Stein says science leads to killing people
April 29th, 2008 | Published in Evolution, Pseudoscience, Quotes, Religion, Science | 2 Comments
This is almost unbelievable, except it’s Ben Stein and associated with that Expelled movie, so it’s not quite so unbelievable:
Stein (speaking about the Holocaust): …that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.
Crouch: That’s right.
Stein: … Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.
Crouch: Good word, good word.
It’s almost like he doesn’t know any religious history. Even in this century, over 800 million people have died due to religious conflict.
(via Friendly Atheist)
April 29th, 2008 at 10:47 am (#)
I’m not sure of the context of the conversation in this movie, but Stein didn’t say religion leads to a very glorious place, but that Love of God and compassion and empathy does. No doubt terrible atrocities have been committed in the name of religion. But I doubt God, compassion and empathy had anything to do with it.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:05 pm (#)
Science on it’s own, like religion, won’t do much. Science can kill people, it’s been indirectly responsible for a lot of deaths what with the whole “Oh, it requires science to make a gun and gunpowder,” and “Oh, yeah, the atomic bomb, our bad,” but then religion also has to deal with the Crusades, burning people at the stake, the suicide bombers, the riots, the uprisings, the killings, the beheadings, all of that. Far more monstrous things.
A lot can kill people, people are frail things. Science, thankfully, saves a lot nowadays, in fact, it gave us medicine! Sterlization, and proper food cleansing, and better crop yields, and better transport, and enabled a lot of religious art to come to fruition (Brunelleschi gave us the gear-shift and a cathedral).
What I’m building to is that if a person wants to kill another person, they can, and they can justify it with science and religion and the gun they’ve got and their skin color and whether the person likes Neil Diamond or team-kills or whatever.
Science is by no means a complete evil, but I can’t really find the complete good in religion Mr. Stein is alluding to.