NYT: Islamic Creationist and a Book Sent Round the World

[uberllama42]

In the United States, opposition to the teaching of evolution in public schools has largely been fueled by the religious right, particularly Protestant fundamentalism.

Now another voice is entering the debate, in dramatic fashion.

It is the voice of Adnan Oktar of Turkey, who, under the name Harun Yahya, has produced numerous books, videos and DVDs on science and faith, in particular what he calls the “deceit” inherent in the theory of evolution. One of his books, “Atlas of Creation,” is turning up, unsolicited, in mailboxes of scientists around the country and members of Congress, and at science museums in places like Queens and Bemidji, Minn.

At 11 x 17 inches and 12 pounds, with a bright red cover and almost 800 glossy pages, most of them lavishly illustrated, “Atlas of Creation” is probably the largest and most beautiful creationist challenge yet to Darwin’s theory, which Mr. Yahya calls a feeble and perverted ideology contradicted by the Koran.

In bowing to Scripture, Mr. Yahya resembles some fundamentalist creationists in the United States. But he is not among those who assert that Earth is only a few thousand years old. The principal argument of “Atlas of Creation,” advanced in page after page of stunning photographs of fossil plants, insects and animals, is that creatures living today are just like creatures that lived in the fossil past. Ergo, Mr. Yahya writes, evolution must be impossible, illusory, a lie, a deception or “a theory in crisis.”

In fact, there is no credible scientific challenge to the theory of evolution as an explanation for the complexity and diversity of life on earth.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/science/17book.html
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As usual, I'm perplexed that this guy can find such easy funding for his flat denial of the facts. There are a lot of fundies in the Bible Belt willing to give to flat-earthers like Kent Hovind, but I have to wonder who's bankrolling this joker.

[Gman]

1. This makes the fundie heads cock sideways in the confused puppy look

because Muslims are supposed to be the enemy. Fundies don't know what to think about stuff like this.

[tanyev]

2. Oh ho. So will the fundie creationists embrace him as an ally,

or will they now have two fronts to fight in their mythic battle for mythic primacy?