Thursday, November 16, 2006

Darwin Fish

So I see you have a Darwin fish on your car.

Yeah ...

Why?

Well, it's what I believe.

What you believe, or what you don't believe?

Huh? What do you mean by that?

Well, I think the Darwin fish were a response to the Christian fish, the ictheus. Christians started putting them on their cars to proclaim their faith in Jesus. Then the Darwin fish came as a clever response. So I'm interpreting it as more of an anti-Christian statement than a pro-Darwin statement. Is that what it means to you?

Well, I'm not really speaking against anyone. I just believe in science and reason. Educated people believe in evolution. I can't accept a belief system where you have to check your brain at the door and sign up for some sort of creation myth. That seems rather primitive to me.

So you analyze the data and make a dispassionate decision based on your study?

Yeah, I guess you could say that.

So you've studied what Darwin taught and studied what Jesus taught and decided that Darwin made more sense?

Yeah, pretty much.

Have you read any of Darwin's publications? Origin of the Species?

Well, not directly. But we've covered the basic content in classes I've had.

So let me guess. You covered evolution in a high school biology classes for, what, a week? Then maybe again in college for another week, say three classes. A couple hours outside of class doing homework. So you've studied Darwin's teachings for a total of, say, 20 hours?

I'm sure it's more than that.

OK. Less than 100 hours?

Yeah, I guess.

And how much time have you spent studying Jesus' teachings?

I think everyone's pretty familiar with Jesus' teachings.

Have you ever studied them? I assume you didn't do that in school because it's illegal. Have you read the Bible?

I've looked at it some, but I guess I couldn't say I've really studied it.

But you consider yourself educated?

Yes! I have a degree from a very good university.

So here's the deal. Since the invention of the printing press, the Bible has consistently been the world's best selling book. It's been printed about five billion times. Translated into over 2,000 languages. Its concepts are the foundation for western civilization. It's the most published and most influential book in the history of the world. Harvard University was formed so men wouldn't have to go back to England to get a good education. And the bulk of that education was studying the Bible. It was the primary text in all American schools for the first 150 years. One cannot understand the foundational thinkers of western civilization without knowing its content. I estimate, conservatively, that I've spent over 5,000 hours studying it.

Well, good for you. But there are a lot more current books now.

Yeah, I suppose so. The founding fathers didn't have Private Parts by Howard Stern. But back to Darwin. In his Descent of Man, 1871, Darwin wrote:
“Civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate the savage
races throughout the world...
The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it
will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even
than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now
between the negro or Australian and the gorilla.” So he pretty much supported the whites exterminating the blacks. Makes sense. If survival of the fittest and natural selection are the backbone of creation as we know it, you're definitely messing up the gene pool if you *don't* encourage the stronger to eliminate the weaker. If a few hydrocarbons cause global warming, what will it do to the future of mankind if we allow weak and stupid people to continue to reproduce more than the educated class? Hitler was a good Darwinian. He understood this.

Now you're just being extreme.

Jesus taught us to love the poor and the weak as he did and as the Father does. He taught that everyone has value in God's eyes, not in himself, but because God has created him in His image. Because He loved the world enough to sacrifice His only Son on their behalf. The religious right was willing to fight and die to free the slaves in the U.S. Darwin wanted to exterminate them. Are you sure you want that fish on your trunk?

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