Ben Stein's Commencement Day Off

Let me start by laying my cards on the table: I have no personal beef with evolution. I believe evolutionary theory can be perfectly compatible with religion. And I sincerely (if perhaps naively) hope this doesn’t devolve (get it?) into a debate over evolution.

Having said all that: Does anybody else find it supremely ironic that Ben Stein made a documentary about academia’s intolerance toward those who question evolutionary theory — and then a university effectively rescinded an invitation to speak? Seems to me that nothing in Ben Stein’s Expelled is more compelling evidence of the truth of his thesis than that.

Incidentally, after a cursory search I discovered that the 2006 University of Vermont commencement featured Gustavo Esteva. From Vermont’s own press release: “A strong voice for indigenous people, campesinos, and urban migrants, the core of Esteva’s thought is a challenge to the validity of social systems that subordinate traditional community values and institutions to the priorities of the global marketplace.”

Hmm, traditional community values. You mean, like creationism? Funny how traditional values are cool with academics if they’re swathed in exotic otherness. But put a Western face on them, and they become unacceptable.