Edis on Islamic creationism 21 Feb 2008 One of the more curious episodes in recent cultural history is the adoption, word for word, by Islamists particularly in Turkey of the American Christian fundamentalist antievolution schtick. Nobody knows more about this than Taner Edis, whose book An Illusion of Harmony: Science And Religion in Islam outlines how this came about and the relation between science and Islam (overall: not good). Here’s a nice short article by Edis, from the History of Science newsletter. Evolution History Religion
Australian stuff Unbelievers aren’t quite human, part 2 29 Nov 2010 Cardinal Fang, exemplar of all that is moral, has declared that people without faith have ”nothing beyond the constructs they confect to cover the abyss”, and “people without religion… are frightened by the future”. “”Australian society will become increasingly coarse and uncaring … if Christian principles are excluded from public… Read More
History Turing: A poem 14 Sep 2009 By Matt Harvey from here: POEM: ALAN TURING here’s a toast to Alan Turing born in harsher, darker times who thought outside the container and loved outside the lines and so the code-breaker was broken and we’re sorry yes now the s-word has been spoken the official conscience woken –… Read More
Biology Species: The evolution of the idea 5 Aug 2017 I have completed and submitted the manuscript now for my revision of Species: A history of the idea, now renamed Species: the evolution of the idea. I am publishing it with CRC Press, and it is due out next year. In addition to updating and revising the historical sections of… Read More
Well, at least they’re honest about why they don’t like evolution. At least one can begin the discussion where it needs to start, with the religious beliefs, instead of all the ID hokum.
I thought Harun Yahya was the pseudonym for a real person, Adnan Oktar, rather than a movement, which is how Edis describes it/him. He is certainly well-known in Indonesia, where huge numbers of Harun Yahya books on science have been translated into Indonesian and are prominently displayed in the bookshops. Most look like – I haven’t read them – fairly straight accounts of various aspects of science aimed at schools. It is where evolution arises that he goes totally ape. I have a book (with a CD!) entitled in Indonesian “The Human Disaster of Darwinism”, with photos of such well-known “scientists” as Darwin, Hitler, Mao and Stalin on the cover. A conference on his “works ” was held in Jakarta a year or two ago. It is sad that Indonesian children (and adults) are misled in this manner, but Indonesian debate on science is generally very low level. For example, they seemed not to want to know about the Flores Hobbit, despite it being found in their own country, and despite (or because of) the obvious implications for human evolution.
Oktar may be the figurehead, but he clearly doesn’t pump out the thousands of pages of material – it’s a group effort and often plagiarised from American creationists (and the glossy photographs are also stolen in many cases from real scientific work). He’s also a Holocaust denier and Masonic-conspiracist.
Oktar may be the figurehead, but he clearly doesn’t pump out the thousands of pages of material – it’s a group effort and often plagiarised from American creationists (and the glossy photographs are also stolen in many cases from real scientific work). He’s also a Holocaust denier and Masonic-conspiracist.