b l o g o f p a r a g

spin spin spin

March of the Conservatives: Penguin Film as Political Fodder - New York Times

This is a really interesting article. It is an example of how something unrelated can be manipulated to further one's point of view.

On the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com, an opponent of abortion wrote that the movie "verified the beauty of life and the rightness of protecting it."

At a conference for young Republicans, the editor of National Review urged participants to see the movie because it promoted monogamy.

A widely circulated Christian magazine said it made "a strong case for intelligent design."

"March of the Penguins," the conservative film critic and radio host Michael Medved said in an interview, is "the motion picture this summer that most passionately affirms traditional norms like monogamy, sacrifice and child rearing."

Andrew Coffin, writing in the widely circulated Christian publication World Magazine, that is a winning argument for the theory that life is too complex to have arisen through random selection. "That any one of these eggs survives is a remarkable feat - and, some might suppose, a strong case for intelligent design," he wrote. "It's sad that acknowledgment of a creator is absent in the examination of such strange and wonderful animals. But it's also a gap easily filled by family discussion after the film."

Ben Hunt, a minister at the 153 House Churches Network.... "Some of the circumstances they experienced seemed to parallel those of Christians," he said of the penguins. "The penguin is falling behind, is like some Christians falling behind. The path changes every year, yet they find their way, is like the Holy Spirit."

I wonder what these people will have to say if a movie is made depicting the lives of bonobo chimpanzees? Bonobos are probably the most closely gentically-related primates to humans. We share 98% of our DNA with the bonobos. They should provide some guiding priciples to humans and not some birds who live in the cold extremes of the earth.

Bonobos live a relatively peaceful life compared to chimpanzees. Sex is an important way to ensure group stability and ease tensions. Bonobos substitute sex for aggression, and sexual interactions occur more often among bonobos than among other primates. Reduced male aggression, strong bonds between males and females, and frequent sex (including male-to-male and female-to-female) characterize bonobo society. However, the rate of reproduction in the wild is about the same as that of chimpanzees (a single infant is born every five to six years) beginning at age 12.