How Google's cute "doodles" became Satan's pawns

Those Google “doodles” that sometimes adorn the search giant’s homepage with clever variations on the company logo might be cute, but take a closer look. Critics charge that it’s possible to see in the sketches Google’s disdain for (take your pick) America, Muslims, Christians, Christmas, and creationism.

Take this week’s unveiling of the darwinius masillae fossil called Ida. Our own science editor, John Timmer, calls the fossil’s big reveal a tremendous bit of hype not fully justified by the science, but some press accounts have talked Ida up as a key missing link in human evolution.

So when Google turned Ida into a doodle, it was only a matter of hours before backers of creationism charged the Big G with “going ape over the supposed discovery of a ‘missing link’ in the evolution theory.”

And posters on message boards like Rapture Ready went much further. “I am really tired of this stupid AC [antichrist?] world… MY FATHER IS YHWH [Yahweh]… MY GOD AND MY SAVIOUR YESHUA [Jesus] and THE KADOSH RUACH [the Holy Spirit]….they [Google, not the Trinity] worship satan… Sick stuff.”

Another poster said that “I almost threw my laptop it made me soooooooooo mad! Made me wonder what the logo would look like after we’re taken outta here!”

But the Satan worshippers over at Mountain View don’t just irritate creationists waiting to be raptured. No, it turns out the doodles have a long history of angering people.

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