Another guy's letter to Ben Stein

After my brother sent an email to Ben Stein and got a short reply, I decided to see if I could illicit a more thorough response, by being a little nicer. Here's my email to Mr. Stein (I added the link to the interview I am talking about, so you can see it for yourself and know that I am not taking anything out of context):

Mr Stein,

I am perplexed about the statements you recently made on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. You stated: "we don't want people to be fired if they say the planets stay in their orbits maybe because of something other than Darwinism. And we don't think Darwinism explains how the planets stay in their orbits.." and "[Darwin's] followers claim it explains everything including astronomy…". This is absolutely astonishing. I am a physicist working in the field of compound semiconductors, and in my college days I have taken more than one astronomy/astrophysics course, and I assure you that Darwin's theory of evolution is not taught to have anything to do with the orbital motion of planets. I am wondering from where you are receiving this information from, as I have never before heard anyone say any such thing, either in the field of astronomy or as a criticism of it. I believe that you may be speaking outside your field of expertise and have been severely misinformed.

Now, the real problem that I have with your comments are not that they are blatantly false, it's that you seem to be attempting to paint the entire field of science as a closed, dogmatic discipline that stifles any new ideas. It's become obvious that your fight is not just with "Darwinists" in the field of evolutionary Biology (a field that I have little experience in and therefor will not critique) but with science as a whole. This is very irresponsible, in my opinion. I am in a field where the United States is falling behind countries that have surpassed us in science and mathematical education. By demonizing science you are helping to ensure that we fall further behind the rest of the world in developing a scientifically skilled work force. If we are to maintain or expand on our country's current level of prosperity, we must encourage our youth to become more involved in science and mathematics, and we must have stringent standards in our education to ensure that they are truly getting the most current scientific understandings. You must be careful about who you are getting your information from because not only do you look very silly when you make ridiculous false statements on national television, but you are doing harm to those who don't yet have a formal science education, and may believe you. I apologize for the length of this email, but hope you have taken the time to read it, and feel free to reply. Thank you,

Here is Ben's first reply:

and I assure you that Darwin's theory of evolution is not taught to have anything to do with the orbital motion of planets. I am wondering from where you are receiving this information from, as I have never before heard anyone say any such thing, either in the field of astronomy or as a criticism of it. I believe that you may be speaking outside your field of expertise and have been severely misinformed.

Thank you for your letter. I agree it sounds amazing. But if you are kind enough to see our movie, "EXPELLED", you will see evidence of ASTRONOMERS who say they have been fired for saying darwinism had nothing to do with astronomy. i agree it sounds unbelievable.

And his second a couple minutes later:

Now, the real problem that I have with your comments are not that they are blatantly false,

In that case, after my polite beginning, i will just say good-bye.

Ben seems to be a little touchy, eh? And it's pretty obvious he didn't read the rest of my email. I did send him a reply to the first message:

When something sounds unbelievable, you must stringently research it. I'm afraid that you are being lied to. I've been in the field of physics for over 10 years, either taking classes, teaching or working, and have never heard anyone ever talk about "Darwinism" explaining the orbit of planets. This is basic physics. A planets orbit is determined by the gravity field in which it moves. There isn't a physicist in the world who would disagree with that. Physics is based upon mathematics, and the orbit of planets have been properly explained hundreds of years before Darwin was even born. You must have evidence for this claim, beyond the word of these astronomers?

I'll let you know if he replies, which I'm sure he won't. I have deeply offended him, after all. Again, if anyone else wants to send email to Ben Stein, send it here: benstein99@aol.com
Let us know if he answers back!

My email to Ben Stein

So, I sent this email yesterday:

Mr Stein,

I was deeply disappointed to read in your recent interview with
Christianity Today that you are quoted as saying: "Anyway, I couldn't
give a [profanity] whether a person calls himself a scientist. It
doesn't earn any extra respect from me, because it's not as if science
has covered itself with glory, morally, in my time. Scientists were
the people in Germany telling Hitler that it was a good idea to kill
all the Jews. Scientists were telling Stalin it was a good idea to
wipe out the middle-class peasants. Scientists were telling Mao
Tse-Tung it was fine to kill 50 million people in order to further the
revolution."

As a scientist working hard to find and develop new antibiotic and
anticancer drugs for the betterment of mankind, I was deeply offended
by your statements. I don't understand where you are getting such
information, and what leads you to believe it, but surely you can
understand that thoughout history there are people in positions of
power who want to kill and destroy, and there are other people,
whether scientists, clergy, intelligence experts, political advisors -
or speechwriters - who are only too willing to tell them what they
want to hear to justify their evil. To blame science for the Holocaust
or any other horrific evil in history is absurd and distressing.

I have not seen your film, but if this is the level of discourse it
contains, I don't think I'll bother.

And then left my contact information. Click the comments for his response.

More Classic Cinema

In this scene the Henry Fonda character has been replaced by a talking horse/pig/cow hybrid:


Yes, I really am that bad at drawing...

More Ben Stein

Here's an excerpt from an interview Mr. Stein did with Christianity Today:

Anyway, I couldn't give a [profanity] whether a person calls himself a scientist. It doesn't earn any extra respect from me, because it's not as if science has covered itself with glory, morally, in my time. Scientists were the people in Germany telling Hitler that it was a good idea to kill all the Jews. Scientists were telling Stalin it was a good idea to wipe out the middle-class peasants. Scientists were telling Mao Tse-Tung it was fine to kill 50 million people in order to further the revolution.

Damn, he's on to us! Remind me to bring this up in the next Atheist Scientists for Destroying All Humans (ASDAH) conference.

Classics In One Frame

As I said a couple posts ago, I'm bored. In honor of this, I have summed up a classic movie in one picture:

My Imaginary Conversation with God

All of these religious people, including our president, claim that they speak to God. So, I decided to give God a call and chat him up. Here is the conversation we had:

Kevin: Hey God, how are you?
God: What the hell do you want?
Kevin: I just have a question for you, sir. Why do you let evil happen in the world?
God: Because I hate you.
Kevin: You hate mankind?
God: No, I hate you personally.
Kevin: You let awful things happen because you hate me personally?
God: Yup, that about sums it up.
Kevin: So, infanticide, genocide, homicide, pesticide, all the 'cides in the world are because of me?
God: Are you fucking deaf? That's what I said.
Kevin: So, the universe really is centered around me...
God: No, it's centered around my hatred of you.
Kevin: Same thing. So, tell me something, if you hate me so much, why do you let me continue to be?
God: Yeah, I've been meaning to smite you, but you kind of make me laugh at times. I think I'm getting sick of you though, since you haven't come up with any clever one-liners lately. Maybe it is time to get rid of you.
Kevin: I tried to start a suicide club once, but interest died out.
God: LOL! That's comedy gold right there! That's why I love ya kid! But I still hate you enough to let an earthquake destroy an orphanage in Thailand next week.
Kevin: Eh, what can ya do?
God: Damn right. Later, chump!

Damn I'm Bored

I did nothing today. Nothing at all. It was boring as hell. All day I was like, "I'm gonna do something today, because I'm fucking bored." I had nothing to do, though. What the hell? I need better hobbies, so that I at least feel like I'm accomplishing something on my weekends. Well, I guess I had an excuse, since I'm just getting over my cold. I am feeling much better, now. And I have short hair, so that's something.

A cooler, sleeker Kevin

I went and shaved off all my hair today. It was just getting way to long and the weather is beginning to get rather hot down here. So, after shaving off all of that hair, I felt it was a complete waste to just throw it out and I decided I should do something with the leftover clippings. I gathered all of them together and glued them to an ant. Now I have the hairiest ant in the world! What is the point of that, you may ask... Well, now I am going to take my ant to the fair where he will win the prize for greatest thing on the face of the Earth and will become famous world wide. I will not take credit for the ant's success, however. I will leave it all for my insect friend and be happy that he has made a better life for himself. Short hair in the summer months is reward enough for me.

My dating dilema

So, I don't date a lot. I realize that people have to go out and date in order to find the "right" person or whatever, but it just doesn't work for me. I think the problem is that crazy people are attracted to me. Whenever I do date, the lady always turns out to be fucking nuts (or married, but that's another story), so it completely turns me off from dating for long periods of time. Then I'll get bored/lonely/spazzy and date again. Guess what? That lady turns out to be nuts, too! Yay for crazy people! And I'm talking about legitimately crazy here. As in, having several prescriptions of anti-psychotics and multiple trips to the loony-bin crazy. Now, there isn't anything wrong with that if the person has their life together, but I don't get those. I get 'em while they're still full of the crazy juice. I'm gonna end up turned into a human skin dress if this keeps up. But, anyways, the thought of being single and in my 30s doesn't scare me at all anymore. That's all I got for y'all tonight. I'm gonna pass out and hope I don't choke to death on the massive amounts of snot coming out of my face. Colds suck.

Hoffs Destroy Kings & Queens

The Hoff's continued their undefeated march to the top of the Mid-Hudson Kickball League standings with a crushing 8-2 victory over the Kings & Queens in the season opener. Spawned on by 3 runs in the 1st and 3 more in the 2nd, the Hoff's ran out to a 6-0 lead and never looked back in an 8 - 2 victory. Look out next week as The Hoff's battle the 0 - 1 Rockstars in a classic kickball battle to go for 2 in a row.