Creationist Ben Stein has withdrawn as the commencement speaker at the University of Vermont, after a huge outcry erupted over his support for the pseudo-science promoted by the Discovery Institute, and his ludicrous, highly dishonest anti-evolution film “Expelled.”

And now, of course, he’s complaining that he’s being treated unfairly and suppressed by the atheistic, monolithic scientific establishment. You know, that scientific establishment that leads to killing people.

Ben Stein described the brouhaha over his selection as commencement speaker at the University of Vermont as “laughable” on Tuesday called the whole episode “pathetic.”

In a phone call to the Free Press on Tuesday, Stein said that describing his views as “antithetical to scientific inquiry” was “a wildly unfair characterization.” He said he was by no means “anti-science,” as some of his critics have described him.

“I am far more pro-science than the Darwinists,” Stein said later in an e-mail. “I want all scientific inquiry to happen — not just what the ruling clique calls science.”

Stein’s comments came a day after UVM President Dan Fogel announced that Stein, whom Fogel had invited to address UVM’s commencement in May, would not be coming after all. Fogel said that his selection of Stein generated an intense protest, that he received hundreds of angry e-mails over the weekend, and that after he shared these “profound concerns” with Stein, Stein “immediately and most graciously declined our commencement invitation.”

Asked the nature of those “concerns” at a news conference Monday, Fogel said they pertained to views of science perceived by many to be “affronts to the basic tenets of the academy.”

Allahpundit wonders why it took me so long to post about this; hey, I wanted to let you enjoy some of the glory that results from trying to talk sense into the creationist wing of the GOP. I see from the comments for your post that you’re feeling the love already.