Monday, February 18, 2008

Ben Stein's Decline (cont.)   [John Derbyshire]

The Ben Stein creationist movie comes out in April, I learn. There have been some previews, and some interesting stories arising therefrom. This  v–e–r–y  interesting one from biologist P.Z. Myers, for example. The moral of Myers' story is: If creationists invite you to be interviewed for one of their movies, ask for a LOT of money. They have plenty.

There have even been one or two (unauthorized) reviews: here's one from Colorado Confidential.

The Myers column points up a thing I've said before here, and repeated as politely as I could in panel discussions with creationists: they're not just wrong, they're shifty. In my opinion, they wandered off the straight and narrow when they started pushing this "intelligent design" stuff. My advice to them — frequently offered but, for reasons that are baffling to me, never taken up — is to drop the i-d b-s and go back to good old Biblical creationism. At least that's an honest point of view founded in Scripture. I understand why the move to i-d was made: to try to get out from under current church-state jurisprudence (not all of which I agree with). However, the constant strain of keeping a straight face while insisting that theirs is not — no way! absolutely not!! — a religious campaign, and talking about the mysterious-but-definitely-not-supernatural "Designer," has corrupted them irredeemably.

02/18 01:46 PMShare