tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-18274017990481216972008-04-28T13:44:00.007-04:002008-04-28T22:00:38.322-04:00<span style="font-weight: bold;">Science Leads You to Killing People?</span><br />My freshman year in college was when I decided I wanted to write about history and science. In the spring semester of that year, I was taking the second half of Owen Gingerich's celebrated Science A-17 (The Astronomical Perspective) as part of my core curriculum. Gingerich, who most recently authored <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Universe-Owen-Gingerich/dp/0674023706/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209404808&sr=8-1">this little gem</a>, was an indefatigable lecturer. Alums from his former years would show up on the day he gave his lecture on Newton, just to see a guy in his 50s climb onto a home made rocket and blast himself across the stage to demonstrate Newton's Third Law.<br /><br />One of the requirements of the class was to view some documentaries during selected week nights in the Science Center. And sometime during that semester, I saw three or four episodes from Jacob Bronowski's<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069733/"> Ascent of Man</a>. There was one episode I will never forget, and fortunately someone posted it to Youtube.<br /><br />It bears watching again in light of the hideous comment made by Ben Stein, as he's doing the media tour for Expelled.<br /><br />Ben Stein minced no words in his interview with <a href="http://www.tbn.org/watch/files/index.php?file=2008_4_21_300k.wmv&show=92">TBN</a>: 'Science leads you to killing people.'<br /><br />No, it's actually something else that leads to killing, and Brownowski was far more eloquent:<br /><br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8mIfatdNqBA&hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8mIfatdNqBA&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />I like to think that one of the reasons Stein's movie is bombing (it plummeted over 50% this past weekend, according to Box Office Mojo), even among its carefully targeted audiences, is because the large number of Christians out there, Evangelicals and Catholics (and Mennonites like Professor Gingerich) and other denominations, who go to work every day as doctors, nurses, technicians, school teachers, pharmacists, geologists, botanists, and engineers of all stripes, who utilize science <span style="font-style: italic;">every day of their working lives</span> to help people from all walks of life, are frankly insulted by the claptrap peddled by Stein.<br /><br />This clip is for them and all people of good faith and good will.<br /><br />UPDATE: Derb <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZGYwMzdjOWRmNGRhOWQ4MTQyZDMxNjNhYTU1YTE5Njk=&w=MA==">weighs in</a>.John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228johnwfarrell@gmail.com