Yeah, I used to regard Ben Stein as a respectably intelligent man, until he went off the deep end with this ID crap.  He probably is quite intelligent in other areas, but he's allowed his religious beliefs to completely trump his rational thinking in this area.  As a result, he's lost most of his intellectual integrity.

One of the things that has fascinated me as an atheist is the fact that even otherwise highly intelligent people can be prone to believing completely irrational things.  For example, one friend of mine who's a grad student in soil biology is not above forwarding chain emails promising good fortune if you forward it to X number of friends.  Many of my other friends engage in various rituals in connection to their religions.  When a person wants to believe something strongly enough, that belief becomes immune from criticism, reasoned analysis, demands for supporting evidence, logical consistency, etc.  Religion, politics, superstition, pseudoscience, and the supernatural are all hotbeds of such beliefs.

Isn't it time we started really teaching critical thinking in schools?