Quote:
Originally Posted by MarchHare
Ben Stein isn't just a random Hollywood star; prior to becoming an actor/game show host, he was a lawyer and college professor. He was valedictorian when he graduated from Yale's law school (where, coincidentally, he was a classmate of Bill and Hillary Clinton), and he also has political experience, having served on the White House staff of presidents Nixon and Ford...
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Sure, but Stein is presenting himself as a spokesperson for a field of study in which he is not professionally trained. He may be—and probably is—a brilliant man, but this alone does not qualify him to determine the validity of the scientific claims being made by ID proponants. This is quite obvious from the long trailer for the movie, in which he profiles Richard von Sternberg, and suggests that he is being persecuted for his beliefs in intelligent design. This is typical of IDists, and it REALLY skirts the issue: von Sternberg failed to follow appropriate protocol of the peer review process, and ramrodded a poorly researched, and scientifically unsubstantiated paper into publication. No mention of this in any of the trailers, and I seriously doubt it ever comes up in the movie.