I think we as freethinkers often wonder why the American public so easily accepts Creationism and Intelligent design or would at least allow for it to be a competing theory on the same level as Evolution. I think and I continue to contend that pop culture is a factor. And here is yet another example.

FedEx supports creationism! In a recent commercial originally airing during Superbowl XL which you can see online here (will open in a new window) a caveman sends his package by way of pterosaur. But humorously the flying reptile is eaten by a large carnivore which I would assume is a T-rex. The frustrated caveman then talks to his boss and tells him the "package didn't make it" at which point his caveman boss fires him for not using FedEx. The fired underling walks outside, angrily kicks a small dinosaur (I have no idea what species) and then is stomped on by what could be an Apatosaur or a similar large herbivore.

This is a very well done and funny commercial. It made me laugh the first time I saw it. But then I got to thinking about how incorrect it was. Why was something so incorrect funny? I mean it is the equivalent of assuming the earth is flat or that the sun revolves around the earth. In order to make the public laugh at such an incorrect event there must be an assumption that the public can imagine dinosaurs living with humans with a certain percentage even believing that it is true. How is that possible?

This is an example of pop culture building upon pop culture and ignoring science. We all grew up with images of dinosaurs and humans side by side starting with the story of Noah's ark in Sunday School and being reinforced by the Flintstones and Land of the Lost on TV. I'm sure one could find other examples of dinosaurs living with human beings in pop culture but those shows are the ones that readily come to mind.

Of course someone's going to think I'm being anal about this but all I am trying to point out is how odd this is. Dinosaurs and human beings did not live together. It is factually incorrect. Could we make a humorous commercial from other factually incorrect ideas such as this? Nothing really comes to mind. I have seen humor derived from what humans once believed was factually correct but wasn't and everyone was aware of the error and the humor was derived from the error. In the FedEx dino commercial there is no awareness that anything is out of place.

Dinosaurs and human beings living together is in the popular imagination, even in the imaginations of those who know better. I'm almost amazed that creationism doesn't have a stronger foothold in the United States. It has pop culture on its side.