A Creationist Cartoon Offers an Opportunity for the Learning Community to Understand Confirmation Bias

by | Jul 8, 2014 | Confirmation Bias, Information Analysis, Uncategorized

Someone, most probably a Creationist, at the Henry Grady High School in Atlanta tried to use a cartoon in a freshman biology class that showed evolution, humanism, homosexuality, pornography, racism, euthanasia, divorce and abortion as the work of Satan and at war with Christ and Christianity.

Here is the cartoon:

The cartoon was reportedly part of a  50-page PowerPoint presentation that had been uploaded to a file-sharing database for Atlanta Public School teachers. APS spokeswoman Jill Strickland Luse told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the cartoon has since been removed from the district’s database.

The reason I am posting it here is that it is a great opportunity for the Learning Community to learn from this.

The fact is that this was published.  And then withdrawn.

The discussion should then be around the conclusions we can draw of this.

Here are some of my conclusions.

  1. Look at the people fighting for Christ.  One is firing his cannon toward the head of his fellow solider.  Another is firing in the wrong direction.  I conclude the cartoonist is telling us the soldiers for Christ are ineffective because they are not working together.
  2. Also, look at the one solider firing at Satan.  He is hitting a ballon.  Whereas the soldiers for Satan are hitting the foundation of Christ.  I conclude the cartoonist is telling us that Satan is more effective than the soldiers for Christ at destroying the foundations of the beliefs.
  3. I find the inclusion of ‘racism” as a Satanic ballon very interesting.  If we go back to the 1860s and the abolitionist movement, I conclude the cartoonist is saying that Slavery is, and was, the work of Satan, and the Abolitionists were the soldiers for Christ.  I further conclude that the cartoonist is saying that George Wallace and those that opposed integration during the Civil Rights movement, and those today like the KKK or White Nationalists are also soldiers for Satan, and those that fought for Integration and fight today for Civil rights are the soldiers for Christ.
  4. The inclusion of Divorce as a ballon for Satan is also very interesting.  I conclude that the cartoonist is saying that divorce is the work of Satan.
  5. Finally I find the inclusion of euthanasia to be particularly concerning.  I pulled the plug on my 94 year old mother.  So, I guess the cartoonist is saying that I was possessed with Satan and that I should have left her on life support indefinitely.

In any case this is a great cartoon and one the Learning community can spend some time discussing.  One of the key questions I would think this could add value to is “Confirmation Bias.”

I think the Cartoonist and the individual that tried to put this into the classroom should come forth and help us understand the intent of their efforts.