Why are Fire Engines Red?

Why are Fire Engines Red?

They have four wheels and eight men;
Four plus eight is twelve;
Twelve inches makes a ruler;
A ruler is Queen Elisabeth
Queen Elisabeth sails the seven seas;
The seven seas have fish;
The fish have fins;
The Finns hate the Russians;
Russians are red;
Fire engines are always rushin’;
So they’re red!

This joke about why fire engines are red is well circulated. Do not recall who made it up. Its hilarity comes from the fallacious equivocation of terms. A “ruler” (measuring device) is confounded with a “ruler” (head of a domain), “fin” (fish appendage) with “Finn” (native of Finland), Russian (the native of Russia) with “rushing” (moving hurriedly), and “Red” (allusion to the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army of Communist Russia) with “red” (color).

Despite the humor of this red fire engines joke, the same fallacious equivocation of terms gets employed in formal discussions and debates on matters of significance, which is nothing to laugh about. Fallacious equivocation often occurs with respect to “evolution” in discussions on the origin of life. One can speak about “evolution” in technology. For example, humanity first had to learn how to light a fire prior to learning how to smelt and forge metal. Knowing how to smelt and forge metal becomes part of the prerequisites for building planes, trains, and automobiles. Technological evolution involves intelligent causes (knowledge, imagination, innovation, planning, etc.). The term “evolution” takes on a different sense when referring to all biological species deriving from a common ancestor and progressing from simple to complex lifeforms through unguided, unintelligent, purposeless processes, i.e., Darwinian evolution. These two different senses of “evolution” ought never to be confounded, especially in discussing the origin of life.

Whenever we delve into discussions on weighty matters of philosophy, science, and theology, we are best to define our terms, otherwise we might wind up committing fallacious equivocations as in the “Why are Fire Engines Red?” joke. (See related discussion in “Thinking Clearly About God and Evolution” by Jay Richards).