Ben Stein Holds Court

Ben Stein:
"based on the little I know"

And yet he expects that people take him seriously?

As the Bible says, "In the beginning God..." That's a declarative statement. It's not theory. God was there at the beginning and it was He that created all that is. This God of all creation isn't going to debate the fact that it was He who created the species with the pseudo-intelligensia. He knows. He was there. They only conjecture. And their conjectures are based on faulty and partial knowledge. "God is dead." - Darwin. "Darwin is dead." - God.

the bible also says god created man then woman...a couple of paragraphs later it goes on to say that god created man, THEN ANIMAL, then woman... which is it...and the real kicker...the bible also says that the world is only 10,000 years old...explain that one petee

Ned, it never turns out the way you think it will, does it? You drop a pebble into a pond, and instant tsunami. Although, from a distance, it's kind of interesting in an anthropological way.

GODISNOTREAL: The Bible also says "The fool says in his heart there is no God." It also says, "Answer not a fool according to his folly." Therefore, don't be holding your breath waiting for an answer.

NED...Ned! Don't bait those folks. How about the partial collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in the past week or so. Or, what about this? I read in the April issue of a popular science magazine that I can inject a little r-EPO under the skin and increase the number of red blood cells in my system. As a result, I can increase my racing times. Now, that's useful science! Also, aren't the Kyoto folks meeting this week? What new ideas do they have?

"I would say, based on the little I know, Darwinism explains microevolution within species quite well. As to its broader consequence and implications, I don’t think it explains individual species evolution at all well."

I would say, based on what I do know that Ben Stein needs to study a little bit more.

Jim:
"Don't bait those folks. How about the partial collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in the past week or so."

Funny you mention that. On another forum a conspirancy theorist said with a straight face that that was done with high tech, space based lasers to maintain the global warming hype, which in turn is a scheme of the New World Order for some reason.

Funniest thing I've read this week :P

Ben Stein, I guarantee you that you also have a lot of new friends, maybe even more than before and maybe even better friends than before.

Poor ben has lost his money and his mind. He can now go away, this is a silly stroy that has no base to stand on. To have faith is one thing, to go off the deep end and think that god made all of this what we call earth, well then....... i think any educated person would have to let Ben know please retire, go away and give it up. There is no god, it just people's fear of the unknonwn hense the bible, a big book most people couldn't read back in the day that told stories on how to live your life, in some what peace. Man there are some crazies out there.

The bible is contradictory and it is high time we drop it. It was created by man from oral stories passed down the generations. Not saying some of what is saying isnt true but something got garbled along the way. And today's bible was also a collection chosen by man of the existing biblical stories. So...since man is fallible is it not at least possible that the bible is messed up? And as to the evolutionary theory why couldn't god create man and the animals by guiding the evolutionary process? People you keep persisting to thinking in terms of black and white while the likely truth lies in the gray. Just think for yourselves. It is NOT A CRIME. Galileo once said (or something close to it), "I cannot be obliged to believe that the same God that endowed us with sense and intellect intended us to forgo their use". So think. I dont blame anybody for thinking. I blame people for blindly following.

Please let's move past this. Neither side is likely to convince the other. I'm a medical researcher and a creationist. Some of you either believe there is no God or that He would give us His book but allow it to be filled with errors, thus clouding His messsage. I believe God is smarter than I and that He would not give me his word shrouded in error. Ben is entitled to his view as the other side is to its. Just deal with it.

Good grief did you not understand my post Ron? God didn't make the bible. Man did. Certainly they tried to write down his word but over the course of history that has gotten mushed up. God isn't responsible for hand feeding you the information. He gave us free will. So you expect me to believe he himself wrote the bible single-handedly or forced man to write it down exactly as he said thus negating free will? Once again I dont blame people for thinking and coming up with an answer opposite to mine. It's great. It shows that people are willing to think. I do blame people for blindly following a certain path without thought. Personally I would be willing to drop this whole thing and let bygones be bygones but certain people on both sides of the issue are intent on forcing people to adhere to their views. That just isnt right. Which is why I am posting. Trying to get people to actually think about the issue rather than have a knee-jerk reaction about it.

Ron Bude: excellent comment, I couldn't agree more. By the way, I'm a professional programmer and an amateur physicist. I see no conflict between the Bible and the logic necessary to do my job: I use BOTH daily. A long time ago (when I was kid), I was told that the fundamental particles of matter were proton, neutron, and electron. This "fact" has been revised any number of times since then. Call it human weakness, but I am curious to know a few more details about creation, but it's not a particulary burning question. I'll wait and get the answers from The Author.

*** "Some of you either believe there is no God or that He would give us His book but allow it to be filled with errors, thus clouding His messsage. I believe God is smarter than I and that He would not give me his word shrouded in error."

The errors do not cloud God's message.

The errors of fact that are indeed in the Bible only cloud the message when the words are more important than their meaning. I believe God is smart enough to understand how it is possible to teach valuable lessons because those errors are there.

Faith in God and the meaning of what God is trying to teach us is infinitely more important than a blind myopic trust in the words of a book written by humans after hundreds of years of verbal history, translated by humans, re-translated humans, re-translated by humans again in some cases, and then iterpreted by humans. The meaning of God's messages is more important than the words in a book.

PQQAm - why don't you contact Ben about your fire-breathing dragon theory? I'm sure he'd love to hear all about it.

Also, the Bible is merely the starting point to begin understanding. It is not the end point or the totality of knowledge.

PQQAm's fire-breathing dragon theory is really not even a theory. It is merely an hypothesis, and an untestable one at that.

One can not either prove nor disprove the existance of God. It is an age old question that simply has no answer. The worship of the bible is another thing entirely. If you wish to place an old book on a pedistal and pray to it, go ahead, but please do not expect to be taken seriously.

Andy, I think it's more sand grain in the Pacific. But it's all the same anyway. Religion and science don't mix well together, kind of like oil and water. Some people can do it well, others hate the thought of it. The latter is becoming more prevalent, or at least it seems this way. Or, it's just people wanting to push their views onto other people, forcing them to see things the same way. Like wanting ID taught in school, and evolution to not be taught, or covered up by fancy words. My point is, ID is religion based and backed up. There has been no science to back it up that has withstood scientific scrutiny, by multiple scientists. Therefore, it is still religiosly based and needs to be thought of that way. So that means it should stay out of government, and public schools and any government run event, etc. Our Constitution says so. If you want your children to learn of it, be what you are supposed to be, a parent, and teach it to your children yourselves. Stop being lazy and expecting the government to teach it for you, as they're not allowed to teach it.