As I was browsing one of my favorite clothing sites, I noticed that they had recently added a new T-Shirt design, and what I found surprised me.
Here's the description of the shirt: "For years, the habitability of the reef of automobile bumpers went unnoticed by fish (and marine biologists) everywhere. The first fish to recognize the opportunity was the ΙΧΘΥΣ aka the Jesus fish. They swam along happily on their little bumpers, sometimes singly, sometimes in schools. Then they were joined by the Darwin fishes. The Darwin fish's chief claim to fame was its feet. They paced back and forth on bumpers going, "Behold! I have feet!" One day when they were busy showing off some new shoes they'd just bought, they were eaten by the easily-annoyed and apparently very hungry but definitely not-superior-as-a-result-of-natural-selection Truth fishes."
Interesting, that even the 'secular' world, as it were, is annoyed with what could now be called an 'empty' symbol. Have we really abused the ΙΧΘΥΣ so much that it is now poked fun at to the point where all people want is for it to just go away? The Ichthys gained its status as a Christian symbol during a time where people were hunted down for saying that they were Christians, and now it's looked at as little more than "that symbol those people had on their car as they cut me off and gave me the finger."
Perhaps I'm reading too heavily into what could be just a fun t-shirt design, but this bothers me nonetheless...
This bothers me as well. I think the real problem is that people just can't let something slide without twisting it on its side and trying to make some perverted kind of fun of it.
ReplyDeleteIt really did all start with the Darwin fishes; I blame them. The "STFU" shirt is the response of a populous that is tired of the stupid fight that shouldn't even exist.
The "Christian fish" does still hold meaning for people. I actually saw a car last month that had the license plate "IX0YE." And perhaps that's the reason that this symbol is so hotly contested? It's the way Satan works: by corrupting what is of God. So, like an orc bred from a tortured elf, the Darwin fish was spawned as an insulting distortion of what was once a sacred symbol.