Ian McCulloch, lead singer for Echo and the Bunnymen has a "Credo" in the Independent Online, in which he delivers himself of this constipated turd:
I believe in anti-Darwinism - otherwise why are there still monkeys?
Anyone who thinks Darwinism means that the ancestors of a modern species had to go extinct when it evolved, or who thinks that there is only ever one species per lineage, isn't anti-Darwinism, but anti-Lamarckism, for it was Lamarck, not Darwin, who thought that entire species changed leaving no ancestors alive. Darwin's own insight was that evolution was a tree not a single line from slime to sublime. It's now called the theory of Common Descent.
A musician is hardly the person to listen to when they are not performing.
He also shows a massive ignorance of how creative processes give rise to novelty:
I believe I should be in charge of what gets made and what doesn't in the film and music industries. About 90 per cent of music and films - by which I mean the money spent on making them - should be given to charity, because about 90 per cent is rubbish. We could be building a lot of hospitals with that money.
And if he was in charge of film and music, 90% of what he selects will be crap, because 90% of everything is crap. Stalin tried this, as does Kim Jong Il. And it's likely that with only one person in charge, much more than 90% would be crap. So we'd have hospitals full of the terminally bored.
Give me strength...
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Ian McCulloch...
never heard of him.
Post-punk Liverpool band popular in the late 80s.
Its him singing the opening song in the movie Donnie Darko.
I would have thought that the monkey comment was a joke rather than a real belief, however decent science education is not very widespread in the UK population so maybe he does think like that.
"... Sturgeon's Revelation: 'Ninety percent of everything is crud'. In fact, most modern uses of the term Sturgeon's Law actually refer to the Revelation... Another version of the story has Sturgeon involved in a panel discussion of modern literature with a professor of English literature. The professor read a few selected passages of 'purple prose' from popular science fiction works, and declared '90% of this Science Fiction is crap.' Sturgeon replied '90% of everything is crap.'..."
He also said :
I believe Liverpool Football Club will win a major trophy this season because we usually do.
He's clearly taking the piss...
How did Lamarck address the obvious question as to "how come there are still things at lower rungs on the ladder?"
Didn't he say that there were still lower things being generated and moving up to take the newly vacant places?
So that the "appropriate" answer to "how come there are still monkeys?" is:
Because there are shrews "evolving" into monkeys, and lizards into shrews, and fish into lizards, and ...
My favorite comeback to the stupid "If we are descendants of monkeys, how come there are still monkeys?" has always been the rethorical question: "If Americans are descendants of Europeans, how come there are still Europeans?" *
Combine that with
and I start wondering: what species was it that evolved to become us current Europeans when the original ones became Americans? Any good hypotheses? Or were we intelligently designed?
*John: I suppose you can say the same thing about Australians...
Well, it didn't seem to stop Reagan. Or Ventura. Or Arnie. Maybe it's just singers rather than performers...
Bono for UN Secretary General! Whoever won Australian Idol this year for Prime Minister!
Hang on, just remembered Peter Garrett is well on his way... I plead recent migration to this fair land as my only excuse...
I can pretty much guarantee you he's having a laugh, just look at the tone of all the answers. Tongue firmly in cheek.
I have always found it odd that just because someone has had some popularity, they are given credence on subjects completely outside of their realm. Dwight Yoakam made a similar statement regarding monkeys and evolution last year, and I was disappointed; but when I listen to songs like "Population Me" and "Streets of Bakersfield" I can forgive him.
For questions that the general populace in the UK may have regarding statements by celebrities regarding science (Think Suzanne Somers and her bioidenticals) an organization concerned with inaccurate science has created a special website:
http://www.senseaboutscience.com
It is quite possible that McCullogh is having one on for fun. Those artists are a mischievous lot.
Too bad Rick Santorum is no longer around to call him before a Senate subcommittee to explain why singers ought to be teaching intelligent design in public schools.
George Carlin is supposed to have said something similar, which is very disappointing. Maybe he had his tongue firmly in cheek too?
One response to this question is "did your parents and siblings (if any) die when you were born?"
I agree, that's quite a turd. But please don't think that all performers are so ignorant, generally. Some of we does thinks good, on occasion.
If it was tongue in cheek, then I apologise to the entire industry, apart from Mariah Carey and Madonna. But if Tom Waits said it, I'd have to carefully consider it.
I saw Echo and the Bunnymen many, many years ago. The Fleshtones opened up and Billy Bragg entertained the people lined up to get in. I'd like to say it was great concert, but I was kind of drunk. I do remember trying to impress girls by telling them I had been raised by wolves in some eastern European country . . . maybe I should have said monkeys.
But if Tom Waits said it, I'd have to carefully consider it.
"Don't you know there ain't no devil, there's just god when he's drunk" - that line makes me want to believe... :-)
I feel that I must set the record straight. I am a citizen of Liverpool who is appalled at the ignorance of the comment made by Ian McCulloch about evolution.