Both are insulation foam painted to look like wood. That worked great for the sign, but the post was actually not quite sturdy enough, and broke not long after this photo. Fortunately I was able to set aside the broken bit and just be somewhat more careful with the shorter post, and then I remade the post with a metal core to give it some extra strength and rigidity

It’s a simplified stand-in for “creation or evolution?” The “hard to tell” usage of the phrase that is often used has always confused me, because it is an easy answer regardless of your worldview, but different worldviews have different ‘obvious’ answers