Culture Wars
Fish v. Fish
by Tim Lien
Jonah Goldberg had an Op-Ed in the LA Times this morning, with an interesting premise. Let me just give you the title and sub-title: “Evolution of Religious Bigotry: The cowardice and intolerance of slapping a Darwin fish on your car bumper.”
Click your way there, here.
An interesting excerpt:
As Christopher Caldwell once observed in the Weekly Standard, Darwin fish flout the agreed-on etiquette of identity politics. “Namely: It’s acceptable to assert identity and abhorrent to attack it. A plaque with ‘Shalom’ written inside a Star of David would hardly attract notice; a plaque with ‘Usury’ written inside the same symbol would be an outrage.”
And another:
The Darwin fish ostensibly symbolizes the superiority of progressive-minded science over backward-looking faith. I think this is a false juxtaposition, but I would have a lot more respect for the folks who believe it if they aimed their brave contempt for religion at those who might behead them for it.Posted by Tim Lien at April 1, 2008 08:52 PM
I saw my first “Darwin fish” on an actual vehicle today. It was a conversion van with an Arizona tag turning off McFarland onto the interstate. The “Christian fish” facing it had the distinctive tail but was actually a shark with a fin and its mouth open ready to devour. I guess they were trying to make a point about the viciousness of Christian fundamentalism. It would have been nice to discuss the viciousness of “survival of the fittest” using Marilynne Robinson’s sequence of Malthus, Nietzsche, Darwin, Freud, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc., etc. but I had no way to do so.
real survival of the fittest. http://store.answersingenesis.org/WebServices/images/37-4709-ImageEnlarge.jpeg