Imagine That

I typically don't usually take the time to form many opinions that are relevant to hot debate topics. They usually take a significant amount of time to research in order to defend properly. The best example would be the pro-life vs. pro-choice debate. I could lean one way or another (for the record, I lean pro-choice) but I could not do the debate any real justice, as about 95% of my reason to take a position is based on intuition alone. There are other people who know more about human pregnancy, so let them fight it out. But the one issue that gets on my nerves more than anything else is the clash between evolution and intelligent design/creationism.

If you're unfamiliar with the two positions, let me attempt to summarize them for you. Evolution is the theory, held by people who can examine evidence and think for themselves, that the current population of world organisms developed as a result of a long series of genetic mutations among various species, resulting in the flourishing of organisms possessing the traits most suitable for survival in their given environment. Creationism is the belief that a supernatural God, who only favors white fundamentalist Christians, created the world and all of its species, and in a mere six days according to available research publications. Upon realizing that the scientific community was very likely to deem this theory "complete and utter horseshit," proponents of this theory altered it to be called "intelligent design," which only removes the word "creation," simply states that nature is too complex to have come about as a result of anything less than the guidance of the supernatural. (In short, nature is supernatural. Yeah, chew on that statement.)

One of the most famous supporters of the intelligent design non-scientific theory is Ben Stein, the man we can all thank (read: blame) for the career of Jimmy Kimmel. You have probably heard of his movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. It's one of the worst crimes against humanity, as its poster image features Stein in an Angus Young schoolboy outfit.

I mention this movie a month after its release date because of recent lawsuit news that I just discovered here. Yoko and the Lennons are suing the makers of the film over their use of a clip from John Lennon's "Imagine." The film apparently criticizes the content of the song as being anti-religious. There's a whole bunch of "fair use" vs. licensing semantics that are yet to be ironed out by the judge. I have a number of points to bring up:

1. You never criticize John Lennon. He was a genius and everything he ever touched was golden (except for Yoko Ono).

2. This is the same man who sang the entire song "I Am The Walrus" a few years prior to the performance in question. So there's a certain threshold of seriousness that we're going to allow here.

3. What's wrong with a piece of art being anti-religious? It's a song, not a manifesto.

4. Seeing how far you religious zealots (fundamentalist Christians, Ben Stein, Tom Cruise) are willing to go to defend religion and/or inject it into the parts of our society that are necessarily secular only makes me further appreciate the fantasy of a world without religion.

In the end, I ask myself what John Lennon would say if he were here to comment. My favorite image is that Lennon, in his trademark wise-man idiom, states that his message to everyone involved with this case - even right down to little old me writing this blog entry - is the same:

"You're missing the point."