Monday, November 03, 2008

St. Charles?

This parody hits on so many levels it is hard to know where to start. It is also likely to offend just about everybody on some level. The Onion has the following story: "Evolutionists Flock To Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain." In Dayton, Tennessee, no less. The story begins:

DAYTON, TN—A steady stream of devoted evolutionists continued to gather in this small Tennessee town today to witness what many believe is an image of Charles Darwin—author of The Origin Of Species and founder of the modern evolutionary movement—made manifest on a concrete wall in downtown Dayton.

"I brought my baby to touch the wall, so that the power of Darwin can purify her genetic makeup of undesirable inherited traits," said Darlene Freiberg, one among a growing crowd assembled here to see the mysterious stain, which appeared last Monday on one side of the Rhea County Courthouse. The building was also the location of the famed "Scopes Monkey Trial" and is widely considered one of Darwinism's holiest sites. "Forgive me, O Charles, for ever doubting your Divine Evolution. After seeing this miracle of limestone pigmentation with my own eyes, my faith in empirical reasoning will never again be tested."

In light of the "temple to science" built in Berkeley, this is not so far off the mark. This manages to get the rabid atheists like Richard Dawkins, the mystic "face on Mars" followers (although see this absolutely creepy photo), and then turns the tables on the church-as-believer/scientist-as-skeptic motif. This is brilliant and ranks up there with the "Intelligent Falling" story they did a bit back.

2 comments:

  1. Haha!
    And that photo was creepy. Until I read this, see the analysis by commenter ScottH:
    http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/10/18/aquareidolia/

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  2. It would be pretty easy to photoshop that kind of thing. There was a photo in the local newspaper of a supposed downdraft during a rainstorm that looked exactly like someone had monkeyed around with the bottom section of a mushroom cloud. The lighting was wrong, the angle was wrong and it was out of place.

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