A Muslim Creationism Debate
Taking on Darwin in Turkey
By Daniel Steinvorth in Istanbul
Fundamentalist Christians in America are not the only ones leading a crusade against Darwin. Creationism and "intelligent design" are becoming increasingly popular among Turkey's Muslims, too.
The man who wants to save the world goes by the name of Harun Yahya and resembles an actor from the age of silent films. He wears a white silk suit, gold cufflinks and has a finely trimmed beard on his chin. "In 20 years," he says in serious tone, "humanity will enter a golden age."
Yahya says that he discovered these joyful tidings in the Bible and the Koran. He maintains that it is a "scientific fact" that Jesus and Mahdi, the Muslim messiah, will return to mankind to solve all global conflicts. Beforehand, however, he says that these two heavenly emissaries will have to tackle another challenge: They must eradicate the heresy of British naturalist Charles Darwin, who postulated that all life arose from a process of natural selection.
As Yahya sees it, Darwinism is the root of all the world's evils. In order to help rid the world of this theory, he has had thousands of copies of The Atlas of Creation printed and shipped around the world. This large-format 800-page tome aims to prove that there never was a natural evolution of species. Instead, it contends that all forms of life on earth have remained unchanged for millions of years. Brightly colored illustrations of fossils have been included so as to document the lack of so-called transitional forms.
Yahya, 52, a onetime student of architecture, is without a doubt his country's most colorful adherent of creationism. He claims that he has already sold 8 million copies of his various books. Last year, thousands of copies of The Atlas of Creation were delivered -- on an unsolicited basis -- to schools around Europe. The identity of the person or institution footing the bill for this initiative remains unclear.
In addition to Yahya, who is currently being prosecuted "for illegal personal gain," there are other vehement opponents of evolution in Turkey. One of these is Kerim Balci, a journalist who works for the pro-government newspaper Zaman. His message: "God isn't the one who's dead; it's Darwinism."
A survey conducted in 2006 showed just how unpopular the theory of evolution remains in the most modern of all Islamic countries. The populations of 34 countries were questioned on their attitude toward the theory of evolution, and the lowest percentage of supporters was found in Turkey. Only a quarter of Turks feel that Darwin’s theory is correct. Just barely ahead of them -- in 33rd place -- were the Americans.
For Ibrahim Betil, a Turkish community activist involved in school programs, these figures stand in stark contrast with the country’s official educational policies. Unlike what's happening in a number of areas in the US, all attempts to introduce creationism into biology classes in Turkey have been blocked. Only the theory of evolution is taught "in every school, in every classroom, even in the remotest provinces."
But that could change soon. As Hüseyin Çelik, Turkey's orthodox minister of education, recently put it, Darwinism is nothing more than a "weapon of materialists and infidels." Çelik is a great admirer of the theory of "intelligent design" -- a modern version of the theory of creationism, which claims to recognize the hand of some sort of designer behind all the world’s natural laws.
COUNTERING SCIENCE WITH THE WORD OF GOD
Charles Darwin founded the study of evolution with the 1859 publication of his book "On the Origin of Species." His work not only revolutionized the natural sciences; it also dealt a severe blow to theistic religions by saying that life on Earth was determined by natural selection rather than God's creation. The religious establishment has feared that the theory would threaten the importance given to God.
Creationism posits that the universe, Earth and all forms of life came about in the way described in the Old Testament. However, there are a number of different currents to the theory of Creationism. Less radical adherents believe that the Old Testament provides only an approximate account of events which should not be taken literally -- or that the six days mentioned in the Old Testament in reality correspond to much longer geological periods. Adherents of "Young Earth creationism," however, believe that God created Earth and life in six 24-hour periods -- and no more than 10,000 years ago.
Camouflaged fundamentalism: The supporters of intelligent design -- a pseudo-scientific version of creationism -- don't talk about God but about a supernatural intelligence behind all things. Adherents of creationism in the US began calling it "intelligent design" primarily for legal reasons because US courts had forbidden religious instruction at public schools on a number of occasions. Using this new label, adherents try to claim that their belief is equally deserving of being taught as the theory of evolution. At the same time, they also take advantage of the fact that the word "theory" also carries the connotation of being a mere guess. In the sciences, however, coming up with a theory demands research, evidence and scientific publication.
The main argument of the adherents of intelligent design against the theory of evolution is that the complexity of the forms of life existing today are too complex to have resulted via a process of natural selection. Even the Cambrian explosion from roughly 540 million years ago is viewed as having resulted from the intervention of a higher being. The period, which lasted between 40 million and 50 million years, saw a dramatic rise in the number and diversity of species.
The belief in divine creation is held across the world, though perhaps not to the extent claimed by Creationists. In August 2006, the scientific journal "Science" published an article about surveys regarding beliefs in the US, Japan and 32 European countries over the last 20 years. The results showed that in Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, France and Japan, less than 20 percent of the population believes in divine creation. Germany was in 10th place, with over 70 percent of its population believing in evolution and only 22 percent believing in divine creation. The US took second place behind Turkey. Only 40 percent of the US population believes in evolution, while 39 percent believes in Biblical creationism, and the numbers of the latter are growing.
The complexity of the issue, however, can be seen in the divergent results obtained from various surveys. For example, the percentage of people who claim to believe in divine creation ranges between 45 percent and 55 percent, depending on the way the question is phrased. Between 30 percent and 40 percent claim to believe that evolution does occur, though with divine involvement. In frequent surveys, only around 10 percent of Americans claim to believe that God played absolutely no role in the development of life and humankind.
A 2005 survey conducted by the German pollster Emnid found that half of all respondents believed that a higher power created Earth and life. There was a significant difference between the states of the former West Germany and those of the former East Germany: While 35 percent in the east believe in a divine role in creation, 54 percent do so in the west. A 2007 survey conducted at the University of Dortmund found that one in every eight people starting in a teacher-training program had doubts about the theory of evolution.
Harun Yahya, 52 (legal name: Adnan Oktar), is a Turkish author and one of the most famous adherents of Creationism in the Islamic world. Yahya likes to point to Darwinism as the root of all evil and the real driving force behind Islamist terrorism. Yahya became famous in the 1990s as a Holocaust denier, although in more recent years he has officially distanced himself from that position. At the same time, however, in one of his books he accuses "radical Zionists" of having fomented anti-Semitism in the 1930s "in collaboration with the Nazis" and to have exploited it both politically and economically.
More recently, Oktar has drawn attention for sending thousands of copies of his 800-page book "Atlas of Creation" to schools and journalists all over the world.
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