Because the Christians started sticking fish symbols and anti-evolution slogans on their cars first. And regardless of what the official church position is, most American Christians don’t accept evolution.
Certainly they have a reputation for doing so.
FWIW, the symbol was oriiginally created and marketed by a group called Atheists United.
The fish on my truck is a fat one that says “Buddha.”
Which I find funny, because I see the big fish eating the smaller one as an example of natural selection, the survival of the fittest. I doubt that’s the point they intend.
It’s an interesting question. I’ve always thought of it as a sort of light-hearted joke–they have the Jesus fish and we have the early Lungfish With Legs fish. I suppose most people do interpret it as the OP says, but I can’t agree with that interpretation. There must be significant numbers of Christians out there who aren’t Biblical literalists–Catholics for a few. At least, I know that their official doctrine does not reject evolution, at least as far as the basic idea of species gradually becoming other species, as can be inferred from the fossil record. I imagine most mainstream Protestant sects are similar.
Agreed, but would those people go so far as to have a Darwin Fish? I can’t see it. (I’m waiting for a Doper to chime in and say, “You know what? I’m one of those people!”)
I have the FSM on the back of my truck.
But the majority of American Catholics do, as well as a tiny (51%) majority of American Mainline Protestants, at least according to this Pew poll.
Since I am Jewish, and live in a very liberal community, I don’t think of evolution and religion as incompatible, so I never specifically associate the Darwin fish with atheism, although it clearly is opposed to creationism. But as the poll shows, there are plenty of religious people who are not creationists.
Here’s my favorite fish: www.aliencarfish.com
That’s some funny right there.
But creationism is a wholly religious doctrine. Any anti-creationism symbols or slogans are going to by nature be slams against the religious because that’s what the creationists are. Religion is the whole motive for their disbelief; not facts, not logic, just religion.
Do they really? Do they specifically have a reputation of vandalizing cars becuase they have Darwin Fish on them? Cite it.
How in the world would someone cite something like that? Do you think I keep around notarized transcripts of every atheist I talk to?
I did find two threads here on the SDMB with people complaining that it happened to them; 1, 2.
I t depends on where you live. There are parts of the South and the rural North where people seriously think you’re commiting some kind of crime or disturbance of the peace by putting stuff like that on your car, and that they’re justified. To them it’s like seeing a swastika or something. They perceive it as that inflammatory.
The vast majority of Christians, even fundies, aren’t going to do anything, but there are always a few real zealots around.
I knew I’d posted about it before, so here’s one more for ya: What bumper stickers have you had stolen? Three posters in that thread had Darwin fish stolen, and there are other stories about pro-atheism stickers or signs being stolen or vandalized.
Why would it be?
The majority of religious people believe in evolution.
It’s a holy mackerel.
Not all bumper stickers are provocative. Some strike a humorous cord and everyone who sees them laughs.
But even there, most people wont put a sticker on their car. To many modern auto drivers, their car IS THEIR FACE to the world. Its bad enough when other motorists shake a fist at them because of a driving error. To risk scorn because of their political or social statement is terrifying to them.
It takes a special kind of person to put really provocative stickers on their car.
They are the same kind of folks who, in Holland during the war, sewed stars of
david on their clothes so the nazis couldn’t tell who was a real jew.
In Butte Montana, bumper sticker folks were the ones who put hanukkah candles in their
house windows so the KKK could figure out where to throw rocks.
In Colorado Springs, we put pink triangles on our cars so the christian did not know which ones belong to real queers. It didn’t cause the bigots to hate them less, they just scorned us all. But for the gay folks in our community, it made a tremendous difference. Knowing that not everyone would attack them made it much easier for them. Once enough people had stepped forward to support civil rights for gay people, societies attitudes began to change.
Where ever the dominant power structure stomps on the down trodden, it’s the bumper sticker people who finally stand up and say “that’s enough”.
If you are not that courageous or motivated, stick with the Coexist image,( http://www.evolvefish.com/fish/Coexist.html ) or “he who laughs, lasts”. And when you see a driver brave enough to flash their social or political principles across the surface of their car, give them a quick Thumps Up. But be carefull! Someone might be watching.
I think it’s both pro-evolution and anti-Christianity. Being based on a fish is certainly proof it’s a thumb in the eye of Christians. I think that didn’t “make it into one”, rather, it must have been the intention from the start. It’s not as though these things already appear everywhere and we started assigning significance.
I think it would be completely excellent, though, if we taught children that the whole fish symbol thing means “carpe diem”, which translates as “god is a fish”. To add insight to the picture, as it were.
It’s not anti-christian, it’s anti-Jesus-fish. It’s just a mockery of those who feel the need to announce their religious beliefs on a bumper sticker.
Yeah I know, in it’s mockery it ends up being exactly the same thing.
I know someone who is a practicing Catholic and has a Darwin fish, but she also happens to be a biologist and a Spaniard living in Spain who picked up the sticker during her honeymoon.
Bumper stickers are a lot less common here than in the US, generally the only stickers you see on people’s cars are the ones linked to mechanical checkups on the inside of the windshield.