Monkey See, Monkey Say What?
Irradiated by LabRat
Thanks to a tip from a friend, I’ve got some nice low-hanging fruit to take a good swipe at on an otherwise crummy day. Yes, it’s my old friends the creationists come to play again! What wacky hi-jinx are they up to now?
Why, they’ve come to campaign at the University of New Mexico!
These are hip, fresh, new creationists out of movements aimed specifically at evangelizing college students, so you can expect them to have a kickin’, cutting-edge approach. What, exactly, are they doing?
Chalk drawings have appeared all over campus asking this question, prompting more than 1,200 hits on RUAMonkey.com.
The Web site features a video of about 20 people wearing monkey masks and dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” on the steps leading into Smith Plaza.
Well, that’s sort of… abstract.
As for whether I’m a monkey, well, that depends. If you’re asking about my position in the taxonomic scheme of things, I’m a hominid, and those brachiating little bastards don’t bear much relation to me as of millions of years ago. If you’re asking me musically, however, then I am indeed a monkey. A brass monkey. A FUNKY monkey. That was what you were going for, right?
The mysterious artwork and bare-bones Web site are part of an effort by Calvary Chapel and Renovate Campus Ministries to publicize a creationism-themed event in mid-February.
Renovate members wished not to disclose the name and date of the event.
So, you don’t want them to attend, you just want to make sure your target audience is thoroughly confused. Do I have that right?
“I think people are really skeptical on our view of how we were made,” said Candice Cunningham, a freshman and member of Renovate. “So coming right out and saying it … kind of turns people off, so I think advertising this way engages people more.”
As it turns out, I have it EXACTLY right. Here is a marketing hint: if you have to go to such lengths to make sure your advertising is almost certain not to make people associate the ad with your product, in this case creationism… your product might not be very good. I’m just sayin’.
Carlson said he was inspired by a similar stunt performed by entrepreneur Marc Ecko in which a retired 747 airplane was painted to look like Air Force One before being covered in graffiti artwork.
“For a whole week, they didn’t tell anybody, and the president thought it was real,” Carlson said. “Everybody thought it was a real deal. It was just a really cool thing. That was basically my whole intent behind it.”
In order to introduce a new line of urban clothing that’s designed to look as though someone has graffiti’d the wearer, Ecko pulls a publicity stunt featuring graffiti all over something well-known that is not normally covered with graffiti. You don’t have to associate the ad with the product beforehand, but it makes a big impression afterward, especially with the confusion over the apparent defacement of a national symbol, which people care about.
Obviously, people will care every bit as much about chalk on campus sidewalks and the mystery of the twenty idiots dancing to Michael Jackson associated with it and will be so won over by the pitch that they will no longer care they are being sold creationism rather than ugly clothing that will nonetheless, based on trends, make you cool in some quarters.
Carlson said that the theme of the campus-wide artwork was timed to coincide with national Darwin Week.
“Basically, Darwin Day is coming up, and Darwin’s whole idea is that we came from monkeys, so that’s where it all came from,” he said.
Yes. That was exactly Darwin’s whole idea, distilled to a single sentence of laser truth. Every college student knows this. And there is absolutely no way this could possibly backfire due to science students at this event who have managed to read the campus newspaper and figure out it’s a creationist publicity stunt. Though, according to Stingray, given the Daily Lobo, this “confuse ‘em into submission” angle may have a hidden ally.
Carlson said people have had varying interpretations of the project.
“People had different ideas, like some people thought that it was some sort of Obama thing, which it totally isn’t,” he said. “That was odd.”
No, it wasn’t odd. It was people making a wild guess based on the last cryptic thing they were pitched by the self-consciously hip. It’s also a really clear sign that you did an awesome job of disguising your intentions. High-five yourself, dude.
So, what will THE EVENT be? Speculations? My current bet is a coordinated poop-flinging team barricading the biology department.
January 28th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
I like the phrase “more than 1200 hits” like it’s a big thing. I’m pretty sure the Geocities anime fansite I made when I was fourteen years old got more than 1200 hits.
I also like the assumption that if creationists don’t tell anyone their message, we’ll just be biting our fingernails to the bone wondering what it could possibly be. IT COULDN’T POSSIBLY BE SOMETHING ABOUT HOW YOU BELIEVE IN LITERAL CREATION COULD IT.
January 29th, 2009 at 6:02 am
I love evolutionists. They live in a cloud cuckoo land of false hopes. They worship their prophet Charles Darwin and his apostles as they proclaim a message of secular origins These they hope, will one day find some veracity in the fossil record and scientific discovery. Face up to it, they haven’t yet .Also, despite the protestations and claims of, ‘Eureka! Evolution proven!’ they deceive themselves.
So all they can do is ridicule, insult and slander any who ave not fallen into their false religion.
Keep it up folks. You are losing. And I am having a good laugh.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:32 am
So … we are only supported all reputable scientists … and you are supported by Doctors of Divinity who are not ever going to be successfully peer reviewed.
Yep … if this is losing, then please heap some more of it on.
As for ridicule … we use it because it is an astoundingly effective rhetorical weapon. As evidenced by your appearance here, and your “Wah!!!! I’m Butt-hurt! Stop it you meanies!” post.
January 29th, 2009 at 11:04 am
“You dumb scientists with your so-called theories! Gravity is just a theory, and there’s no proof of it at all. You go on pretending, I’ll be laughing when you float away and I don’t have the burden of pocket change and other stuff drifting away to worry about!”
Keep posting, Pete. You’re not the only one laughing.
January 29th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
The really funny part is that I’ve burned many thousands of words on the details of evolution and how it has happened and continues to happen every day, and this is the one he shows up for.
Of course, why isn’t exactly a mystery; like the ocean of scientific literature on the subject for the last hundred and fifty years and most especially the last thirty or so, all that reading is just too goddamn much work when God is on your side.
(Also, technically my prophets are Mayr, Wilson, Gould, Kimura, Dobzhansky, Margulies, and others. Darwin is sooo last century.)
January 29th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Am I a monkey?
Of course not.
But the monkey and I share common ancestry.
January 29th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I’ve found that the less a person actually knows about evolution and biology in general, the more they denounce it.
January 29th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
“So coming right out and saying it … kind of turns people off, so I think advertising this way engages people more.”
Actually, he has a point there - If he were to just walk up to you and say “God made you and all the universe”, would you have expended the amount of energy it took you to go to a website and ask “WTF is THAT supposed to mean?”
Also - Stingray?
Not fer nuthin’, but last time I checked it was still the Theory of Evolution and we were, in fact, still debating Gravity - right down into ‘how it works’ and ‘does it even really do what we think it does’…
Not that any of that matters, since both sides are silly & wrong.
EVERYONE knows that Odin, Vili, and Vé made the first man and woman out of a pair of trees, after they made the earth and sky from the bodily remains of the frost giant, Ymir.
But that’s okay - ’cause you guys are funny.
- MuscleDaddy
January 29th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
MuscleDaddy:” … Not fer nuthin’, but last time I checked it was still the Theory of Evolution …”
Sorry, but your info is outdated. Serious Biologists and paleontologists refer to Darwin’s five Laws of natural selection these days.
Darwin’s Laws are as proven as Copernicus’s notion of a Heliocentric Solar System.
January 29th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
I’m never going to find out if tachyons are real or not if people just keep arguing over whether we’re related to monkeys or not.
January 29th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Kristopher,
“Serious Biologists and paleontologists refer to Darwin’s five Laws of natural selection these days.”
Oh My Stars!
Not Serious Biologists and Paleontologists!
Try Googling this one: “Appeal to Authority”
It’s a bit like saying “There is a consensus and the debate is over!”
Besides, you only think that because it’s what Odin wants you to think.
- MuscleDaddy
January 29th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Ah yes, the old “theory” bugaboo.
There’s lots to debate within evolutionary biology, and one of the reasons Teh Serious Skientists call it “evolutionary theory” IS because it’s so dynamic and changing. Much like theory of gravity, which if you ask me is a considerably less developed field.
Of course, you never see anyone arguing seriously about whether gravity exists or is possible without divine intervention, either.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
An appeal to authority is a valid argument if the authorities in question are considered good, since not everyone can be an authority on everything. It is not automatically invalid like an Ad Hominum attack would be.
You might want to actually look up the wikipedia article on the subject.
You may not consider peer review to be a valid test of actual authority, but I, and 99% of the scientific establishment does. Debate is never over … post a serious attack on Darwin’s Law and I will listen. But so far all of the attacks to date have been debunked … and it is telling when you note just who posts them … religionists with a vested interest.
January 30th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Kristopher,
“religionists”?
Go ahead - say it - “Christianists”
You know you want to… feels good, doesn’t it?
Of course, you’re stacking the deck, because the only opposition that you’re willing to “listen” to is a “serious attack” … which,of course, translates to: ‘From a perspective I’m willing to accept’.
Move beyond the paradigm of ‘the areas of science you like’ - and suddenly you’re not listening anymore.
You’ve every bit the “vested interest” as anyone else - your church is just ‘Darwin’ … and non-believers are no less ‘heretical’ to you - unless you use “religionists” in (I’m sure) the best-possible-way.
There are more things in heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in your philosophy….
I’m guessing that Frigga put you here to test our acceptance of that.
- MuscleDaddy
January 30th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
It confuses me when MD uses one mythological creator to make fun of a scientific theory in defense of another mythological creator…
On the topic of gravity: there’s no such thing. The Earth just sucks.
January 30th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Squid,
I mostly just make fun of an assailable scientific theory when it devolops into an unassailable belief system - complete with adherents and heretics - while trying to maintain the high-brow “but-it’s-science” sneer toward other belief systems.
(I have a lot of fun with AGW too)
Wouldn’t go around calling Odin ‘mythological’, btw - pisses him off.
I think you may be right about gravity, though.
- MuscleDaddy
January 30th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Sorry there … I just go by evidence. Like I said, post a reasonable and verifiable alternative to evolution, and I’ll give it a listen.
That’s science for you … if it isn’t falsifiable, it ain’t science.
Got nothing against christians ( I do have something against Islam … people who push their religion at sword point make me want to kill ), except when they want to use my money to hump their superstition ( that religion by force thing again ). Methinks we could settle most of that problem by getting the state out of the education business.
If they want to raise little snake-handlers on their own dime, more power to them.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:01 am
“Methinks we could settle most of that problem by getting the state out of the education business.”
Hoo-ah, brother!
- MuscleDaddy