Finding Inspiration in Marching Penguins

An article from yesterday's New York Times explains how some religious-conservatives are drawing inspiration and life-lessons from the film "March of the Penguins." This has raised a few eyebrows.

George Will, quoted in the article, asks,

"March of the Penguins" raises this question: If an Intelligent Designer designed nature, why did it decide to make breeding so tedious for those penguins?

and concludes,

Reality's swirling complexity is sometimes lovely, sometimes brutal; its laws propel the comings and goings of life forms in processes as impersonal as Antarctica is to the penguins...

It is so grand that nothing is gained by dragging an Intelligent Designer into the picture for praise. Or blame.

PZ Myers, scientist and partisan, provides a reminder and observation:

Let's just remember that it is a seasonal monogamy—[penguins] get different breeding partners in different breeding seasons. This apparently justifies the practice of the Republican leadership in cashing in their old wives for new trophies.

Carl Zimmer reports from the future on some additional movies with family values. For example,

Harem of the Elephant Seals: Meet Dad: a male northern elephant seal who spends his days in bloody battles with rivals who would challenge his right to copulate with a band of females—but doesn’t life a finger (or a flipper) to help raise their kids.

For my part, I will just observe the irony that some who criticise evolution as promoting animalistic behavior apparently are looking to animals for lessons on life. Of course, the model animals must be carefully chosen.