One of the annoying things about creationists is that they always criticize evolution by characterizing it as either the Pokemon version or the regular people version, not realizing that neither is correct.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Pokemon is still more believable than the Bible.
Wait. I’m just a humble country lawyer or something (well, neither humble nor country, but never mind), but doesn’t that “Science” phylogenetic tree suggest that homo erectus or australopithecus or something is less closely related to us than chimpanzees are?
Good catch Rieux. Are chimps nested amongst those hominids closer to H. sapiens? Sounds more radical than Jared Diamond’s Third Chimpanzee.
@#1, Ray Ceeya:
The Pokémon illustration is more believable than the Religion illustration, but thanks to a couple of friends who are fixated on the series, I can tell you that even ignoring the faults in Pokémon “evolution” (nearly all evolving species follow a single path regardless of experience/environmental pressure, some species just do not evolve regardless of experience/pressure, etc.) the Pokémon universe is basically just a weird, alternate-universe creationism, with a creator god and all sorts of strange magical stuff. (“This horse is literally on fire all the time and is extremely dangerous, but if you gain its trust before riding it you will not be burned by the flames. Because that is how flames work, everybody knows oxidation obeys mental commands.”)
I found Pokemnon evolution quite useful when I taught 9th grade biology. I had the students detail how it differed from real evolution and give it the name of the real biological process it represented: metamorphosis.
The VIcar @4
Yup. The only way to explain the Pokemon universe is that it was created by a god or gods with a twisted sense of humour.
Also, while a lot of attention is given to the pocket monsters, not enough is given to the “humans”, a humanoid species capable of surviving fire, electrocution, and being blasted into the sky and find no danger in letting their children wander from town to town without supervision.
Yes, that “science” evolutionary tree is bizarre. I suspect the artist gets that human evolution is not a linear progression, but doesn’t know anything about human phylogeny or nested hierarchies except that chimps are mixed in there somewhere. And thinks that all hominins look the same. A pity.
not definitive and contains inaccuracies but pretty good for a cartoon
uncle frogy
It’s even stupider than that. Most of the creationists I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with are the croco-duck, “I ain’t never seen a cat give birth to a dog” variety.
@9- Akira
After getting seriously sloppy drunk with my Jehovah Witness neighbors (yeah take a few minutes for that to sink in) one of them said something off the wall in reference to his misconception of evolution in a thick German accent about dogs and cats having productive sexual relations but in very colorfully vulgar detail I won’t repeat here (maybe trying to convey a Watchtower article he had read). They are actually good people. Oddball views of reality though. Bought me a keg for my “birthday” we didn’t officially “celebrate” at their house (wink, wink).
Just stay away from and gaming forums this week; the new Pokemon games come out of Friday and only have 400 of the some 900 known species of the pocket monsters. My fellow trainers are very salty about this.
nomdeplume@7–
Maybe the rightmost hominid branch in that cartoon represents Republicans.
From what I understand about Pokemon, it was originally supposed to be called metamorphosis rather than evolution but the game lacked the memory needed to show the monster sprites growing and changing as they went from one form to the next. So it got changed to being called evolution and monsters just instantly poofed to their next form.
nomdeplume@7,
The cartoonist also apparently believes that science says all hominins other than Homo sapiens sapiens suffered from osteoporosis or spinal arthritis!
@9 Akira: “Most of the creationists I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with are the croco-duck, “I ain’t never seen a cat give birth to a dog” variety.”
How do you mean, displeasure? It’s great fun to reply with “a cat giving birth to a dog would actually falsify evolution theory” and watch their thick facial expressions!
@2 Rieux
Yeah, I noticed that too.
The Pokémon universe was created by a Pokémon
Yes, that’s exactly how evolution works there, I know it because I’ve tried it many times.
Are people seriously arguing that a fantasy universe must be consistent with our boring laws of physics?
@#17, Giliell:
Nope. Just pointing out that the Pokémon universe is not actually an improvement over blatant creationism.