Are the 'Fish Wars' a Lost Cause?
It's been six years since I visited the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, the brainchild of Ken Ham and the public face of his organization, Answers in Genesis, in the United States. It was there, after touring the sprawling and impressive displays (easily on par with secular theme parks, if lacking the fossil assets of public museums) that I picked up my first standard-issue piece in the high-brow, intellectual clash known as the "fish wars." It was, of course, my duty to fight the good fight and glue this plastic ornament to my '03 Corolla-you know, for the Kingdom.
Ever since militant atheists first released the quadrupedal "DARWIN" fish to parody the ichthus (an ancient fish outline representing the Greek acronym "Jesus Christ Son of God, Savior," which became an icon of evangelical pop culture when I was still too young to care), the volleys have continued to fly (or swim) across the bumpers of millions of otherwise uncontroversial automobiles. Soon after the "DARWIN" fish crawled onto the scene, evangelicals made their stinging rejoinder: a larger fish labeled "TRUTH," gulping down the "DARWIN" fish (which is what I got).
Incensed, atheists summoned a dinosaur outline, which is depicted gnawing on the "TRUTH" fish. It has continued in like manner ever since. And while parking lots and stoplights are not particularly well-known venues for nuanced and enlightening discourse on origins, the upcoming debate between arch-Creationist Ken Ham and children's television host and atheist, Bill Nye "The Science Guy," is not likely to raise that bar. In fact, it might just be the next fish in the series.
