Fish with legs

[TwinCrier]

the fish with legs, often used to mock the Christian Ichthus, is that a representation of an actual fossil?

 

[Karl - Liberal Backslider]

Not specifically, although there are any number of candidates.

It doesn't mock the Christian Ichthus, it mocks the "there should be fish with legs" line that creationists sometimes use. There are, of course, both extant and extinct fish with legs, but that never stopped them.

 

[Tomk80]

the fish with legs, often used to mock the Christian Ichthus, is that a representation of an actual fossil?

No, it is a result of the continuous false dichotomy evolution vs God which creationists often use.

 

[Amalthea]

the fish with legs, often used to mock the Christian Ichthus, is that a representation of an actual fossil?

This is a joke thread, right? You cannot have been seriously asking this.

 

[Phred]

the fish with legs, often used to mock the Christian Ichthus, is that a representation of an actual fossil?

Is the Christian fish a representation of an actual deity?

 

[Karl - Liberal Backslider]

No, it was a secret symbol in the times of the catacombs in Rome.

It's a Greek acronym

I - Iesous
CH - Christos (CH is a single letter in Greek)
TH - Theou (TH is a single letter in Greek)
U - Huios (The H is not spelt out in Greek, but is just a mark (rough breathing) on the U)
S - Soter

Translates as Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.

 

[joelazcr]

The Darwin fish is an icon of evolution, a forged representation of the truth of evolution. Kind of like CBS's forged memos actually representing the truth of the president's guard service.

 

[Dal M.]

The Darwin fish is an icon of evolution, a forged representation of the truth of evolution. Kind of like CBS's forged memos actually representing the truth of the president's guard service.

"Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter's remark seemed to have no sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English. " ~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

 

[1Trinity3]

The Darwin fish is an icon of evolution, a forged representation of the truth of evolution. Kind of like CBS's forged memos actually representing the truth of the president's guard service.

My favorite one is the fish, with Darwin writtten on the inside... but the legs are on the top. Thus representing that the fish is just as dead as his theory.
Trinity

 

[Chuck_Darwin]

A quick web search has turned this up about the fish symbol. This is about it's pre-christain meanings. Christains didn't invent it but co-opted to from there surrounding culture. (Sounds like what we are doing to the jesus fish....)

The pre-Christian history of the fish symbol:

The fish symbol has been used for millennia worldwide as a religious symbol associated with the Pagan Great Mother Goddess. It is the outline of her vulva. The fish symbol was often drawn by overlapping two very thin crescent moons. One represented the crescent shortly before the new moon; the other shortly after, when the moon is just visible. The Moon is the heavenly body that has long been associated with the Goddess, just as the sun is a symbol of the God.

The link between the Goddess and fish was found in various areas of the ancient world:

[font=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]In China, Great Mother Kwan-yin often portrayed in the shape of a fish[/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]In India, the Goddes Kali was called the "fish-eyed one"[/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]In Egypt, Isis was called the Great Fish of the Abyss[/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]In Greece the Greek word "delphos" meant both fish and womb. The word is derived from the location of the ancient Oracle at Delphi who worshipped the original fish goddess, Themis. The later fish Goddess, Aphrodite Salacia, was worshipped by her followers on her sacred day, Friday. They ate fish and engaging in orgies. From her name comes the English word "salacious" which means lustful or obscene. Also from her name comes the name of our fourth month, April. In later centuries, the Christian church adsorbed this tradition by requiring the faithful to eat fish on Friday - a tradition that was only recently abandoned.[/font][font=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]In ancient Rome Friday is called "dies veneris" or Day of Venus, the Pagan Goddess of Love.[/font][font=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]Throughout the Mediterranean, mystery religions used fish, wine and bread for their sacramental meal.[/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]In Scandinavia, the Great Goddess was named Freya; fish were eaten in her honor. The 6th day of the week was named "Friday" after her.[/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]In the Middle East, the Great Goddess of Ephesus was portrayed as a woman with a fish amulet over her genitals.[/font][font=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]

The fish symbol "was so revered throughout the Roman empire that Christian authorities insisted on taking it over, with extensive revision of myths to deny its earlier female-genital meanings...Sometimes the Christ child was portrayed inside the vesica, which was superimposed on Mary's belly and obviously represented her womb, just as in the ancient symbolism of the Goddess." Another author writes: "The fish headdress of the priests of Ea [a Sumero-Semitic God] later became the miter of the Christian bishops.

The symbol itself, the eating of fish on Friday and the association of the symbol with deity were all taken over by the early Church from Pagan sources. Only the sexual component was deleted.



[/font]

 

[Ondoher]

the fish with legs, often used to mock the Christian Ichthus, is that a representation of an actual fossil?

Fish with legs: Pederpes finneyae.

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2089873.stm
• http://www.evolutionpages.com/pederpes%20finneyae.htm
• http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/07/0704_020703T_Vtetrapod.html
• http://www.trussel.com/prehist/news294.htm

 

[armed2010]

My favorite one is the fish, with Darwin writtten on the inside... but the legs are on the top. Thus representing that the fish is just as dead as his theory.
Trinity

Wow, someone better tell the entire biology sector of science!!!

 

[Philosoft]

The Darwin fish is an icon of evolution, a forged representation of the truth of evolution.

Maybe so. I will say that dissecting those suckers in lab was a major pain. We ended up just breaking them in half.

 

[w81minit]

Maybe so. I will say that dissecting those suckers in lab was a major pain. We ended up just breaking them in half.

serious request: any pics? That would be cool.

 

[Prometheus_ash]

My favorite one is the fish, with Darwin writtten on the inside... but the legs are on the top. Thus representing that the fish is just as dead as his theory.
Trinity

Darwin's theory may be dead, but evolution itself is still alive and kicken. Biology exists because of evolution, so when you take away evolution you take away the entire field, and all of the wonders it has given us, like antibiotics.

You do like antibiotics don't you?

 

[USincognito]

It's a Greek acronym.

You're better at remembering what it means when I am, but when the acronym is written inside the symbol, it's called an acrostic.

 

[TwinCrier]

This is a joke thread, right? You cannot have been seriously asking this.

No, not at all. I tried to word my questiuon in a respectful manner. Thank you those who answered with the same seriousness. I was honestly curious.

 

[Aron-Ra]

When the Darwinfish logo was conceived, we hadn't yet discovered any of the prime candidates for it in the fossil record. But we've found a few of them since.

This is Acanthostega gunnari. Originally discovered in Greenland in 1988 by Dr. Jennifer Clack, professor of vertebrate paleontology at Cambridge university. This excellent rendering was done by another Cambridge paleontologist, Richard Hammond.

This is elginerpeton. The rendering is mine, but I had Jenny Clack and Richard Hammond both advising me via email as I skulpted this. I must admit that I botched it because the background should be a freshwater scene. The purpose of the peice was to sort through all the ancient four-legged fish fossils found so far, and present the closest match with the Darwinfish logo below.