As you may or may not know, Ben Stein is making a movie about Intelligent Design. His basic claim is that there is no freedom of speech in academia, because they're not allowed to talk about intelligent design. Ironic as though it may be, press aren't allowed ask questions at press conferences about the movie. Nor are people who see advanced screenings allowed to write reviews: you must sign an NDA to see the movie.

"But there are limits. Let's face it. We all have them. Freedom of expression is unseemly at an Expelled press conference. There was no give-and-take, no open marketplace of ideas, in fact, scarcely any questions at all. Ruloff and Stein batted one softball after another out of the park from those posed by Paul Lauer, a representative of the film's public relations firm. Questions from non-employees had to be submitted by email. Lauer (or somebody at his firm) screened them."

So they take screened questions by e-mail and throw, easy, softball questions at them that they have canned answers too. So what, pre, could one of these canned answers be? Let's take a look:

Paul Lauer: You mentioned that Darwinism appears to be lacking on certain fronts. From your research, and your travels, and interviews with many different scientists, what are some of the areas that scientists are, perhaps, increasingly saying are problematic with the theory of, Darwin's Theory of Evolution?

Ben Stein:Well, just a couple of them, I've already hit one is: Where did life come from? Second one is: How did the cell get so complex? Third one, which I think is overwhelming, and just sort of blows the whole theory of Random Mutation out of the water, is, at least, let me say, raises big questions, that is. Assuming it all did happen by Random Mutation and Natural Selection, where did the laws of gravity come from? Where did the laws of thermodynamics come from? Where did the laws of motion and, of heat come from? Where, I guess that's the same as thermodynamics. Where did all these laws, that make it possible for the universe to function, where did they all come from? Why isn't all just chaos and everything collapsing in on itself and killing everything? I think that`s where the universe works. Who created these perfect laws, that keeps the planet in motion, keeps the blood pumping through our bodies? So, I think, all these are giant questions that need answers.

Emphasis mine. One of his objections to Darwinian evolution, a theory about the slow change of species due to natural selection and mutation, is that it doesn't explain gravity. What?! What kind of ridiculous objection is that? I am literally having trouble finding an analogy to this blatant display of idiocy, but essentially what he's using is a non-sequitur. Wait, if there are elephants in India, why did was America the first country to reach the Moon? The reporter does a great job of discussing at length the ridiculousness of Stein and company, but I thought his question (which was not answered) was poignant and sharp:

"The National Academy of Sciences recently issued a report saying that 'The rapid advances now being made in the life sciences and in medicine rest on principles derived from an understanding of evolution.' The report cites successes in combating the SARS virus, development of drought and pest resistant crops, and the creation of enzymes to make corn-based ethanol, as recent developments to which evolutionary theory was indispensable. If evolution inspires as much evil as your film argues that it does, should we refuse to use these technologies until they can be replicated by an intelligent-design-based research program?"

Edit: Here's a line from one of the comments on the news page. It's a perfect analogy of Stein's logic, "If Calculus explains curves so well, where do pig breeders come from!? And what about knitting!?"

Via Pharyngula