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Yes, [I spent] two long years, traveling all over the United States, all over Europe, interviewing many, many, many people who had been thrown out of their academic jobs because they taught that there was a possibility of life coming from something other than Darwinism, who thought that possibly random selection and mutations didn't account for the universe, didn't account for gravity, didn't account for why nobody had ever seen an individual species evolve -- no one's ever seen an individual species evolve!'

Ben Stein#19

ScienceFreedomDissent

About this quote

What does it mean?
Stein claims scientists face professional censure for doubting evolutionary mechanisms. He argues these mechanisms fail to explain complex phenomena like gravity or species origin.
In plain terms
People lose jobs for doubting Darwinism, which he says can't explain gravity or evolution.
What can you take from it?
Dissent in science can lead to career loss.

Where it applies

  • academic debates
  • job security
  • science policy

Putting it to work

  • support scientific dissent
  • document academic dismissal

Questions to consider

  • What happens to dissenting scientists?
  • Is evolution fully explained?

Another view

The claim that no species evolution has ever been observed contradicts documented cases in biology.

More from Ben Stein

  1. But when I talk to people who are Darwinists or evolutionists and say, 'Well, how did life begin' -- they're...they don't have an answer. I mean, they have an …

    Permalink to quote #18
  2. The scientific community says that if you even mention God as causes of anything scientific, you're gone.

    Permalink to quote #20
  3. Well, the first cause is not...it's lightning striking a mud puddle. See, and this is what the evolutionists say. And by the way, they may be right -- you know…

    Permalink to quote #17

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