Posted on 07/11/2008 2:58:10 AM PDT by pending
Here’s an interesting article with lots of detail on the Turkish radical Islamic creationist Harun Yahya (real name: Adnan Oktar), who has joined forces with US creationist groups like the Institute for Creation Research, to promote their Dark Ages anti-science agenda around the world: Muslim creationist preaches Islam and awaits Christ.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Harun Yahya is one of the most widely distributed authors in the Muslim world. He may also be among the most widely criticized Muslim authors in the Western world.
His glossy books and DVDs on religion and science sell in Islamic bookshops around the globe. He gives away thousands of expensive volumes and lets readers download much of his work from his websites for free.
The Council of Europe accuses him of trying to infiltrate schools with religious extremism and French teachers are told to keep his work from their students.
Unknown outside Muslim circles two years ago, Adnan Oktar — the 52-year-old Turk behind the pseudonym Harun Yahya — caught the attention of scientists and teachers in Europe and North America by mass-mailing them his 768-page “Atlas of Creation”. His lavishly illustrated book preaches a Muslim version of creationism, the view scientists usually hear from Christian fundamentalists who say God created all life on earth just as it is today and oppose the teaching of Darwin’s evolution theory.
“Every academic I know says they’ve got one of those,” retired University of Edinburgh natural history professor Aubrey Manning told the Glasgow Herald when “The Atlas” turned up in Scotland early this year. “And it’s peddling an absolute, downright lie.”
But Oktar, whose reclusive ways and opaque business have prompted many rumors about why and how he gives away so many books, brushed off all criticism in a rare interview with Reuters. “This huge impact shows the influence of the book,” the author, stylishly turned out in a white suit, red tie and clipped beard, said through an interpreter.
The controversy stirred up by “The Atlas” has turned the spotlight on a publishing empire that boasts about 260 books in 52 languages, over 80 DVDs and dozens of websites.
Well-illustrated and free of theological jargon, they preach that Islam is the one true faith and Darwinism, by undermining religious belief, has led to the discord, atheism, terrorism and extreme political ideologies plaguing the world. ...
The flood of free books prompted suspicion among baffled Western scientists and teachers that U.S. creationists or Saudi financiers might be helping finance the campaign.
Oktar said the giveaways — he estimated them at about 10,000 out of print runs of over 200,000 — were normal public relations funded by profits from sales of “The Atlas” and other books.
“That seems implausible — this book is expensive,” said Taner Edis, a Turkish-American physicist whose 2007 book “An Illusion of Harmony” analyzed Islam’s approach to science. “And to my knowledge, it’s not selling like hotcakes.”
Edis doubted the rumors of funds from U.S. creationists, saying: “American creationists I talk to basically envy Harun Yahya’s financial resources. If there were any fund flowing, it would be from Adnan Oktar to the creationists.”
Without God we are nothing more than animals (like Darwinists teach) and the only law is the law of the jungle, "the survival of the fittest."
Without God, there can be no objective standard of morality, only competing man-made immoralities mixed up in a relativist morass.
Yes or No?
I don't believe in a Creator, but I do believe we are endowed with inalienable rights due to our status as thinking, sentient beings.
You believe in something else entirely, which this nation was not founded on.
No, that is not my answer- you are stating what you want me to believe, not what I actually believe. I agree that we are endowed with inalienable rights, I just don't believe in the existence of a creator.
Your argument seems to be that it is impossible to be a good American unless one is a Christian. That is utter nonsense.
You can believe whatever you want but this country was founded upon the idea that rights are inalienable because they come from God. You don't believe that, so you don't believe in America. Period.
A distinction without a difference. We get to the same place, just through different paths. You're just trying to lawyer this to death- we both agree that humans have inalienable rights.
You can believe whatever you want but this country was founded upon the idea that rights are inalienable because they come from God.
Okay. And so?
You don't believe that, so you don't believe in America. Period.
You're going in circles. I've already told you that I believe we have certain inalienable rights. Where is our disagreement regarding the principles of America's foundation? You seem to want me to disagree with you on America's founding political philosophy, but we're really on the same page.
This thread is stupid.
The only rights which really exist are rights which come from God. This nation was founded on the idea that rights come from God, not from "our status as thinking, sentient beings." You don't believe that rights come from God, so you don't believe in what America was founded upon. It's just that simple.
If you say so. I guess you're determined to try and split hairs between our positions on this issue.
You don't believe that rights come from God, so you don't believe in what America was founded upon. It's just that simple.
If you say so, whatever works for you. I'll just keep on believing in America's founding principles, whether you like it or not.
No slitting hairs at all. I believe in what was written in the Declaration of Independence and you don’t. Feel free to have whatever delusions you want about what America was founded upon. I’ll continue to live over here in reality with all the people who can read what the Declaration of Independence actually says.
Or is a “plant biologist” a biologist who has been covertly planted into the department.
I would suspect that any biologist in a professional setting who refutes the basic mechanics of adaptation and change that is the heart of evolution and defers to the static, shallow assertions of creationism or ID, is in fact a “plant biologist”.
No, he believes in evolution. He also believes in God. He just thinks the people on these threads, regardless of the side they're on are for the most part jackasses. Myself, as a total layman tend to agree with him.
The theory is a hypothesis with no evidence. It is not science. It is fiction.
“No, he believes in evolution. He also believes in God. He just thinks the people on these threads, regardless of the side they’re on are for the most part jackasses. Myself, as a total layman tend to agree with him.”
No bigotry here. You just insulted everybody.
Sorry, that is not the case.
I happen to know something about it; I spent six years in grad school and half of that time was spent studying evolution, human races, osteology, primatology and a lot of closely related subjects. I have actually handled most of the important fossils (as casts), and studied many of the rest from the original journal articles. That is evidence I was dealing with. Since then the field of genetics has added a lot more confirming evidence.
For you to claim that this field is not science but fiction says a great deal about your knowledge of the field, or more likely about your a priori beliefs, than it does about the theory of evolution.
Belief gets in the way of learning.Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love, 1973
“Belief gets in the way of learning.”
It sure does.
They did a very good brainwashing job on you!
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