now e-mail him ourselves since mentok was so kind to provide his e-mail to us.
We can then invite him here to UD to be set straight.
The one person who might actually hold sway might be a fellow journalist like Denyse O’leary…
What are the odds that some of these ridiculous, demeaning articles are orchestrated from NCSE?