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By Phil Williams
The Scopes trial on evolution never ended--it just moved to the bumpers of cars.
Symbols can unite towns, armies, even nations. A new battle of symbols is being fought across America these days--a stylized version of “capture the flag.” One of the symbols is a fish; the  other is a fish with small walking feet. Inside the symbols are a variety of words, the most common being “Jesus” in the legless fish and “Darwin” in the other.
A new survey of the attitudes of those who stick Darwin fish symbols on their cars shows that while some are merely making fun of religion, many want to appropriate a sacred symbol and wreck it.
“In several respects, displaying the Darwin fish is the symbolic equivalent of capturing and desecrating an enemy’s flag, an act of ritual aggression,” says Tom Lessl, an associate professor of speech communication at UGA who studies the rhetoric of science. “The Darwin symbol’s obvious emulation of a religious symbol gives it unique power to express ridicule in a vivid and symbolically pointed fashion.”
The brouhaha began with the Christian fish symbol. It is thought that in the early days of Christianity, when the faith was considered dangerous, believers often drew the outline of a fish to quietly proclaim their faith. The idea was simple: the fish was a symbol for Christ because the initial letters of the Greek word icthus [fish] can be treated as an acrostic for “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.”
Applied to 20th-century car bumpers, the fish symbol was a public statement of belief. For those who accept evolution by natural selection, the fish symbol was interpreted as support for the Biblical story of creation. The symbol offered a golden opportunity for parody, and soon “Darwin fish,” with their flat feet heading (presumably) toward land and further natural selection, showed up on car bumpers, too.
To gather data on those who use the Darwin fish on cars Lessl set out on foot in parking lots in several states, looking for the symbols and leaving questionnaires under windshield wipers. He asked three questions:
• Why did you put this emblem on your car?
• What audience did you hope to reach?
• What does the Darwin fish mean to you?
Out of nearly 140 surveys put on cars, he received 51 completed questionnaires in the mail.
“The fact that 66 percent of the respondents identified Christians as their target audience is the key to interpreting these themes,” says Lessl. “The apparent desire to deride this audience seems to be just as important as any serious message they want to communicate.”
The messages, as might be expected, were wildly varied and often inconsistent.
“I put the Darwin fish on my car for a number of reasons,” reported one respondent. “Mainly I did it to annoy the Christian right wing, since they are so fond of putting the fish/Christ symbols on their cars. I also use it to display the symbol of my group, which believes natural processes explain the world around us.”
Other respondents emphasized a positive message.
“I believe that the Darwin fish sums up my religious beliefs,” the respondent said. “I believe in a higher being, God, if you will, but I do not believe that the acknowledgment of such a god excludes scientific and anthropological evidence for either the Big Bang theory or evolution.”
Lessl identified numerous themes in the responses, including the association of Darwin with an ecological view of life, a belief in the superiority of science and scientific knowledge, a simple desire to make a joke, and the use of the Darwin fish as a symbol of harmony between science and religion. The meanings, however, may be even more complicated than that.
Lessl found that Dar-win’s name on the fish was a major factor. The fish-with-legs symbol with the word “evolve” in the middle was far less common than the fish with the name “Darwin.”
“By inserting Darwin’s name in the place on the fish icon usually reserved for Christ, the icthus symbol is ritually profaned or emptied of its religious meaning,” says Lessl. “By putting Darwin’s name where Christ’s would traditionally go, the Darwin fish does not assert, as one might think, that science is salvation and that Darwin is its prophet. For the majority who display this emblem, Darwin’s role seems to be that of anti-messiah. This is more like the inversion rituals of carnival, where some drunken peasant is dressed up as the king. Its purpose is not to elevate the peasant but to make fun of the king.”
A large number of respondents mentioned humor as the reason for displaying the Darwin fish but, says Lessl, it is humor with an edge.
“I am not trying to attack any other religious groups,” said one respondent. “I believe that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, and I don’t want to impose mine on anyone; however, I can see how some people might feel hurt by the obvious play on the traditional fish logo. I can’t speak for everyone, but I don’t see it as anything but light-hearted.”
But many of those answering the survey had no trouble at all being blunt.
“It is my way of saying, ‘Creationists are [expletive] idiots. Get a [expletive] education. Humans are no better than chickens, redwoods, fireflies, earthworms, goldfish, algae or infectious salmonella, just because we walk upright and have opposable thumbs.’”
But some respondents acknowledged car bumpers may not be the best place to make a coherent argument.
“I have actually been approached by people who are confused by the Darwin fish on the back of my car and the Christian College of Georgia parking sticker on the front,” said one respondent. “They wonder how I could have both, so obviously people do put a great amount of stock in what one sticks on a car.”
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