His Country"s Most Colorful Adherent Of Creationism
Der Spiegel, Europe’s highest selling German weekly magazine with a circulation of over a million, carried a report on 22 September 2008 titled "The Theory of Evolution: The Weapon of the Godless." The report, written by Daniel Steinvorth, discussed Adnan Oktar’s intellectual struggle against Darwinism. The impact of the author’s work was described as follows: |
You can find Adnan Oktar’s interview with Der Spiegel"s Istanbul correspondent Daniel Steinvorth here.
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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 ... 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. ...
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. … As Hüseyin Çelik, Turkey"s orthodox minister of education, recently put it, Darwinism is nothing more than a "weapon of materialists and infidels." …
2008-10-03 15:59:20
