File talk:Circular tree of life.png

Subliminal Message?
I've seen a similar version of this "tree" in the past, but only in a large (readable) format. Looking at it as thumbnails here, however, I can't help but notice something curiously interesting - it is almost identical to the Hammer & Sickle as seen on the old Soviet flag. This raises a few issues and questions.

1. Provinence. Who designed this image and what are their professional, or otherwise, associations? Was the designer, or those who have adjusted the image over time, someone that was impartially trying to make something easy to understand, or did they have an agenda?

2. Is the similarity to the Soviet symbol an incredible coincidence, or is it a subliminal message by Creationists attempting to link evolution (and therefore atheism) with the Soviets (and therefore Stalinism)?

3. Even if it is entirely and demonstrably coincidental, is it an appropriate image given the proclivities of many Creationists? They will take any opportunity, no matter how flimsy the evidence, to promote their paranoia. This single image could very easily be used by certain American groups to "prove" much of their bizarre paradigm.

4. Has anyone raised this before, or am I the one that's being paranoid? I think it is a wonderfully elegant way of describing things, but I am worried about how it could be (mis-)used. Sokar (talk) 23:28, 18 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Pareidolia Scarlet A.pngtheist silverbrain.png 23:31, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

I think you'll find that I covered that in my initial comments. Even a cursory comparison between the old Soviet symbol and this tree of life makes the similarities clear. Obviously they are not exact (the Sickle is upside down to start with), but that doesn't matter when you're dealing with the sorts of people who think Obama is a secret communist Muslim attempting to destroy America and that "Darwinists" are a pack of atheist scum trying to destroy Christianity to further their homosexual schemes for world domination. There are only two conclusions: the image was designed provocatively to begin with, or it is an extraordinary coincidence which plays right into the hands of the YEC crowd, who would jump at the chance to link communism with evolution, and adds fuel to the fire.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/Symbol-hammer-and-sickle.svg/200px-Symbol-hammer-and-sickle.svg.png

Sokar (talk) 11:11, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Antarctica
Just came here to mention how the image kind of looks like Antarctica. I don't see a hammer or sickle. 68.227.174.198 (talk) 16:42, 1 June 2013 (UTC)