Perfect Satire

As a professional satirist (who has yet to be paid, but the check’s in the mail), I find our modern culture to be extremely disheartening. It seems these days that the only way the average person will understand that he is watching satire is if it says “Stephen Colbert” somewhere in the title. Personally, I think this has to do with the liberal mindset.

In fact, when I wrote Public Transit my goal was for Conservatives to roll in the aisle laughing at the irony while Liberals read it going, “What’s wrong with this? Sounds like a good idea to me!” In other words, I wanted my satire to be so realistic that those who believe the concepts that were being mocked wouldn’t even realize they were being lampooned.

Now whether or not I succeeded in that book, I have found something that has! It’s the Richard Dawkins Rap Video that Sinner & Saint first pointed us to a while back. When I first saw the video, frankly, I couldn’t see how anyone could miss the fact that this is a blatant anti-Dawkins video.

Then I read the response from the New Atheist front. They think that this video is pro-them!

Somehow, the atheists over at Richard Dawkins’s blog and PZ Myers’s blog (and many other dark holes) are convinced that this video is anti-Creationist and pro-Darwin. It’s actually quite revealing that these are the people who proclaim themselves to be the intellectual towers in the land…and they were sucked in by this.

From the opening, this video demonstrates how arrogant Dawkins is. “We appreciate your concern. It is noted and stupid. After all, we are scientists much, much smarter than you.” (By the way, am I the only one who thinks the Dawkins voice actor in this video sounds a lot like the guy who did the Dawkins Delusion parody?)

Immediately following this, you have two scientists examining a test tube. The Darwinist comments that “Natural Selection creates that sort of thing every day” and the other responds, “I think there’s something else going on here.” At which point, the Darwinian scientist makes a call: “Big Gadget, this is Little Tool. We’ve got ourselves a situation.” (Obviously, then, the Darwinians are “tools” of the machine, and now the atheists have edjukated us that being called a tool is a good thing instead of an insult!) The non-Darwinian scientist is then ejected from the lab with “Expelled” stamped on his forehead.

Obviously, this video was not done by the producers of Expelled. I mean, it totally doesn’t fit the theme of their movie at all...

Most of the atheists have simply managed not to view this entire section of the video. Instead, they respond: “The rap lyrics are pro-science!” In other words, they ignore the prologue that sets up the context to the video in order to claim the video is on their side.

It’s amazingly similar to the way Darwinists do science, too. Ignore all the evidence that doesn’t fit with their theory, and then claim that science agrees with Darwinists. They must have gotten used to skewing reality so often they didn’t even realize they’d done it here.

The lyrics of the song are hardly flattering either. And it’s certainly not “pro-science.” Instead, you have Dawkins claiming science while arguing solely from a position of authority. The chorus of the rap is:

He’s the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD
He’s smarter than you, he’s got a science degree.
Dick to the Dawk to the PhD
He’s smarter than you, he’s got a science degree.

The second time through the chorus it changes (evolves!) to:

Yo, he’s the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD
He’s smarter than you, he’s got a science degree.
Dick to the Dawk to the PhD
He’s still smarter than you, he studied biology.

Yet every good scientist ought to know that degrees don’t matter to science. Science is science if it’s testable and repeatable, not if someone with a degree says it’s science. So the lyrics are hardly “pro-science.” At best, one could claim they're pro-Dawkins...IF you ignore the fact that 99% of people who hear someone say, "I have a PhD therefore I'm right" experience this negatively. But it can't be good for science to rest on laurels instead of evidence.

That’s what makes it scary. Atheists who claim they want science to be the standard are saying this is what they mean by "science". Makes one feel all warm and tingly inside, don’t it?

So to sum up how this video goes, it begins by portraying Darwinism as an out of control “machine” that stifles intellectual thought and expels those who disagree with the Darwinian orthodoxy; it shows Dawkins is one of the most arrogant people on Earth (a true statement, by the way); it shows that the Darwinists argue on authority, not science; and it ends with Dawkins admitting he’s a rabid atheist:

Now the machine of our makin’
Sees culture ripe for the takin’
Cuz I’m the rapinest rabidest atheist too*
Unlike the Catholic, the Muslim, or even the Jew
Believes that no god but Science could ever be true.
[Heck] if I was dyslexic, I’d even hate dog too.

* That’s my best guess as to the last word in that line. It actually sounds like he says “atheist Sue.” Interestingly enough, none of the atheist’s versions of the lyrics that I read said “rabidest” there. The one on PZ Myers’ site, for instance, just says: “Cos I'm the rapper thats rappin the ....” (the “….” at the end shows I’m not the only one who can’t figure out that last word!) But if you listen to the video at the 3:12 mark, he definitely says “rapinest rabidest atheist”).

Now, in what way could this possibly be construed as a pro-Darwinian piece? Well, because:

it's far too smart to be pro-creationism. Whoever made it is on the side of the atheists...

I get the feeling that the video is meant to poke fun at both sides of the evolution/ID debate, albeit I agree with the commenter who said that it seems too clever and hip to be the work of a creationist.…

This is simply not how a creationist would parody the pro-science side….

The quality of the work was relatively high (except for a talent for blustering…and whining craetionists have never shown that they are capable of anything artistic, unless directly aping [heh!] another source.)…

No wonder these atheists thought it was pro-them. They’re just as arrogant as Dawkins!