Monday, April 7, 2008 at 12:12am
Ben Stein fights for scientific freedom
Actor and comedian Ben Stein, whose documentary film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" opens April 18, says he's fighting for academic freedom against an establishment that teaches Darwinism as fact. Intelligent Design (ID), which says some aspects of nature are so complex they show design by a higher intelligence, deserves a place at the academic table, he said.
"I think I'm engaged in a struggle that's very much uphill in which the establishment is very much against me," he said in a recent telephone conference call. "But I'm a rebel to my core ... and happy to be in an uphill struggle, as long as the cause is right," Baptist Press reported Friday.
Stein, with his signature dry wit, interviews scientists, philosophers and doctors who believe in evolution and those who believe in ID. In case after case, Stein tells of ID supporters who lost their jobs or couldn't get tenure for supporting ID.
Christian conservative leaders support the film. It was shown at the recent National Religious Broadcasters meeting and it is scheduled to be the topic of an upcoming Focus on the Family broadcast.
"The case we're making," associate producer Mark Mathis said, "is that there needs to be freedom in science, that we have highly qualified scientists who are being persecuted for unscientific reasons ... the persecution of scientists needs to stop."
"I think I'm engaged in a struggle that's very much uphill in which the establishment is very much against me," he said in a recent telephone conference call. "But I'm a rebel to my core ... and happy to be in an uphill struggle, as long as the cause is right," Baptist Press reported Friday.
Stein, with his signature dry wit, interviews scientists, philosophers and doctors who believe in evolution and those who believe in ID. In case after case, Stein tells of ID supporters who lost their jobs or couldn't get tenure for supporting ID.
Christian conservative leaders support the film. It was shown at the recent National Religious Broadcasters meeting and it is scheduled to be the topic of an upcoming Focus on the Family broadcast.
"The case we're making," associate producer Mark Mathis said, "is that there needs to be freedom in science, that we have highly qualified scientists who are being persecuted for unscientific reasons ... the persecution of scientists needs to stop."