I recently attended a lecture, at Williams College, given by Daniel Dennett, the philosopher and Tufts professor most well-known for his work on consciousness and his vigorous defense of evolutionary theory. During the presentation, Dennett referred to those seemingly ubiquitous chrome fish that people put on their car bumpers, either the original verion (the symbol of early Christianity) or the more modern 'Darwin fish'. Of course, the reason the fish was chosen by the early Christians was because the letters of the Greek word for 'fish', ichthus, formed an acronym for the phrase (again, in ancient Greek) 'Jesus Christ, lord, son of God'. Dennett said that, although he did not have ancient Greek, nevertheless an acquaintance had provided him with a Latin acronym for the Darwin fish.
How could I pass up such an opportunity?
For the remainder of the talk (as I was listening attentively, of course), I was busily drafting an ancient Greek DARWIN acronym that would be suitable for the Darwin fish. By the end of the night, it was done, and I offered it (and its translation, of course) to Dennett with my compliments. He has graciously posted it on his homepage - check it out! (It's a link to a *.ppt PowerPoint file.)
