Tag: Darwin

New Kind of Darwinian Struggle

An Islamic Creationist Stirs

a New Kind of Darwinian Struggle

Mr. Oktar Has Plenty of Fans in Turkey, but Biologists Beg to Differ

By ANDREW HIGGINS

ISTANBUL — As scientists around the world celebrate the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s seminal work on evolution, Adnan Oktar, a college dropout turned theorist of Islamic creationism, is working on the fifth volume of a 14-part masterwork that he says will bury Darwinism once and for all.

“Darwin and his theory are dead,” says Mr. Oktar, founder and honorary president of the Science Research Foundation, an Istanbul outfit dedicated to debunking the Victorian-era English naturalist. Darwin, says his 52-year-old Turkish scourge, is “Satan’s biggest trick on humanity.”

Adnan Oktar

Mr. Oktar, who briefly studied interior design, hasn’t had much success swaying scientists with the weight of his research. “He is a complete and utter ignoramus,” says Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and Oxford University professor.

The physical weight of Mr. Oktar’s work, however, is considerable. Each volume of his anti-Darwin magnum opus, “Atlas of Creation,” weighs more than 13 pounds. Also weighing in on his side are very aggressive lawyers. They’ve repeatedly gone to court in Turkey to silence critics whom Mr. Oktar accuses of spreading “lies and insults.” Scores of Web sites have been banned at his behest.

These include the site of Oxford’s Prof. Dawkins, which Mr. Oktar — who writes under the pen name Harun Yahya — got blocked last fall after it posted an article entitled “Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya.” Prof. Dawkins responded to the ban by posting a Turkish translation of the article. Mr. Oktar derides Prof. Dawkins, an outspoken atheist, as “a pagan monk.”

Mr. Oktar’s combative zeal has put him in the vanguard of what some secular-minded Turks lament as a dangerous phenomenon: a retreat from science into religious dogma. “We are trying to turn the trend back, but I’m not sure we’ll be successful,” says Aykut Kence, a biology professor at Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

Prof. Kence has worked with like-minded scholars on a series of conferences and other events marking Darwin’s birth 200 years ago and the publication, in 1859, of “On the Origin of Species.” He last week joined a chorus of secular outrage over a decision by the official journal of Turkey’s state scientific-research council to pull a planned cover story on Darwin.

“If people can’t accept Darwin, they can’t accept science. They can’t think,” says Prof. Kence.

A recent survey found that only a quarter of students entering Turkish universities accept Darwin’s theory of evolution and that the proportion is much the same when they graduate. The findings, says Prof. Kence, are “very depressing.”

Islam, like Christianity, holds that God created the world and its creatures. But the Quran leaves more room for acceptance of evolution than does the Old Testament, which states that the world was created in six days. Creationism, says Prof. Kence, was originally a “Christian import,” but has gained traction among Muslims, thanks in part to Mr. Oktar.

Mr. Oktar’s message has won support in some unlikely quarters, most notably among educated, wealthy Turks from secular families. Emre Calikoglu, a businessman in the construction industry, says he was “not interested in religious things before” he met Mr. Oktar but is now a devoted believer.

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A volume of Adnan Oktar’s anti-Darwin magnum opus, ‘Atlas of Creation.’ He is working on the fifth volume of a 14-part work.

His construction firm has been hit hard by the economic crisis, but he welcomes predictions by Mr. Oktar that capitalism will soon be replaced by a new, greed-free system. In his spare time, Mr. Calikoglu works for Global Publishing, the publisher of Mr. Oktar’s “Atlas of Creation.” It has translated Mr. Oktar’s works into 57 languages, including Swahili and Albanian.

Mr. Oktar’s urbane and often multilingual fans serve as missionaries abroad. At a Vatican-sponsored conference on evolution earlier this month in Rome, a Turk who introduced himself as a brain surgeon took the floor to expound — in fluent English — on Mr. Oktar’s views on fossils. Organizers snatched away the microphone.

How Mr. Oktar funds his global campaign is a mystery. He says only that he has various “commercial activities” and many businessmen friends. “My friends are usually rich people.”

Over the years, Mr. Oktar has also gathered many foes.

“He’s a megalomaniac. He worships the mirror,” says Edip Yuksel, a Turkish writer who got to know Mr. Oktar in the 1980s when he first began developing his idiosyncratic take on Islam. Now a bitter critic, Mr. Yuksel has written a Turkish-language book on Mr. Oktar — “The Cult of the Antichrist” — but says he hasn’t found a publisher willing to brave Mr. Oktar’s lawyers. His Web site is banned in Turkey.

The 1980s were a period of political turmoil and also Islamic awakening in Turkey. A military coup at the start of the decade led to the arrest of many left-wingers but left Muslim activists mostly unscathed. Under their influence, the Ministry of Education in 1984 revised textbooks to include creationism alongside Darwinism.

In 1986, Mr. Oktar published his first book, “Freemasonry and Judaism,” a tirade against the perils of atheism. He then spent 10 months in a mental hospital. Mr. Oktar says he was never mentally ill but was institutionalized to stifle his views. Military doctors later declared him mentally sound, he says, but he complains that Turkish media “propagated the idea that I was a lunatic.”

Mr. Oktar has had various brushes with the law, including a 1991 drug-possession case in which, he says, security agents planted cocaine in his food. He was acquitted. A glamorous model then accused him of blackmail. The case collapsed. Mr. Oktar is now fighting to reverse a conviction last year of himself and six others for forming an unnamed illegal organization that Mr. Oktar says does not exist.

“I have a great number of enemies,” says Mr. Oktar, who blames his troubles on a “Darwinist dictatorship.”

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‘The Atlas of Creation’ is the work of Turkish Islamic teacher Adnan Oktar, who over the past decade has published a flood of books under the pseudonym Harun Yahya.

Unlike strict Christian creationists, who assert the world was created in six days around 10,000 years ago, Mr. Oktar allows for a far longer time period stretching back billions of years. But he agrees with those Christians who insist life didn’t evolve, asserting that animals and plants now are exactly as they were at the dawn of time.

His “Atlas of Creation” produces thousands of pictures of fossils of birds, snakes and other creatures side by side with what he says are their identical modern kin. Prof. Dawkins derides the exercise as “total inanity” and says Mr. Oktar confuses snakes with eels and makes other elementary blunders.

One of the pictures in the first volume of Mr. Oktar’s work features what is labeled as a caddis fly. It is in fact a man-made fishing fly with a metal hook clearly visible. Mr. Oktar says this is a “little detail” and believes that “just 10 pages of my book can defeat Dawkins.”

He’s offered a reward of 10 million Turkish lira (around $6 million) to anyone who can produce a fossil that proves evolution. He has also invited his Oxford foe to a debate.

Prof. Dawkins says he has no intention of accepting, as that would only “give legitimacy” to “this weird phenomenon.” Mr. Oktar, he says, “doesn’t know anything about zoology, doesn’t know anything about biology. He knows nothing about what he is attempting to refute.”

Write to Andrew Higgins at andrew.higgins@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A1

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123724852205449221#mod=todays_us_nonsub_page_one

March 17, 2009
”AGGRIEVED DARWIN” PROPAGANDA IS A TRICK

A new piece of propaganda has recently entered the agenda in the Turkish and international pro-Darwinist press. It has persistently been claimed that reports about Darwin are censored and that “science is therefore under pressure.” Under headlines such as “They have sent Darwin to the shredder,” the Darwinist dictatorship tries to give the world the impression that Darwinism is being “aggrieved.”

But THIS IS AN UGLY TRICK BEING PLAYED BY THE DARWINIST DICTATORSHIP.

For some two centuries now, Darwinism has been under the protection of freemasons and atheist zionists, who first proposed it. This heretical ideology enjoys official protection in 95% of the states of the world. It is officially taught in schools. INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITIES AIMED AGAINST OFFICIALLY PROTECTED DARWINISM ARE PREVENTED THROUGH OFFICIAL CHANNELS. Even the most dangerous ideologies – fascism and communism – can be criticized. But it is impossible to criticize Darwinism. One can only find work in official institutions or get on in school by appearing to espouse Darwinism. Otherwise, the Darwinist dictatorship immediately goes to work. People who speak out against it are silenced, pressurized, removed from their posts and deprived of all resources. This fact, which has been repeated time and time again, IS SHAMELESSLY AND BLATANTLY APPLIED BY DARWINISTS.

Senior professors hurriedly removed from their posts for supporting the fact of Creation.

The world’s greatest and highest-ranking universities are Darwinist. The world’s best-known publishing organs and scientific journals are Darwinist. Laws in Christian European countries frequently place Darwinism under close protection. Darwinist masonic lodges have entered all institutions, schools and universities, and have enshrined the religion of Darwinism there. DARWINISM IS THE ONLY IDEOLOGY IMPOSED AND DETERMINEDLY PROTECTED ACROSS THE WORLD.

The Darwinist dictatorship has established such a dictatorship that not only official institutions and schools but also religious institutions have had to submit to this pressure. The way that churches have apologized to Darwin and that the Vatican has been pressurized into leading the way for Darwinist conferences are the results of this.

Under the dominion of the Darwinist dictatorship, there is no permission for the fact of Creation to be taught, to appear in scientific publications or even to be discussed. The Atlas of Creation is full of thousands of fossils, meaning thousands of pieces of scientific evidence. Yet not one of these appears in Darwinist publications, which appear under a guise of being scientific. Because since this scientific evidence proves Creation it is banned by the Darwinist dictatorship, which is itself run by the freemasons. Even the teaching of Creations in schools is aggressively prevented. The Darwinist dictatorship is afraid of students learning about the fact of Creation and does all in its power to prevent it.

The way that attempts are made use the idea of “aggrieved Darwin” to give the impression that Darwinists are being aggrieved IS A HUGE FRAUD AND TRICKERY. The Darwinist dictatorship intends to use this trick to muster support. This ideology, which cannot be questioned, rejected or criticized anywhere in the world, which dominates all official institutions and which constantly appears as a joke element in scientific publications, IS BY NO MEANS AGGRIEVED. This trickery is intended to lay the foundation for the deceptive idea that “Darwin has been censored on his 200th anniversary, so greater coverage needs to be given him.” The aim is to ensure greater Darwinist propaganda by hiding behind the idea of “You are under pressure, so we must give Darwin coverage.” This is a false, cheap and ugly trick, aimed against our public in order for Darwin to be brought onto the agenda time and time again.

But what matters is this: They can talk about Darwinism as much as they like, the result will still be the same. It was easy to deceive people with Darwinist lies before they had seen the truth. But people are now aware of the Atlas of Creation. All they need is to be aware of a few fossils within it. LIVING THINGS HAVE NEVER CHANGED. ONE HUNDRED MILLION FOSSILS PROVE THE FACT THAT living things have never changed in any way over millions of years. BUT THERE EXISTS NOT A SINGLE TRANSITIONAL FORM FOSSIL that might confirm Darwinism. In the absence of intermediate fossils, Darwinism has collapsed and it is no longer possible to espouse such a theory. That is the reason for the Darwinist panic not to allow Creation into schools and the way that proponents of Creation in official institutions are immediately silenced. Their aim is to prevent the emergence of evidence that proves Creation and discredits evolution. But with the Atlas of Creation their worst fears have come true.

PEOPLE NOW KNOW THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE. They have now seen the Sun. Closing the curtains and saying ‘It is dark outside’ is not going to convince them. Everyone, even those who say “I support evolution,” is aware of one thing in the face of the scientific evidence: DARWINISM IS DEAD!

Mar 17, 2009

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March 17, 2009
Science gives way to religious dogma in Turkey

By Ferruh Demirmen

The recent censorship of the Darwin story in the “Science and Technology Journal,” published by The Scientific and Technological Research Council (Tübitak) of Turkey, caused consternation in the scientific community in Turkey and beyond. Tübitak is the leading government agency established to advance science and technology in Turkey.

The censorship, first time of its kind in Tübitak’s 46-year history, was an event that would shame any respectful scientific organization.

The making of a scandal

The event started innocuously enough when the chief editor of the journal, Dr. Çiğdem Atakuman, decided to commemorate Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday by running a 16-page cover story on the scientist’s life and his theory of evolution in its March edition. Unesco, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, had declared 2009 as the Year of Darwin.

By established protocol in Tübitak, Atakuman had the authority to decide on the contents of the journal. But when Prof. Dr. Ömer Cebeci, a vice-president and member of the governing Science Board, found out about the Darwin article while it was at the press, the article and the photograph of Darwin on the cover page were peremptorily removed.

A revised March edition, missing 16 pages and one week late, was issued, and Atakuman was verbally fired from her editorial position (“re-assigned”). The cover page was replaced with one dealing with global climate change.

What Tübitak did not realize was that its actions were a recipe for a scandal.

Condemnation

The reaction from various quarters in Turkey and abroad was swift. Academics and students from various universities in Turkey gathered in front of the Tübitak building in Ankara to protest the censorship. Amid calls for the resignation of the Science Board, other academics, journalists, nongovernmental organizations and opposition politicians condemned Tübitak’s action. Turkish media gave wide coverage to the incident, and newspapers abroad weighed in.

Tübitak was caught in a storm it had not expected.

Voices of concern came from the Royal Society in London, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), EU politicians, and other foreign sources. Bloggers wasted no time on the Internet to chime in.

Science versus dogma

What lay at the core of these criticisms, and rightly so, was that science was being subjugated to the dictates of religious dogma. Darwin’s theory of evolution, while it forms one of the building stones of modern science, is incompatible with Islamic faith that man was created by God.

Data suggest that only 25 percent of Turks believe in evolution, some, including the education minister Hüseyin Çelik, associating it with atheism. Turkish theologians generally reject the idea that man evolved from lower beings.

There is, of course, a similar quandary with the Christian and Jewish faiths, but in the Turkish case Islamic teachings never stood in the way of evolutionary science. The academics and scientists managed to separate or reconcile evolution and Islamic faith, and the government did not interfere. They were free to practice and teach science including the theory of evolution.

That was in keeping with the secular fabric of the republic as established by Kemal Atatürk.

Tübitak itself featured Darwin many times in its journal in the past, and the event passed without any incident.

Islamic wind

The changeover in Tübitak’s stance on science, in particular the theory of evolution, is no accident. After the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in November 2002, the government has undertaken a relentless campaign to undermine secular education in Turkey. Elements of Islam have been injected into the educational system in various degrees, and religious schools have been promoted. Evolution has been relegated to second status in favor of creationism.

The government has implemented its Islamic policy through laws, regulations and partisan appointments (in some cases in “acting capacity’). The result is a highly politicized educational system from bottom up, including the Council of Higher Education (YÖK).

The shift in Tübitak is part of this politicization process. Beginning in January 2004, when the current president of the Science Board, Prof. Dr. Nüket Yetiş, was appointed in acting capacity, most members in senior administration resigned or were forced out. Amendments made to Tübitak’s charter in August 2008 gave the government substantial control over the institution.

Also in August 2008 Yetiş, whose appointment had previously been vetoed by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, was appointed as the president of Tübitak by President Abdullah Gül. Yetiş reportedly has ties to Islamists.

Of the 12 members of the Science Board, 10 received their appointments during the AKP government.

So, at the core of the Darwin scandal was political pressure coming from the AKP.

Damage control

To remedy the embarrassment, Tübitak issued a statement denying censorship of the Darwin article and attributing the incident to “miscommunication.” It said there would be a special issue of the magazine later in 2009 covering Darwin.

A press release issued by Atakuman in reply, giving a detailed account of the events, however, left no doubt that censorship had taken place. Atakuman noted that after the incident she was reprimanded by Cebeci, her boss, in his office for pursuing a “provocative” subject in a “sensitive environment” – meaning the AKP rule.

Tübitak would be hard put to explain why the Darwin article was provocative.

Stung by criticism, the government, despite its well-known opposition to evolution, claimed it had played no role in the incident. Surprisingly – and perhaps not surprisingly – YÖK, the council overseeing higher education, declined to comment.

More fallout

What is most disconcerting about the Darwin incident is that it may stunt independent thinking and hinder science in Turkey. Science can only advance if it is free of ideology and religious dogma. Darwin’s theory of evolution is an integral part of science, and it must be disseminated, argued and researched without outside interference. Tübitak should promote, not hinder, such efforts.

It is no surprise that Prof. Dr. Tahsin Yeşildere, Head of the Association for University Lecturers, commented that “Turkish science is in the hands of anachronistic brains who hold it in contempt,” while Lord Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society, called the Darwin incident an example of “cultural corruption and . . . intellectual dishonesty.”

Nor is it a surprise that some EU politicians expressed disquiet, pointing out that the incident was a blatant violation of freedom of thought and scientific independence. Le Monde commented that Islamic groups in Turkey were waging war against Darwin.

Turkey’s prospect to join the EU, already shaky, will no doubt be affected.

What is also ironic, and disturbing, is that the Darwin censorship has taken place in a country that had benefited from Atatürk’s vision. Atatürk observed, eloquently, that “Science is the true guide in life.”

A disquieting thought

It has been 84 years since America had its bizarre “Scopes Trial” (“Monkey Trial”) in a Tennessee court. The trial was portrayed by some as a titanic struggle between good and evil, when in fact it was about truth and ignorance, or about light and dark.

Is it possible that Turkey may soon have its own “Scopes Trial”? That would be most unfortunate. But if the AKP, with its Islamic agenda, continues to meddle with science, it may come to that.

ferruh@demirmen.com

March 17, 2009