Free Thinkers as Thought Police

Free Thinkers have assumed the role of Orwellian thought police. In George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four Big Brother keeps watch so that no one will think unauthorised thoughts.




Joel Kontinen

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has approached tourist boards in the UK, urging them to cease promoting the Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm in Somerset.

Early this year, the BHA sponsored a conspicuous bus campaign in London with ads doubting the existence of God. Now, when a zoo farm wants to promote the existence of God, the humanists, who would describe themselves as free thinkers, are assuming the basic Orwellian model of not tolerating any dissenting views.

The Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm opened to the public in 1999. It houses a hundred animals and attracts approximately 120, 000 visitors each year. Noah’s Ark does not hide its belief in a creator God.

However, Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm promotes a much longer time frame of earth history than traditional creationism but it seems that the very idea of doubting Darwinism causes problems for dissenters. Recently, Ben Stein himself was expelled from New York Times.

Miranda Stevenson, director of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, says, ''I find it extraordinary that an organisation that I thought promotes free thinking appears to want censorship.”

Perhaps free thinkers ought to change the name of their ideology.

Source:

Telegraph. 2009. Noah's Ark Zoo in creationist row. (27 August) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/6100222/Noahs-Ark-Zoo-in-creationist-row.html

Ben Stein Expelled From the New York Times

Ben Stein has noticed that criticism is not without risks.




Joel Kontinen

For five or six years, Ben Stein wrote a popular bi-monthly column for the New York Times. However, atheists were offended with his 2008 documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. They also expressed their dislike of his views in the Times.

It seems that there is no room for the Designer in the liberal media.

Then Ben Stein criticised another icon of the left leaning media: Barack Obama or more specifically, his economic policy. Times promptly informed Ben Stein that the paper will no longer publish his column.

In other words, press freedom does not seem to fare well in the USA.



Source:

Stein, Ben. 2009. Expelled From the New York Times. The American Spectator (10 August)

Another Expulsion?

Joel Kontinen

Texas has in effect expelled any critical evaluation of origins issues. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board refused to give accreditation to the ICR Graduate School's Science Education program. This is strange since the very same program was already accredited in California. The Institute for Creation Research (ICR) moved its headquarters to Texas last year and had to apply for accreditation in Texas for its MA programme.

Ben Stein’s film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed pointed out the dismal lack of academic freedom in science education. The refusal to grant the ICR’s Graduate School accreditation shows that intelligence is still not allowed.

Read more details here.

Expelled is the Hottest Item in the Blogosphere

Joel Kontinen

Ben Stein’s film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, due to open on April 18, has become the hottest item in the blogosphere. Expelled documents how Darwinists oppress and threaten scientists and science teachers who dare to suggest that everything has not come about and developed through chance alone.

Darwinists are furious. Richard Dawkins, who is interviewed in the film, managed to attend a screening in Minneapolis although he was not invited. Dawkins relied on a minor trick: he gave Clinton as his first name. Technically, he was not lying since his full name is Clinton Richard Dawkins.

PZ Myers, another prominent critic of Intelligent Design, was barred from attending the movie and he wrote a bitter response in the Panda’s Thumb forum. Myers demanded that the supporters of Intelligent Design should be met with ”some form of righteous fury, much butt-kicking, and the public firing and humiliation of some teachers, many school board members and vast numbers of sleazy far-right politicians.”

It is odd that an atheist would publicly speak about righteous fury. After all, righteousness is a Judeo-Christian concept. One might think that Darwinists would not bother with ethical issues but perhaps they do, after all.

Mark Mathis, the producer of the movie, commented on the reaction of Myers and others, saying it was strange since ”these men applaud when professors throughout the nation are fired from their jobs and permanently excluded from their profession for mentioning Intelligent Design.”

Expelled documents how Darwinists endanger academic freedom. It seems that they are now afraid that their monopoly is about to end.

See the trailer here.

Source:

EXPELLED Controversy Top Issue in Blogosphere. Premise Media press release. http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080325006175&newsLang=en