Off Topic — HabitableZone

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God, penguins, gays, and ID
ljk — (archived)

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS (Science Show: 08/04/2006)

Paul Willis, a reporter on the ABC TV science program, Catalyst, reviews the
film March of the Penguins.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ss/stories/s1610254.htm

To quote:

The March is without doubt a visual masterpiece and on this score deserves the Oscar it won this year for best documentary. Part of the film’s runaway success is due to the backing and promotion by conservative Christian groups across the US. They eulogised the penguin parents as being wonderful role models for people. Such dedication and struggle against the odds to produce a single chick each year ought to teach us something about how God wants us to live our own lives, or so the bible thumpers thundered from their radio and TV pulpits. They glossed over the fact, raised at the beginning of the film, that Emperor penguins usually only couple for a single breeding season and regularly change partners from year to year. Still, close enough is good enough for some deluded clergy who went on to extol the lessons the penguins could teach us against homosexuality. Yep, that’s right, somehow a bunch of frozen birds are supposed to demonstrate that homosexual behaviour is wrong. It was later pointed out to the errant pastors that New York Central Park Zoo has been the proud keeper of a pair of homosexual penguins for several years. I wonder what God is trying to tell us there?

But perhaps the most offensive corruption of penguin biology for religious ends came when some supporters of intelligent design got in on The March of the Penguins act. In their familiar line of argument from incredulity, they reasoned; how could such a complex life cycle, involving the intimate cooperation of both the mother and the father, extended over many months in such inhospitable conditions, how could that have evolved? Surely it must have been designed. Well, surely if the reproductive cycle of the Emperor penguin was designed, the designer did a really bad job because so many of the eggs and chicks freeze to death, not to mention the loss of parents due to the extreme conditions and predators. Surely, if there is an intelligent designer behind this, they would have had a little more compassion than to condemn thousands of birds to death every year by making them breed in the Antarctic. Once again, if there is an intelligent designer behind the reproductive cycle of the Emperor penguin, they must have been a sadistic bastard with a particularly cruel sense of humour.

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