File under: "You can't make stuff like this up"

When you don't have the facts on your side, can't get published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, and have consistently failed to make a case for your hypothesis, what do you do? Well, if you're a real scientist, you might just finally pack it in, admit that you were probably wrong, and move on to another scientific question or to another hypothesis about the same question to investigate.

Not "intelligent design" creationists.

To them, it doesn't matter just how bad their arguments are, how untestable and incoherent their hypothesis is, or how obvious it is that they are simply rehashing a "God of the gaps" sort of view of science ("if science can't figure it out right away, God must have done it), they're like the Energizer Bunny. They just keep going and going and going and going. So what to do? Well, they could make a propaganda film (Expelled!) that once again rehashes revisionist history claiming that Darwinism was a direct path to Naziism and the Holocaust and then goes on to parrot other ideologically-inspired historical revisionism.

Check.

They could hand out bogus "awards" for "Liberty and Truth" from Phillip E. Johnson, one of the originators and driving forces behind ID creationism, and a fundamentalist Christian university.

Check.

They could even give an award for "Liberty and Truth" to the host of this execrable excuse for a "documentary," Ben Stein.

Check.

I'm telling you, you can't make stuff like this up. You know, given the penchant of the producers of Expelled! and Ben Stein for blaming Naziism and the Holocaust on "Darwinism," it's really hard not to point out that they would have done Josef Goebbels proud with Expelled!, particularly the parts where Stein visits Dachau and, if the trailer is any indication, Auschwitz.

What's good for the goose...

More like this

I see P.Z. Myers already has the video of Bill O'Reilly's interview with Ben Stein. But just in case you're at work and don't want to get caught watching such filth, I have taken the liberty of providing a transcript below. Read it and weep: O'REILLY: In the unresolved problems segment tonight,…
During the opening act of the propaganda film Expelled, Cornell historian of science Will Provine summed up intelligent design as "utterly boring." The same could be said of Expelled, a film steeped in the controversy over the brand of creationism known as intelligent design. An hour and a half…
...as a piece of propaganda. I noticed that the local "art house" theater was screening Expelled, so I decided to check it out. There weren't many people there. It started off very heavy-handed, a montage of archetypical scenes from the Communist and Nazi regimes, but the production values…
Chris and Matt have already explained at length the danger in PZ's unintentional promotion of Ben Stein's Expelled. What's also interesting to consider is the strategy employed in the 'super trailer', which utilizes many subtle techniques that have proven successful in the social marketing of…

These people are loonies, the only question is whether they are dangerous loonies?

By ian findlay (not verified) on 16 Feb 2008 #permalink

I think that, post-Dover, the IDiots have given up the pretence of sweet reason and gentle persuasion (and hide-the-religion), and are going all out with the gutter propaganda -- Big Lie, appeal to bigotry, the works.

Hopefully, that's their last desperate gasp, and will fizzle with anyone not already firmly in their camp. Recent media reviews have been encouraging -- and BTW you left out how they're now trying to orchestrate their press conferences.

"...and have consistently failed to make a case for your hypothesis."

What hypothesis would that be, Orac? A - perhaps the - defining feature of ID is that there IS NO HYPOTHESIS.

By George Smiley (not verified) on 16 Feb 2008 #permalink

What's with the claim that you can't make stuff like that up? They just did, so why are you saying it's impossible?

:-P

- JS

@George Smiley: ah, but remember, that's what you do if you're a real scientist, not a cdesign proponientist. Incidentally, but moderately related, I do think it is important to call out the IDiots on this fact when talking with/debating them. I don't know who here listened to this, but when PZ debated that Simmons fellow he directly addressed the fact that Simmons wasn't making any positive claims or providing any evidence for ID, and when he called him on this I think it really helped demonstrate that these people are horribly hypocritical and disingenuous.