I used to think Ben Stein was completely fucking awesome.

Ben Stein is book smart when it comes to being a contestant on a game show, but as a thinker, he has never fared well. Remember, he was a speech writer for Nixon, accused Bob Woodward of making up Deep Throat, and is still a Nixon apologist to this day. His fail has been long documented - this film just finally brings it into the mainstream.

I think you're being too harsh on good ol' Ben. True, the EXPELLED movie is ridiculous -- and I have no idea why he takes that position. But he's a genuinely smart guy (as was his dad) and he's funny even when he doesn't try to be.

i like this quote from Michael Shermer:

"When Stein interviewed me and asked my opinion on the impact of Darwinism on culture, he seemed astonishingly ignorant of the many other ways that Darwinism has been used and abused by political and economic ideologues of all stripes.... Because Stein is a well-known economic conservative... I pointed out how the captains of industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries justified their beliefs in laissez faire capitalism through the social Darwinism of 'survival of the fittest corporations.' ... Scientific theorists cannot be held responsible for how their ideas are employed in the service of non-scientific agendas."

hello, ben? obviously social darwinism is idiotic and dangerous, but it didn't actually come from darwin.