Intelligent design and popular culture: Illustrations, cartoons, and spoofs
by Denyse O’Leary
ARN correspondent
Illustrations
Here are some illustrations riffing off the popular myth of the “Ascent of Man”, and other evolution folklore:
A spoof of the biology text
Evolution of the Research Grant
For these graphics, hat tip to a correspondent from Singapore!
Cartoons
I’ve also collected these ID-related cartoons along the way:
(Note: The cartoons are not necessarily ID-friendly. Most attracted my attention because they showed genuine wit.)
Manwhile, here is an amazingly ugly cartoon used to promote Darwinism by a classical Darwin lobby!
.. and a Spoof!
For a spoof of Darwinism by ID-friendly wags, you can’t beat the Brites.org, its very name a spoof of The Brights – a group of self-consciously superior Darwinists.
Here are some current entries:
Professor of Pugilism Conway Moore attempts to savage ID-friendly astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez:
CM: … Look. Religious whackos who believe in Intelligent Design believe the earth is only 5000 years old because it says so in the Bible in the book of Guinness. By any standard…
ED: Do you mean Genesis ?
CM: Whatever.
ED: Dr. Gonzalez believes the universe is billions of years old and originated at the Big Bang.
CM: Oh. Nevertheless, …
The “I Love Lucy” petition, insisting that the now (apparently) discredited she-gorilla “Lucy” is really adorable Mum after all:
Professor Yoel Rak at the Sackler School of Medicine’s department of anatomy and anthropology said, “The presence of the morphology in both the latter and Australopithecus afarensis and its absence in modern humans cast doubt on the role of [Lucy] as a common ancestor.”
Rak’s statement infuriates Finch.
“If man didn’t evolve from apes,” offered Finch, “then I am an obnoxious pompous overeducated immature egocentric materialist with goo for brains.”
Also, this sendup of evolutionary psychology’s latest theory on the origin of humor – but the trouble is, evolutionary psychology is so inherently ridiculous that it is genuinely hard to spoof. Still, the illustration of “crude Ardepithecus humor” definitely works.
Toronto-based Canadian journalist Denyse O’Leary (www.designorchance.com) is the author of the multiple award-winning By Design or by Chance? (Augsburg Fortress 2004), an overview of the intelligent design controversy. She was named CBA Canada’s Recommended Author of the Year in 2005 and is co-author, with Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, of the forthcoming The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist’s case for the existence of the soul (Harper 2007).