After hundreds of Darwinists protested, the University of Vermont withdrew an invitation they had made for Ben Stein to speak at their commencement, proving once again that Darwinists want no part of a debate between religious Darwinism, as taught in most universities, and actual scientific inquiry, as represented by Intelligent Design.
Mr Stein called the University administration's decision "chickens**t." Good for him.
At issue is not whether the competing theories of Intelligent Design or Evolution are correct. At issue is the core principal of the freedom of academic inquiry. Maybe ID is a flawed theory. If that is so, then it should be disproved in the laboratory and in the arena of ideas, not in school administrations.
It's funny that the same people who said for two generations that controversy belongs in the university - that all manner of radicalism and obscenity and subversion is and will always be the norm on college campuses - are now the ones who are shying away from a controversial topic. Maybe because THIS controversy doesn't promote their political agenda?
If evolution and its proponents can get away with it, they will stifle debate on the issue and suppress anyone in the scientific community who disagrees with them. To a neutral observer, this might belie a lack of confidence that their claims can stand up to the light of day, and as long as institutions of "higher learning" are ducking the debate, I'll continue to think that there might well be something to this intelligent design theory, while administrations like the one at the University of Vermont look more and more like petulant children plugging their ears to keep from hearing something unpleasant.
Ben Stein described the brouhaha over his selection as commencement speaker at the University of Vermont as "laughable" on Tuesday called the whole episode “pathetic.”
In a phone call to the Free Press on Tuesday, Stein said that describing his views as “antithetical to scientific inquiry” was “a wildly unfair characterization.” He said he was by no means “anti-science,” as some of his critics have described him.
“I am far more pro-science than the Darwinists,” Stein said later in an e-mail. “I want all scientific inquiry to happen — not just what the ruling clique calls science.”
Stein’s comments came a day after UVM President Dan Fogel announced that Stein, whom Fogel had invited to address UVM’s commencement in May, would not be coming after all. Fogel said that his selection of Stein generated an intense protest, that he received hundreds of angry e-mails over the weekend, and that after he shared these “profound concerns” with Stein, Stein “immediately and most graciously declined our commencement invitation.”
Asked the nature of those “concerns” at a news conference Monday, Fogel said they pertained to views of science perceived by many to be “affronts to the basic tenets of the academy.”
“If he said this,” Stein wrote, “he is responding to complaints about an imaginary Ben Stein.”
Fogel said he had invited Stein — a comedian, lawyer, commentator and financial columnist — to speak about the economy, as Stein had done at another speech at UVM last spring. Fogel said he had been “vaguely aware” of the Stein’s opinions on other subjects.
“Mr. Stein has also expressed opinions on subjects unrelated to economics, most notably with respect to evolutionary theory, intelligent design, and the role of science in the Holocaust,” Fogel said in a statement to the UVM community Monday. “Those views are highly controversial, to say the least.”
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