infobong.com

The New York Times has a story today about the reception of the nature documentary March of the Penquins among the Christian Right. Some conservatives point to the penguins' commitment to child-rearing as exemplary of American "family values." One commentator even provides viewers with a worksheet to take to the theater.Of course, many commentators are deploying the movie in the effort to promote the Intelligent Design hoax as an alternative to evolution, suggesting penguin mating habits are too complex to have arisen through adaptation. The article notes that conservative columnist George Will asked, "If an Intelligent Designer designed nature, why did it decide to make breeding so tedious for those penguins?"

It's interesting to contrast this with the reception the ANWR photography show at the Smithsonian a few years back. Conservatives pressured the curators to remove all the captions since some advocated preserving the refuge. In this case, conservatives have appropriated a text that could easily be used to advance a green position, but using it as a platform for doubting science.