Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Praise Darwin? Say What?


The Freedom From Religion Foundation placed "Praise Darwin" billboards in Grand Junction, Colorado; Dayton, Tennessee; Dover, Pennsylvania; and Whitehall, Ohio.


Now, I'm normally an ardent supporter of FFRF, but I don't like this. Darwin was a scientist; yes, a scientist with revolutionary theory that changed the way we look at the world, but a scientist none-the-less. So I don't think the word "praise" in this context is useful, or helpful.

Conflating science and religion, no matter how useful and wonderful the message, harms more than helps. I like the sub-message of evolving beyond belief, but I think the whole "Praise Darwin" business doesn't help their agenda any. I could get 100% behind the same exact, billboard without the word praise (or perhaps substituting Happy Birthday instead of Praise, given that Charles Darwin was born on February 12, the same exact day and year as Abraham Lincoln, by the way).

4 comments:

Ceroill said...

Agreed.

Anonymous said...

It makes sense. Many treat Darwinism as a religion. Praise be to Darwin fits the dogma.

csm said...

Actually, Anonymous, most don't.

coreydbarbarian said...

yeah, they screwed up.
i'm sure they were aiming 4 shock value or something, but this ad buy is counter-productive.

and an early happy bday shoutout to both abe & charles. life sure wouldn't be the same without ya!