More Turkey, Less Comment
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A lavishly illustrated "Atlas of Creation" is mysteriously turning up at schools and libraries in Turkey, proclaiming that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is the real root of terrorism.
Arriving unsolicited by post, the large-format tome offers 768 glossy pages of photographs and easy-to-read text to prove that God created the world with all its species.
At first sight, it looks like it could be the work of United States creationists, the Christian fundamentalists who believe the world was created in six days as told in the Bible.
But the author's name, Harun Yahya, reveals the surprise inside. This is Islamic creationism, a richly funded movement based in predominantly Muslim Turkey which has an influence U.S. creationists could only dream of.
Creationism is so widely accepted here that Turkey placed last in a recent survey of public acceptance of evolution in 34 countries -- just behind the United States.
"Darwinism is dead," said Kerim Balci of the Fethullah Gulen network, a moderate Islamic movement with many publications and schools but no link to the creationists who produced the atlas. Creation vs. Darwin takes Muslim twist in Turkey
Skipping down ...
Like the Bible, the Koran says God made the world in six days and fashioned the first man, Adam, from dust. Other details vary but the idea is roughly the same.
But unlike in the West, evolution theory has not undermined the traditional creation story for many Muslims.
"Science is hardly an issue in Turkey, therefore evolution could hardly have been an issue," said Celal Sengor, a geology professor at Istanbul Technical University.
Farther down ...
"Atlas of Creation" offers over 500 pages of splendid images comparing fossils with present-day animals to argue that Allah created all life as it is and evolution never took place.
Then comes a book-length essay arguing that Darwinism, by stressing the "survival of the fittest," has inspired racism, Nazism, communism and terrorism.
"The root of the terrorism that plagues our planet is not any of the divine religions, but atheism, and the expression of atheism in our times (is) Darwinism and materialism," it says.
There's more. Interesting article.
posted by JimK at 4:09 PM
4 Comments:
I wonder how the Turkish government would feel if Western pharmaceutical companies stopped shipping drugs to them, and allowed them to treat all their physical ills solely with prayer. What then?
Hey, idiot "doctor":
Muslims don't hold that medical illnesses should only be treated with prayer.
Nor do most Christian creationists.
"At first sight, it looks like it could be the work of United States creationists, the Christian fundamentalists who believe the world was created in six days as told in the Bible."
This is an interesting article, Jim, but this statement is not accurate. Creationists are actually divided into two camps: Those who believe that the world was created in six twenty-four hour periods and those who hold that the process took longer.
As a matter of fact, the word translated as day in most English translations is actually used several times in the first three chapters of Genesis and is translated differently.
Further, the "old earth" creationists are divided into other groups which have varied theories, some of which say evolution, directed by a sovereign God, played a role.
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