Griper Blade: Attacking Darwin Doesn't Actually Accomplish Squat

You might not have heard much about Evolution Sunday. That's probably because 'Sane People Gather; Don't Say Crazy Things' isn't much of a headline. Evolution Sunday is a event where churches across the nation affirm their belief in the theory of evolution as a lead up to Darwin Day, the theory's author's birthday.

Which makes this bunch of horsecrap extremely funny:

National Review:

February 12 used to be known in classrooms across the nation as Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. But over the last decade, an increasing number of schools and community groups have decided to celebrate the birthday of the father of evolution instead.

The movement to establish February 12 as "Darwin Day" seems to be spreading, promoted by a evangelistic non-profit group with its own website (www.darwinday.org) and an ambitious agenda to create a "global celebration in 2009, the bicentennial of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origins of Species."

Darwin Day celebrations provide an eye-opening glimpse into the world of grassroots Darwinian fundamentalism, an alternate reality where atheism is the conventional wisdom and where traditional religious believers are viewed with suspicion if not paranoia.

Wait a second, if 'traditional religious believers are viewed with suspicion if not paranoia,' then how do you explain Evolution Sunday? The Evolution Sunday website tells us, "612 Congregations from all 50 States, the District of Columbia, the US Virgin Islands and five nations are currently scheduled to participate in Evolution Sunday 2007."

The key is the term 'traditional religious believers.' The National Review piece was written by John G. West, a senior fellow at Discovery Institute. DI is a fringe nut group of creationists who believe that the Bible is literally true, the great flood created the Grand Canyon, and the Earth is no more than 10,000 years old. So 'traditional religious believers' means crazies like Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and Ted Haggard. It means people who found the movie Jesus Camp hopeful and inspiring and not a frightening glimpse of the right wing robot factory. It means that rich tradition of religious fanaticism that can be traced back to Girolamo Savonarola and others who tried to put the brakes on the italian renaissance. Needless to say, this 'Discovery Institute' has never actually discovered anything...

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