Over at PZ's place, there's a post that attempts to expose another creationist prevaricator. I'm all down with that, but PZ begins his post by referencing a comic book by the visionary Jack "King" Kirby:
OK, HOLD IT. I will put up with a lot of anti-theist crap by you, O Great P-Zeta, but when you go after 'The King', you've gone TOO FAR.
Jack Kirby may have been some sort of theist, but he was no creationist as we might understand it. This selection from Eternals #1 has been taken wildly out of context. In a word, somebody goofed. Summoning my inner geek, here are the actual facts of the matter:
The character of 'Ike Harris' is revealed in the series to be IKARIS, a member of an immortal race of great power and knowledge called 'The Eternals'. Therefore, Ike Harris's allusion to evolution and common descent comes from one who knows, and the 'professor' character who gives him grief for it turns out to an ignorant, pompous twit.
Here's are some actual Kirby riffs on the idea of God, by the way. These are quite a bit off the well-trod path of conventional theism, and marvelously imaginative:
12/27/2008
DON'T MESS WIT' DE KING!
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3 comments:
Out of curiosity, sir (and I apologize for my intrusiveness if my commentary is undesired), but I am curious, does Dr. Myers read/comment on your blog? The last comment he left on his post said that he still thought Kirby was an "evolutionary ignoramus," something which is ostensibly different from a creationist. Er...do you agree with that? Pardon my ignorance and confusion, of course.
PZ's left a message or two, but as to whether or not he's a regular reader, you'd have to ask him! I left a similar message in a comment on his site. I imagine PZ has more important things to do than to 'fact-check' minutiae of nerdy trivia about cool comic book creators like Jack Kirby, so whether or not he revises his original post is of no great moment to me. I actually regard him (PZ) as an ally where science education is concerned. He's provided assistance (often behind the scenes) when I've asked for it and I've met him once. He's got a mordant wit and is a pretty fair conversationalist with a beer stein in his hand. I genuinely like the guy, and hopefully he knows that many of my comments are just friendly joshing.
Ah, I see. Well, that makes sense, I suppose. Pardon me for asking, I didn't mean to impugn either Dr. Myers (regardless of my personal thoughts on the man) or your friendship with him. Thanks again for the clarification, and again, excuse my intrusiveness
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