Posted on 02/09/2009 10:37:36 AM PST by GodGunsGuts
No Tolerance Allowed: Stein declines university speech after 'hundreds' of angry emails
by Christine Dao*
Comedian/economist/lawyer Ben Stein backed out of delivering a spring 2009 commencement speech because of complaints to the university about his views on evolution.
The University of Vermont’s president, Daniel Mark Fogel, was bombarded with angry messages, including one from British atheist and Darwin fanatic Richard Dawkins, after inviting Stein to deliver the university’s commencement speech. Stein had given a sold-out economics lecture at UVM on April 25, 2008, and it was for his economics expertise, not his views on evolution, that Fogel invited Stein back.
After Fogel shared “profound concerns” with him over the protest, Stein voluntarily withdrew from the May 17 appearance and declined the 7,500 (USD) honorarium that came with the invitation.
“I did not ask him to withdraw,” Fogel said at a news conference. “I wrote to Ben and, because his talk last spring was about the economy, I had always assumed that that would be the subject of his talk.”
“[L]et me be clear, I did not ask Ben Stein not to come,” he reiterated. “I had invited him and I was not going to retract the invitation. But I was not going to let him be blind-sided by the controversy…. I asked him to confirm that he would speak about the economy and it was at that point that he withdrew.”1
In a university press release, Fogel wrote:
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. Those views are highly controversial, to say the least. Following the announcement of Mr. Stein as Commencement speaker, profound concerns have been expressed to me by persons both internal and external to the University about his selection. Once I apprised Mr. Stein of these communications, he immediately and most graciously declined our Commencement invitation.2
Stein, who has spoken at Columbia, Yale, Stanford, and many other universities, told The Burlington Free Press that he initially didn’t want the UVM engagement but agreed to it, as well as an approximate 80 percent cut in his usual fee, because of mutual friends he and Fogel share. Stein called the whole episode “pathetic” and the university’s response “chicken sh**, and you can quote me on that.”
“I am far more pro-science than the Darwinists,” Stein told Free Press. “I want all scientific inquiry to happen—not just what the ruling clique calls science.”3
The Holocaust reference in the press release, Stein said, probably came from the 2008 documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed when he interviewed the curator of a former Nazi “hospital” called Hadamar, who had cited “Darwinism” as the reason behind the horrific killings that happened there.
“I like Dr. Fogel and feel sorry that he is caught in the meat grinder of political correctness. My heart goes out to him. He’s a great guy trying to do his best in difficult circumstances.”3
Fogel said he received hundreds of emails, but only a few came from people at UVM, a signature implication of evolutionists and their intolerance bullying their way into arenas where they are not concerned, invited, or involved.
References
UVM’s president responds to questions about commencement speaker Ben Stein. Straight from the Source. Posted on straightfromthesource.wordpress.com on February 2, 2009, accessed February 4, 2009.
Office of the President, Campus Communication. The University of Vermont press release, February 2, 2009. Available on straightfromthesource.wordpress.com
Johnson, T. Ben Stein responds to UVM flap. The Burlington Free Press. Posted on burlingtonfreepress.com on February 4, 2009, accessed February 4, 2009.
* Ms. Dao is Assistant Editor.
Hooray for the education people on this one. Our schools must be off limits to charlatans who profit by unscrupulously promoting absurd anti-science ignorance to young people seeking an education.
==Our schools must be off limits to charlatans who profit by unscrupulously promoting absurd anti-science ignorance to young people seeking an education.
I couldn’t agree more. I say it’s time to break the stranglehold the Temple of Darwinistic Materialism has on our universities. Indeed, we should start be dethroning its founder (aka Darwood), who was a med-school dropout turned amateur naturalist who presumed to rewrite the entire history of biology based an a few minor variations between finches!
WOW. Not even the pretense of: "Science class must be off limits to religion". At least you are honest enough to admit to the real agenda.
I heard terrorist Bill Ayres is due to speak at Millersville University in Lancaster County Pennsylvania in March.
I rank him as low as Stein.
Well, after all they do have consensus..................
Conservatism is based on Judeo-Christian morals and values, not atheistic intellectualism.
Some of the most brilliant people in the world have been the most morally bankrupt and the most deadly regimes this world has seen have been the no God allowed, atheistic ones of the 20th century.
Since when did stifling free thought and inquiry was a conservative position? Universities have truly become places where no intelligence is allowed.
Best news I've heard all day! Makes me wonder if there are any "marxists" or "Freudians" left.
I doubt there are any Freudian left. We just elected a Marxist.
My point is (I think) that the marxist they elected says he isn't one, nor does he know any.
it depends on what your definition of “Is” is.
Smile chuckle grin :) Good one.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2134004/posts?page=6#6
“bullying their way into arenas where they are not concerned, invited, or involved.”
Sounds like the M.O. of the Incompetent Design movement.
I.D. is not concerned with the scientific method.
I.D. is not invited to the “party” of science as they don’t actually bring anything of any value to the party, but just wish to hijack the venue for their own purposes.
And I.D. is not involved in science. They have not a single discovery, scientific theory, or application to their name.
God is the ultimate intelligent designer.
I fail to see how you can claim to believe in Him and insulting His design like that at the same time.
There’s just too big a disconnect there.
Sounds like what the evo/atheist crowd is doing in the public school system.
No, the disconnect is conflating the specific and idiotic claims of the I.D. movement with the idea that the universe itself was created by a omniscient entity.
Not all who believe that God created the universe believe in a “special” creation a few thousand years ago.
Not all who believe that God created the universe believe that I.D. is a scientific hypothesis, or that biological constructs are “irreducibly complex” and could not have formed by the mechanism that God usually uses to change living systems (evolution through natural selection of genetic variation) and as such God had and has to constantly tinker with his shoddy design.
I know why you would wish to conflate the two ideas, but in reality there is very little common ground.
For example both the Pope and I believe that God created the universe. Both the Pope and I believe that I.D. has nothing of value to contribute to the debate. Both the Pope and I believe that evolution is the means that God used and uses to change living systems. Neither the Pope nor I believe in the specific (and idiotic) claims of I.D..
That’s what liberals do, they can’t win in the arena of ideas so they shout down, sue or whatever it takes to “win” the debate.
Liberals suck.
That may be true but it doesn't change the fact that Darwin's Theory of Evolution is the foundation on which all scientific study of biology is based. Willful ignorance is not a conservative trait and there's absolutely nothing moral about deceitful charlatans who degrade conservatives by associating them with bogus anti-science values.
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