Fish Story

Today's New York Times has a cute (maybe a little too cute) story about the proliferation of back-of-the-car fish decals, which started out as Jesus references, got hijacked by evolutionists (who put feet on the fish and Darwin's name in the middle), then diversified into various jokey forms. The article is a bit of a stretch for the science section, but it does cite at least one study by a bona fide academic. Surveying owners of the Darwin fish, he found, predictably, that many were angry atheists (some of whose rants about the evils of religion extended beyond the space allotted on the survey forms). Others, however, saw the emblems as expressing the reconciliation of science and religion–an interesting illustration of how consumers bring their own meaning even to seemingly trivial novelty items.