The Observer, April 4, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 23
Outside the Circle
Another Ben Stein clash
A conference call between Ben Stein and the producers of Stein's upcoming documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed became the scene of another clash between supporters of evolutionary theory and intelligent design. The movie questions the hold Darwinism now has on science education.
After attempting to crash a screening of the film at the Mall of America last week, PZ Myers, a biologist at the University of Minnesota at Morris, successfully interrupted the conference call last week mid-way through a discussion of whether Darwinism inspired the Holocaust. After one of the producers described ignoring Darwin's influence on Hitler as a "special form of Holocaust denial," Myers offered his two cents.
"The idea that Nazism is derived from evolutionary theory is pretty bogus," he said. "Have you heard of a pogrom? Those have been going on for centuries...You're trivializing the whole thing to blame Darwin."
After the call's producers politely asked Myers to "do the honorable thing" and remain silent, the professor invited all media to contact him for clarification about the producers' "policy of lies."
Even though Stein's new film and campaign attack higher education while pushing views that are seen as absurd by scientists and historians alike, Stein was invited to speak at this summer's annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers. A spokeswoman for the group, however, commented that group officials were unaware of his latest campaign and movie when they invited him to appear.
Violence threat shuts exhibit
The San Francisco Art Institute recently shut down an exhibit and called off a planned discussion of the art after multiple threats of violence by animal rights groups. The exhibit, Don't Trust Me by Adel Abdessemed, shows multiple video clips of animals being bludgeoned to death. Last week, the art institute announced that the criticism of the exhibit has escalated to threats of violence.
President of the Institute, Chris Bratton, said in a statement that while institute officials "repudiate these threats," his "first concern" was for the safety of students, professors, and others at the institute so he had to shut down the show. "Though we've decided to take this action, SFAI stands behind the exhibition as an instance of a long-standing and serious commitment, on SFAI's part, to reflection on, and free and open discussion of, contemporary global art and culture. As an institution, we take seriously our responsibility to encourage and promote such dialogue."
One of the groups criticizing the exhibit is Defense of Animals, which has questioned the institute for acting as a host to the hateful art.
Double standard alleged
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is criticizing Colorado College for punishing several students who distributed a flyer mocking a very similar flyer already distributed by feminist students on campus. The feminist students' flyer is called The Monthly Rag and the flyer distributed in jest is called The Monthly Bag.
When the Bag appeared, with its authors identified as "the coalition of some dudes," college officials and administrators asked that those responsible for the flyer come forward. After being found guilty under the student code against violence, the boys were ordered to hold a campus forum, FIRE reported. FIRE contends the treatment of the boys to be unfair and inconsistent.
Greg Lukianoff said in a statement: "One flyer that mentions 'male castration' is not violence, but a flyer that makes fun of it by mentioning 'chainsaws' is prohibited? Both should be protected, but the double standard and lack of respect for freedom of speech in this case is simply staggering."
Richard F. Celeste, Colorado College's president, said via e-mail: "Colorado College values and fosters freedom of expression, and in discussions with students regarding The Monthly Bag, has encouraged further dialogue about freedom of speech issues on campus. The students involved in creating this publication were found to have violated the college community's standards, but they were not sanctioned or punished. Instead, they were urged to engage the college community in more inclusive dialogue, debate, and discussion on freedom of speech, and through a letter to the editor of the student newspaper and other actions, they are doing so."
