Into the Lake of Fire
The hot news today is that Jack Chick — the world’s greatest theologian, philosopher, illustrator, humanitarian, and creationist — is offering another new tract. M’god, the guy was born in April of 1924 — which means that in a couple of months he’ll be 89 years old — and he’s still cranking out new material!
If you’re not yet familiar with Chick’s creationist comics, you can read them online from the links in this post: Creationist Comic Books. The pic above this post is from one of them — Moving On Up! — about the fate of an evolutionist. If you haven’t yet seen those comics, you really should. They’re all classics — especially Big Daddy? Chick is the purveyor extraordinaire of the most mindless, theologically primitive version of raw, young-earth creationism that can be found anywhere.
His newest tract, which you can read free online, is Let’s Fly Away! It’s not about creationism but because it’s the product of an influential creationist, it’s worth reading in order to know what’s going on out there. This stuff has shaped the thinking of millions of creationists — perhaps most of them — for the last couple of generations.
The new tract is about a sweet little girl with a horrible family, going through horrible circumstances, who gets saved and then … we’ll spoil the ending by telling you that she suddenly dies. In Jack Chick’s way of thinking that’s a happy ending.
Pleasant dreams, dear reader.
Copyright © 2013. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.
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The Sensuous Curmudgeon 
Since the vast majority of people who believe that we “evolved from monkeys” are creationists, and people with a proper scientific understanding know that we didn’t evolve from monkeys (but from some common ancestor we share), his premonition isn’t going to work out quite the way he imagines.
Gary, I don’t know much about monkeys, so I think I have distant ancestors which, if you could show me one and ask what it is, I would have to say, “I don’t know exactly, but some sort of monkey.” In that sense, I believe I’m descended from monkeys.
Why is it that whenever I read a Chick tract I expect to see Mr. Natural. The artwork looks so Crumby.
We ARE monkeys (or apes or descended from apes or monkeys). Either way we are essentially MONKEYS.
@jimroberts: Except we’re not descended from monkeys. Instead, we (humans or H. sapiens) share a common ancestor with monkeys, bonobos, orangutans and the lot. Whatever that common ancestor was is now extinct. Hence, technically “we’re not descended from no monkeys”; we’re descended from a common ancestor shared with monkeys (and apes and orangutans and bonobos, etc, etc).
@jimroberts: Oh, forgot to add, you could point at a monkey and say, “I don’t know what type of monkey that is, but he’s a relative of mine of some sort.” Kind of a “fifth cousin, ten times removed”, if you will.
Curmungeon, you sure got it wrong regarding the ending in the Jack Chick tract !
The girl was raptured, to meet the Lord in the Air ! She didnt die .Total blessing !
The terminal generation (this is it, I believe, there is much evidence) , will have the possibility to meet Jesus Christ, without passing through the veil of death. Read your Bible !
This is the blessed hope of every Christian !
Gary, I agree that we’re not descended from modern monkeys, or modern apes, or modern non-primate mammals, but we are apes, monkeys and mammals, because we are descended from (now extinct) apes, monkeys and mammals.
The rapture would certainly help with that 23% unemployment rate.
SC, Chick doesn’t keep coming up with new stuff; he just recycles the old. At least this child was only mistreated a little, beaten and starved a little, and then was “raptured.” There was another child in a Chick Tract some years ago, which I believe has since been removed from circulation. That one was about a father who lost his job and the mother (horrors!) had to go to work. Therefore, Dad had no choice but to rape his little girl and pass her around to the neighbors. Their doctor found out when he diagnosed the child with a venereal disease, but didn’t have to call the police or give her medicine or anything. They just prayed about it and then everything was just wonderful ponies, rainbows, unicorns and some strange idea of Jesus.
I thought we were apes. No?
Ellie asks: “I thought we were apes. No?”
We were. Now we’re severely mutated. To an unbiased observer we’re still apes, but weird ones.
Weirdest apes on the planet. Because our behavior is the most variable, also the most interesting.
We always get into idle arguments whenever monkeys, apes, and humans are mentioned. Part of this is, I suggest, because people get really upset about humans being so obviously related to other primates. Some of us who accept this reality try to mitigate that by saying that we are not descended from (modern) monkeys or apes. Others react by boldly asserting that we are monkeys or apes, not merely descended from them. Nobody disputes the reality of the relationship, so why do we argue about the words?
I vaguely remember a comment from, I think, George Gaylord Simpson, that the earliest primates would have looked pretty monkey-like to the casual observer. I think it more useful to talk about more recent ancestors, all of which, us included, are in the family Hominidae, the apes.
Oh yes, the scrupulously thought out “love me or burn ” argument…….
By the way, you can buy charbroiled monkey meat on a stick in the Philippines. I don’t think HMS Beagle ever got out there though.
It seems Chick is saying one shouldn’t reconcile ones faith with science
or knowledge. But then how did Malays get out there and why do they look so different from say someone from Africa? And why do they call monkey bush meat there. Why not hominidae stir fry or chimp chunks?
I hope Chick explains all this in a sequel.
Apes, monkeys, humans — what’s the difference? We’re all primates who have evolved down different paths. Also, it’s a mistake to say “Some of us have evolved more than others.” We are all constantly evolving, each generation being slightly different from the previous.
However, humans are definitely changing more rapidly now compared to other primates due to our greater mobility. Various traits that evolved independently on different continents are now coming together, resulting in greater homogenization of Homo Sapiens.
Of course, if you go back far enough (like 65 million years), we’re all descended from rats. Or at least something that looked like a rat. So, what species has changed the most? My vote goes to whales.
@Gary: We don’t get to choose our relatives. 🙂