Not yet having seen Ben Stein's documentary dealing with the blacklisting of academics who want to explore the scientific aspects of Intelligent Design vs. Darwinism, no comments can be offered on the quality of that film, but as entertaining and provocative as Stein always is, it should be enjoyable.
In honor of that, here is a classic passage from the famous "Education of Henry Adams," a book that has been on the re-reading list lately around Montana Headlines. For those who haven't had the pleasure of reading this monumental autobiography, the "young man" is Henry Adams himself (who refers to himself throughout the book in the third person.) He had just spend the Civil War years abroad assisting his father, who was head of the North's diplomatic delegation to England, thus his comment about helping waste billions of dollars and a million lives:
Natural Selection led back to Natural Evolution, and at last to Natural Uniformity. This was a vast stride. Unbroken Evolution under uniform conditions pleased everyone—except curates and bishops; it was the very best substitute for religion; a safe, conservative practical, thoroughly Common-Law deity.
Such a working system for the universe suited a young man who had just helped to waste five or ten thousand million dollars and a million lives, more or less, to enforce unity and uniformity on people who objected to it; the idea was only too seductive in its perfection; it had the charm of art.
No real point to this quotation, other than to note that the cold-eyed Adams recognized that the appeal of Darwinism (and it did appeal to Adams very much) was at the time as much philosophical as scientific -- and that he connects Natural Selection with uniformity, an ever-present temptation to high-minded politicians. In fact, he has some entertaining things to say about Darwin's approach to the science of his theories. But why ruin the book for everyone else by going on with more?
