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Darwin reframed (and defamed?)

By Rebecca Tushnet

Mary Elizabeth Williams, Kirk Cameron monkeys with Darwin: The sitcom star and super-Christian is giving away a new version of "On the Origin of Species," and it's got Nazis

Celebrations and exhibitions commemorating [the publication of ?On the Origin of Species?] are gearing up across the world, but Cameron and his God squad are not going to sit around quietly while monkey ancestry gets peddled to America?s youth. On Nov. 21, they?re handing "the truth" straight to them -- in the form of 50,000 free copies of Darwin?s book, amended with a 50-page introduction refuting the whole megillah, at the top 50 college campuses across the country.. . . .

It?s easy to laugh at the absurdity of the project. It?s already being widely mined for its rich comic value, notably by a hot blond Romanian woman, who suggests maybe we get Richard Dawkins to do a new introduction to the Bible . . . .

But what's not funny is what happens when ?the opposing -- and correct -- view? gets into the hands of "our future doctors and lawyers and politicians." That's when they realize they're holding a sneaky defilement of one of the most important books ever written. Nowhere on the front of the ?beautiful, full color cover edition? are the words ?extremist Christian version.? Because maybe if those targeted 50,000 students knew they were getting their free book from a ministry that advises its practitioners on how to ?shut up? a Jew or explain to a homosexual that he?s damned, they might not be so keen on it. They might feel duped and angry at accepting something from a group that proclaims free speech but doesn?t have the courage to put its true intentions right there on the cover.

So, in a moral rights jurisdiction, would Darwin's heirs be able to suppress this edition?

Full post as published by 43(B)log on September 24, 2009 (boomark / email).