On Friday, April 25th, my friend Jamie and I crowded into a pew of OPU's chapel to hear "Ben Stein on Life," a lecture sponsored by OPU's business school. There was a large crowd; the whole chapel was filled and another hall, downstairs, was opened up for overflow seating. A large portion of the crowd were middle-aged community members. Not many students were in attendance.The university president introduced Stein as a weekly commenter on Fox New, "which as we all know, is fair and balanced." He also said, of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, that Stein was known for being provocative and that he may have outdone himself with his latest film.
During the lecture, Stein asked how many people in the audience had seen his film. I didn't get a chance to look behind me, but of the people in front of me, not many had seen it. He explained that he was not at OPU to endorse the film or on behalf of the Expelled crew. It wasn't discussed again, until the question and answer session. Stein said that the point of the lecture, the main lesson, was that our country will not be okay until "God's work is our work."
The first question of the question and answer session was "how can you say with a straight face that Darwinism lead to eugenics?" Stein responded with "I can say it with a very straight face," that the evidence is clear. He went on to say that none of the Darwinists he interviewed for Expelled could provide him with a single example of macroevolution and that while he doesn't see how you could prove intelligent design, he believes that there is a conspiracy by Darwinists to keep it from ever being taken seriously.
There was another question about the film, but Stein managed to avoid really answering it and said that he could offer more answers at the reception. I thought about going to the reception for only a few minutes because J's mom was in town and I really didn't want to hold them up for dinner, but when I tried to get in, they requested that I check my backpack and that was a deal breaker. I don't go anywhere without my backpack...it's got my wallet, keys, passport, water, books...I'm a freaking student at a university.
So, that's where the story ends. Not that dramatic, but Stein didn't get away without having to answer a few questions. And I guess there were pamphlets handed out after the lecture about Darwin/Nazis/ID/Stein/Expelled trying to pump some reason into the lecture-goers heads, just in case they were lacking any.
2 comments:
I don't know how much Stein has to do...directly...with the film, or whether he's simply a figurehead. That's bugged me, because people (bloggers, the news) are targeting him instead of the producers of the film. For all we know, Stein was just reading placards set in front of him.
Bah. My distain lies with the filmmakers, and not necessarily Ben, although the fact that he endorses such drivel is bad enough.
Well, if I'm correct, he did co-write the movie...he's listed as a writer on the website.
Seeing him in person helped me feel a little bit less angry at him...but I still think he's a jerk.
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