Darwin fish: risky?

[DanBlather]

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@yosemite

@Dan Blather

I don’t think it is making fun of christianity, it’s making fun of fundamentalists. Are there liberal, non-judgemental christians who put Jesus fish on their vehicles?

Why would you think that there would not be? Is there some cut-off point between who and who will not put a fish sticker on their car? Is there some unwritten rule that says that the non-judgmental types are not allowed to use this sticker? Because if so, I missed the memo.

It’s not that it can’t, I just thought that it wasn’t used by non-fundamentalists. Am I wrong?

[yosemite]

@DanBlather

[It’s not that it can’t, I just thought that it wasn’t used by non-fundamentalists. Am I wrong?

Yeah, I think that you probably are. At least in that it is not a universally understood notion that it is “fundy only.”

Not that I keep up with everything that fundies do and do not do, but I’ve been a Christian for a long time and I never heard that it was a fundy-only symbol. I daresay that it’s likely that many non-fundies have it on their car, because they also hadn’t heard anything about it being fundy-only.

Or another way of putting it: I don’t look at the Darwin fish and think, “They’re mocking fundies.” I think, “This symbol is designed to mock a Christian symbol, and what do you know? I’m a Christian.”

I don’t think I’m the only one who feels this way. I believe you can find several other people posting in this thread who have come to similar conclusions.

[Freejooky]

On my car, I have Calvin pissing on Calvin pissing on the truth fish, which is eating the darwin fish, which is eating the gay/lesbian/bi/transgendered triangle.

[Johnny_L.A]

Or another way of putting it: I don’t look at the Darwin fish and think, “They’re mocking fundies.” I think, “This symbol is designed to mock a Christian symbol, and what do you know? I’m a Christian.”

I don’t think they’re mocking Christians per se. I think they’re mocking creationists.

[yosemite]

@Johnny L.A.

I don’t think they’re mocking Christians per se. I think they’re mocking creationists.

And they’re using a general Christian symbol to do it. But it doesn’t add up, because not all Christians are creationists, but they choose to mock a Christian (not creationist) symbol anyway.

So some of us are left to wonder whether or not they think that all Christians believe in Creationism, or else we wonder about whether or not the Darwin Fish people give a damn that they are mocking a symbol that doesn’t really fit the point they are (supposedly) trying to make, and may actually offend some pro-evolutionist Christians in the process.

And then we can return to SolGrundy’s point, which bears repeating:

It just smacks of hypocrisy; why do people get annoyed by fundamentalists? Because of that smug sense of superiority they have and get all up in your face with. So how do you respond? By putting a smug perversion of a religious symbol on the back of your car. “Oh yeah? Well, I know about evolution! Hah! Take that, Christians!” Just have to roll my eyes and shake my head.

[JRDelirious]

Actually, the Catholic Church (quite non-“fundie”) has made abundant use of the Ichthyus as a symbol for ages. Even I as a teenager wore a pendant in that shape. Now, in the USA it’s true that culturally the likelier bearer of the Ichthyus in recent times is an Evangelical, but that’s more an accident of what has been trendy behavior in American Christianity (mainstreamers and liberals shut up and hide, hardliners wear their faith on their sleeves), than any intrinsic ideology behind the symbol.

[1010011010]

I had one for a little while, and besides the 3am “Well, yeah, but what about duck feet?” encounter I had at a gas station, nothing happened.

Once I started to think about it, if it’s not being used in a “stick it to ya!” manner, what exactly does it mean? “Jesus Fish” have “JESUS” inside them occassionally… so do I worship Darwin? No. I don’t even think he’s terribly relevant to modern evolutionary science. So I peeled out the “DARWIN”.

Now I had a fish with feet. I liked it, because you couldn’t really see the feet until you were right up on it. But I started thinking again, what does THIS mean? I settled on it being a symbol for the normal average christian who has no trouble reconciling evolution and christianity. Again, not me. So I peeled the whole thing off.

As for the “Truth Fish” eating the “Evolve Fish”… I always think “You are what you eat.” when I see them.

Currently, I’m thinking of getting some stars and strips stickers printed up with “ONE NATION, INDIVISIBLE” on 'em.

[Muad_Dib]

@Freejooky

On my car, I have Calvin pissing on Calvin pissing on the truth fish, which is eating the darwin fish, which is eating the gay/lesbian/bi/transgendered triangle.

Are you serious? Because I wanna see pictures!

[SolGrundy]

@START

OK I have a question…when someone has both the Darwin and the Jesus fish, that means they are a Christian who believes in evolution?

No, I think it means they’re a little too eager to advertise their overly-simplistic belief system, if their entire world-view can be expressed on a car bumper.