How Dry I.D. 03/27/2006 Greg Schirf of Wasatch Brewery is riding the wave of publicity over the intelligent design controversy in Utah. He came out with a new ¡°intelligently designed¡± beer: Evolution Amber Ale. The press release expresses his alarm over the alleged erosion of separation of church and state, but how serious (or sober) he was may be a matter of dispute:
To critics who accuse him of just being up to the same old publicity stunts, the often times contentious brewmeister responds, ¡°Perhaps, but we are really trying to live up to our mission statement, ¡®Craft the finest ales and lagers possible. Achieve a commercial profitability while maintaining the highest level of social responsibility. And have as much fun as we can legally get away with.¡¯¡±
Previous stunts included marketing a beer as the Gold Medal winning ¡°unofficial¡± Amber Ale of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
If this were intelligently designed product, why didn¡¯t they show the fully-evolved primate with a beer belly? This guy clearly didn¡¯t get his physique drinking Evolution Amber Ale, and if he were fully evolved, he would be sitting in the pose of Rodin¡¯s Thinker, not pumping glass. Thinking of that, it would be fun to see the Discovery Institute donate truckloads of this stuff to the NCSE in a goodwill gesture. While they¡¯re getting stoned, the real thinkers, fully clothed and in their right minds, could be attending school board meetings, campaigning, writing books and forming IDEA clubs – whatever they can do to enhance the Darwin Party¡¯s morning hangover experience. Come morning, ID supporters could even offer them free therapy. They could tell them that the quickest way out of a hangover is more Evolution Amber Ale. It not only smothers the depression, they can argue, but enhances mutagenesis, providing more raw material for evolution. This is the way to kill a strife with kindness.