From: Jim Melton (jim.melton@acm.org)
Date: Sat Sep 29 2007 - 12:16:36 CDT
At 9/29/2007 12:00 AM, John Hudson wrote:
>Wandering wildly off topic...
>
>
>William J Poser wrote:
>
>>The Darwin fish is used, primarily
>>on bumper stickers, by people of scientific orientation who are
>>opposed to Christian antievolutionism.
>
>Hmm. How many people with Darwin fish decals on
>their cars do you think could accurately explain
>the theory of evolution? It seems to me to be
>simply a way of poking fun of religious belief
Actually, everyone whom I personally know who has
a "darfish" sticker on their bumpers does so as a
way of responding to those fundamentalists who
disparage science and everything else that
disagrees with their personal beliefs (usually,
in my experience, less their own beliefs than
those of their religious leader). That response
is not intended to "poke fun" or to assert a
"contrary belief that...trumps Christianity", but
to say clearly that fundamentalists' blind faith doesn't trump science.
>and presenting Darwinian evolution as a contrary
>belief that somehow trumps Christianity. Insofar
>as mounting decals on your automobile to
>proclaim religious affiliation is tacky, it
>might deserve a certain amount of satire, but I
>don't think the various parodies are motivated
>by 'scientific orientation'. I suspect many of
>the people who stick Darwin fish decals on their
>cars are as ignorant of evolutionary biology as they are of creation theology.
No doubt...and I think it's pretty obvious from
watching the news in any given week that "many of
the people" who claim to be fundamentalist
Christian haven't the foggiest notion what their
proclaimed one true Book actually says about much of anything.
I'd go a little further and say that a greater
percentage of people who stick Darwin fish on
their cars have a grasp of creation theology than
of people who stick religious fish on their cars have of evolution theory.
So what does all of this prove? Not much, except
that people are only human ;^)
J
P.S., By the way, in my little part of the USA,
merely having a darfish sticker on my car would
increase the probability of my car being severely
vandalized by a factor of 5 to 10. Of course,
putting a campaign sign supporting a Democrat
will guarantee that the sign, probably my lawn,
and quite possibly part of my house will be burnt overnight, too.
>John Hudson
>
>--
>
>Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com
>Gulf Islands, BC tiro@tiro.com
>
>Do not begin to paddle unless you intend always to paddle.
> - St Jean de Brébeuf, instructions for missionaries, 1637
>
>
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Jim Melton --- Editor of ISO/IEC 9075-* (SQL) Phone: +1.801.942.0144
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= Facts are facts. But any opinions expressed are the opinions =
= only of myself and may or may not reflect the opinions of anybody =
= else with whom I may or may not have discussed the issues at hand. =
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