Book Review: Atlas of Creation (Harun Yahya)

by Sheila Musaji

I recently went into a local mosque’s library and saw prominently displayed a huge,
colorful book called “The Atlas of Creation” by Harun Yahya. I had heard about the
book and the author before, but was prompted by seeing it in this setting to look a little
deeper into how the book had been received by the Muslim community in the U.S.
Sadly, the book seems to be making a big impact and is the subject of discussion on
numerous Islamic sites. The entire book is available online to be downloaded, and that is
what I did. Thousands of free copies were sent to scientists, libraries and universities
around the world, but I was not on that list.

I was surprised to find that most of the arguments for the creationist point of view of the
book were straight from other arguments that I had read before in Christian creationist
books. The only difference was that they were presented in such an expensively printed
book with photographs on every glossy page.

Although the Qur’an has a verse similar to the Biblical verse about creation: “God
created the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, in six days.” (7:54) this
has never caused any difficulty for Muslims because the word for “days”, “ayyam” or
“yawm” in Arabic is also used for an unspecified long period of time. Other Qur’anic
verses make this even more plain “He directs the whole affair from heaven to earth.
Then it will again ascend to Him on a Day whose length is a thousand years by the way
you measure.” (32:5); and “The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day whose
length is fifty thousand years.” (70:4) “a day in the sight of your Lord is like 1,000 years
of your reckoning” (22:47). Because of this Muslims have no problem with the idea of
the earth being billions of years old.

Muslims (including Muslim Creationists) also have no problem with theories such as the
Big Bang Theory, or the Theory of the Expansion of the Universe, or the earth revolving
around the sun - based on their understanding of other Qur’anic verses (e.g. 21:30,
41:11, 51:47, 21:33). The Qur’an also tells Muslims to observe and think about the world
around them in numerous verses.

Therefore, you won’t find Muslim Creationists claiming that the world is only 6,000
years old, or that dinosaurs and men lived side by side. You will, however, find
Muslims, led by Harun Yahya of Turkey who refuse to see the possibility that evolution
includes man himself, although the Qur’an says: “What is the matter with you, that you
are not conscious of God’s majesty, seeing that it is He Who has created you in diverse
stages? See you not how God has created the seven heavens one above another, and
made the moon a light in their midst, and made the sun as a (glorious) lamp? And God
has produced you from the earth, growing (gradually)” (71:13-17). God “made from
water every living thing” (21:30) and also (24:45).
There is a wide spectrum of beliefs among Muslims, and this is not something new. One
only has to look at this quote from Ibn Khaldun: “One should look at the world of
creation. It started out from the minerals and progressed, in an ingenious, gradual
manner to plants and animals…The animal world then widens, its species become
numerous, and, in a gradual process of creation, it finally leads to man, who is able to
think and reflect. The higher stage of man is reached from the world of monkeys, in
which both sagacity and perception are found, but which has not reached the stage of
actual reflection and thinking. At this point we come to the first stage of man after the
world of monkeys. This is as far as our physical observation extends.” (Ibn Khaldun,
The Muqaddimah. Trans. by Franz Rosenthal. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1967) Some Muslims see no conflict between their belief in a Creator and their
simultaneously held belief in evolution. Some Muslim are Creationists, and even among
those there are some who insist only that human beings are separate from the rest of
creation and that a specific man and woman were created at a particular point in time - a
special creation. Others, like Harun Yahya claim that this holds for animals and plants
also and that species are the same today as they were in the distant past, that no
modification through natural selection ever took place and therefore evolution is a lie.

Yahya surprisingly is not only a critic of Darwinian evolution, but also has problems with
the concept of “intelligent design” calling it a “masonic conspiracy”. Yahya has offered
a huge sum of money ($10 trillion Turkish lira or $8,010,890,000,000. Eight trillion, ten
billion, eight hundred and ninety million dollars) to any scientist who can bring forward
an intermediate fossil, however, it is doubtful that there is any scientific evidence that he
would accept. One scientist, P.Z. Meyers, at the University of Minnesota said: “The US
government should immediately send a plane to pick up Mr Oktar, bring him to our
country, and take him on a guided tour of the Smithsonian and the American Museum of
Natural History, accompanied by Niles Eldredge, Kevin Padian, Jerry Coyne, Sean
Carroll, and the entire scientific staff of those museums. Afterwards, they can accept the
check from Mr Oktar, run down to the local bank and cash it, and use one trillion dollars
to resolve the current financial crisis, seven trillion can be sunk immediately into the
American educational system, and they can send the change left over to me as a reward
for coming up with this brilliant plan. Unless… You don’t think… Adnan Oktar couldn’t
possibly be lying about how much money he has, could he? And he couldn’t possibly by
planning to weasel out of accepting any honest evidence, could he?” This offer by
Yahya has also been made by Christian creationists, but with much smaller amounts
offered.

There are Muslim scholars who have raised religious issues with Darwinian evolution.
There has been a discussion about science and Islam or science and religion in general,
that many Muslim scholars have participated in, and this is a necessary and important
discussion. The discussion includes such questions as whether or not particular verses of
the Qur’an are to be taken literally or figuratively, how much weight is to be given to
particular scholars’ interpretations, whether or not there are interpretative possibilites that
remove the obstacles between a particular religious and a particular scientific viewpoint,
etc.
For example in the article Islam and Evolution Nuh Ha Mim Keller sums up what he and
many others consider the current “Islamic” position: “Allah alone is Master of Existence.
He alone causes all that is to be and not to be. Causes are without effect in themselves,
but rather both cause and effect are created by Him. The causes and the effects of all
processes, including those through which plant and animal species are individuated, are
His work alone. To ascribe efficacy to anything but His action, whether believing that
causes (a) bring about effects in and of themselves; or (b) bring about effects in and of
themselves through a capacity Allah has placed in them, is to ascribe associates to Allah
(shirk). Such beliefs seem to be entailed in the literal understanding of “natural
selection” and “random mutation,” and other evolutionary concepts, unless we
understand these processes as figurative causes, while realizing that Allah alone is the
agent. This is apart from the consideration of whether they are true or not. As for claim
that man has evolved from a non-human species, this is unbelief (kufr) no matter if we
ascribe the process to Allah or to “nature,” because it negates the truth of Adam’s
special creation that Allah has revealed in the Qur’an. Man is of special origin, attested
to not only by revelation, but also by the divine secret within him, the capacity for
ma’rifa or knowledge of the Divine that he alone of all things possesses. By his God-
given nature, man stands before a door opening onto infinitude that no other creature in
the universe can aspire to. Man is something else.”

In the article On the question of biological origins, Seyyed Hossein Nasr laid out what he
sees as the core issues: “There are two basic issues involved in the question of biological
origins: the origin of life as such, and the special form of life that we call human life. In
biological sciences, a huge amount of data has been gathered over the last two centuries
which has been interpreted from various perspectives, the dominant view being the
evolutionary process which stipulates that life originated in small-cell form and then
became complex through random processes in which only the fittest forms survived.
Some theists have inserted God into this process to develop a form of evolution which is
often called theistic evolution. And there are a lot of Muslim scholars who also subscribe
to this idea of theistic evolution. Of course no Muslim would say there is no Hand of God
involved, but they put the Hand of God into a form of Darwinian process, generating a
great deal of confusion.” Nasr also asks an important question: “What could be the
solution—we have talked about this before in a different context, in the context of
technologies—but here I would like to focus on the biological origins, what could be
done to clear things at least for Muslims? First, how can we have a critique of modern
science in general, but specifically modern biology since we are talking about biology,
and secondly, how can we make an effort that would bring together scientists and
religious thinkers and produce a generation of Muslim thinkers who understand science
and Islam in the sense in which you are talking about?”
These are reasonable scholars raising objections as they see them and attempting to
analyze and clarify what they see as difficulties between this aspect of science and Islam.
Whether we agree or disagree, they are attempting to carefully think through the issues.

What is worrisome is that what passes for participation in this discussion is not a careful
reading of such scholars, but the much more popular works of Harun Yahya and books
like The Atlas of Creation which provide only a misrepresentation of scientific terms - or
even the distinction between Darwinian evolution and social Darwinism, shoddy science
and repetition of previously debunked claims, and even making verifiably false
statements misrepresenting what evolution is. This book is not a serious discussion of
science or of religion and can only create unecessary confusion. It is one thing to raise a
legitimate concern about a real issue, and quite another to make a false statement and
then knock it down, or take a partial quote out of context and claim that someone said
something that they did not say. This book also contains a number of incorrectly labeled
examples as well as some exaples of particular creatures that are actually fishing lures.
These are important because they show a certain lack of serious scholarship. Also, in a
number of cases, after a particular issue was raised by scientists, the online version of the
Atlas of Creation had the wording or picture changed or removed - but these are still to
be found in the actual printed version, and the online versions do not include any
“correction statement” to note that these have been changed because they were incorrect.

Harun Yahya plays mind and word games to attempt to “prove” his points. He regularly
makes false claims that confuse scientific discoveries that force changes in our thinking
about the MECHANICS of evolution, and misrepresents them as evidence that the
THEORY OF EVOLUTION is about to collapse. “The Atlas‘s claims about genetics,
zoology, and paleontology are full of error. Like many creationists, Yahya mistakes
ongoing debates about the mechanics of evolution as evidence that the theory as a whole
is in crisis. He grossly exaggerates the age of fossils of modern animals, labeling a snow
leopard skull as 80 million years old, while the oldest remains known to scientists are far
more recent.” Nathan Schneider “It was only when I began reading the works of those
very same scientists, including Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, Niles Eldredge,
Colin Patterson etc first hand that I realised just how selective and misleading the
quotations in your books were. Biological evolution was an established fact. The
“theory” part referred to the mechanism by which evolution had occurred and far from
being on the verge of collapse, it was in vibrant health and had been shown in test after
test to have immense explanatory power. Evolutionary theory helps shed light on a
multitude of scientific questions including providing a compelling explanation for why a
dispassionate study of the fossil record shows the gradual and sequential appearance on
earth of single-celled organisms, then fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals, and also
why humans – as well as other animals – have numerous suboptimal characteristics.
What mechanism do you propose better explains these phenomena? Human beings are
instructed in the Qur’an by God to undertake a study of the creation of the heavens and
the earth. Our enemy is surely not evolution, but ignorance. “ Inayat Bunglawala All of
this simply makes it difficult to take anything he says seriously.

A FEW OF HARUN YAHYA’S CLAIMS ABOUT EVOLUTION

The theory of evolution is about to, or has collapsed - Yahya produced The Collapse of
the Theory of Evolution in 20 Questions to lay out this theory. Many individuals have
responded, but perhaps the best direct answers, point by point are those in Clash of
Discourses: The Discussions on Evolution and Creationism in Turkey by Elif Cavuslu.
Darwinism is based on chance. - “From a scientific point of view, this claim is also
false. Neo-Darwinism (which I assume here is what is meant by “Darwinism”, perhaps
in the author’s confusion) is based on mechanisms such as natural selection, mutations,
sexual selection, genetic drift, and others. None of these mechanisms are based on
“chance”. Even mutations have definite properties, dictated by genetic processes and
natural law: there are germ mutations, point mutations, frame-shift mutations, and so on.
As such, the statement that neo-Darwinism is based on “chance” is an elementary lie.”
(Tremblay)

Punctuated Equilibrum says that jumps in evolution are possible, like birds popping out
of reptile eggs, instead of the gradualism of neo-Darwinism. It was made to cover up the
“fossil fiasco”. - “Punctuated Equilibrum is a hypothesis, promoted notably by
Eldredge and Gould, which proposes that the tempo of evolution is made of accelerated
and slow periods, instead of constant change. It does not cover up any “fossil fiasco”: in
fact, it puts the focus on what we observe in the fossil record. If the fossil record was a
fiasco, then any number of hypothesis could not cover it - the hypothetical corrupt
scientists in Yahya should rather have kept the problem quiet than try to reconcile their
theory with it. (Tremblay)

No beneficial mutations have ever existed. - There are people with mutations in the
CCR5 gene that make them virtually immune to HIV. There are also a class of cancer
drugs that are 100% effective, but only in a minority of individuals that have a certain
mutation. There are many other examples of beneficial mutations. “I have Sickle Cell
anemia, a mutation of red blood cells that gives them a sickle shape and extra hardness.
This mutation is widespread in many regions, including Latin America, Southern Europe,
and Arab countries, and confers a greater immunity to malaria. It seems that Yahya does
not live in these regions, otherwise he would already know about that widespread
example! Most mutations are destructive in nature, but some are positive. This is enough
for evolution to generate adaptation in species.” (Tremblay)

Vestigial organs do not exist. - “Yahya demonstrates his ignorance of basic definitions
again, by defining vestigial organs as “non-functional organs”, and complaining that
they “[turn] out to be organs whose functions had not yet been discovered”, thus once
again disproving evolution. But a vestigial organ is only an organ with reduced functions
compared to its previous uses in evolutionary ancestors. The appendix used to be a part
of the digestive system, but now only houses some immune system cells.” (Tremblay)

“Laboratory experiments and probabilistic calculations have definitely made it clear that
the proteins from which life arises cannot have been formed by chance”. Cells, DNA,
and the information in DNA, cannot come to exist by chance. - “The probability of
proteins is is a common calculation amongst Creationists, which consists of calculating
the probability that each part of a protein somehow clicked into place by chance. Yahya,
fearing that his readers may not have the imagination to grasp the probability involved
(1 in 10^950), conveniently included the complete notation of the number 1 with 950
zeros. Unfortunately for him, his childish appeal to big numbers fails because evolution
does not claim that proteins arose by chance, but rather by a gradual process (see point
1). The same is true for cells and DNA.” (Tremblay)

Evolution is only a theory - “There are differences in the meanings of “fact” and
“theory” in science and every day life. “Theory” in science does not imply guesswork or
impracticality. Evolution is a fact in the scientific view. Natural selection is a potent
theory that explains the fact of evolution and predicts the data that will be observed in
the future. Although some scientists debate the details of the theory, the overwhelming
majority accept the basic concept.” (Murfin) - The law of gravity is a fact, although
there may be different theories that attempt to explain how bodies of mass are attracted to
each other. In this way, gravity is also both a scientific fact and a scientific theory.
Evolution is a fact, how it occurred is a theory. - “Words have precise meanings in
science. For example, ‘theory’, ‘law’, and ‘hypothesis’ don’t all mean the same thing.
Outside of science, you might say something is ‘just a theory’, meaning it’s supposition
that may or may not be true. In science, a theory is an explanation that generally is
accepted to be true. Here’s a closer look at these important, commonly misused terms.”
Read more about precise definitions of terms in the article Scientific Hypothesis, Theory,
Law Definitions, Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.

”“In the American vernacular, ‘theory’ often means ‘imperfect fact’—part of a hierarchy
of confidence running downhill from fact to theory to hypothesis to guess. Thus the
power of the creationist argument: evolution is ‘only’ a theory and intense debate now
rages about many aspects of the theory. If evolution is worse than a fact, and scientists
can’t even make up their minds about the theory, then what confidence can we have in it?
Indeed, President Reagan echoed this argument before an evangelical group in Dallas
when he said (in what I devoutly hope was campaign rhetoric): ‘Well, it is a theory. It is
a scientific theory only, and it has in recent years been challenged in the world of science
—that is, not believed in the scientific community to be as infallible as it once was.’
“Well evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things,
not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world’s data. Theories are
structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don’t go away when scientists
debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein’s theory of gravitation replaced Newton’s
in this century, but apples didn’t suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome.
And humans evolved from ape-like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin’s proposed
mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered. “Moreover, ‘fact’ doesn’t mean
‘absolute certainty’; there ain’t no such animal in an exciting and complex world. The
final proofs of logic and mathematics flow deductively from stated premises and achieve
certainty only because they are NOT about the empirical world. Evolutionists make no
claim for perpetual truth, though creationists often do (and then attack us falsely for a
style of argument that they themselves favor). In science ‘fact’ can only mean ‘confirmed
to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional consent’. I suppose
that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in
physics classrooms. “Evolutionists have been very clear about this distinction of fact
and theory from the very beginning, if only because we have always acknowledged how
far we are from completely understanding the mechanisms (theory) by which evolution
(fact) occurred. Darwin continually emphasized the difference between his two great and
separate accomplishments: establishing the fact of evolution, and proposing a theory -
natural selection—to explain the mechanism of evolution.” Stephen J. Gould, “Evolution
as Fact and Theory,” Discover, May 1981
No intermediate forms have ever been found - There are thousands, but how about
Najash rionegrina, a snake with legs, or dinosaurs to birds, the evolution of the horse,
etc.

The Cambrian Explosion is enough to tear down the theory of evolution - “Measured by
virtually any criterion one might propose, studies of Precambrian life have burst forth
since the mid-1960s to culminate in recent years in discovery of the oldest fossils known,
petrified cellular microbes nearly 3,500 million years old, more than three-quarters the
age of the Earth. Precambrian paleobiology is thriving—-the vast majority of all
scientists who have ever investigated the early fossil record are alive and working today;
new discoveries are being made at an ever quickening clip….After more than a century
of trial and error, of search and final discovery, those of us who wonder about life’s
early history can be thankful that what was once “inexplicable” to Darwin is no longer
so to us. J. William Schopf

“The bases of this theory, which has been disproved by science in every field” - See
Science and Creationism, A View from the National Academy of Sciences “Those
opposed to the teaching of evolution sometimes use quotations from prominent scientists
out of context to claim that scientists do not support evolution. However, examination of
the quotations reveals that the scientists are actually disputing some aspect of how
evolution occurs, not whether evolution occurred.” and The Imminent Demise of
Evolution: The Longest Running Falsehood in Creationism, G.R. Morton. If you would
like to see examples of selection that have been observed in the laboratory, see John
Endler’s experiments with coloration in guppies which clearly show selection at work;
and see Richard Lenski’s experiments with e coli which clearly show adaptations
happening in front of our eyes.

“According to the theory of evolution, which makes this claim, life began with the first
cell, which itself emerged by chance or by some hypothetical natural laws of “self-
organization.” - “The important thing to remember is that evolutionary theory is a
scientific theory about how life has developed — this means that it begins with the
premise that life already exists. It makes no claims as to how that life got here. It could
have developed naturally through abiogenesis. It could have been started by a divine
power. It could have been started by aliens. Whatever the explanation, evolutionary
explanations begin to apply once life appears and begins to reproduce. (Cline) Let’s
make that point boldly evolution makes no claims as to how life began!.

The Theory of Evolution ideologically nurtures disbelief This is difficult to understand as

many scientists are also deeply religious. A Time magazine article Can You Believe in
God and Evolution? by Steven Pinker quotes Francis Collins who is the Director of the
National Human Genome Research Institute: “I see no conflict in what the Bible tells me
about God and what science tells me about nature. Like St. Augustine in A.D. 400, I do
not find the wording of Genesis 1 and 2 to suggest a scientific textbook but a powerful
and poetic description of God’s intentions in creating the universe. The mechanism of
creation is left unspecified. If God, who is all powerful and who is not limited by space
and time, chose to use the mechanism of evolution to create you and me, who are we to
say that wasn’t an absolutely elegant plan? And if God has now given us the intelligence
and the opportunity to discover his methods, that is something to celebrate.” In another
article We believe in evolution — and God by Karl Giberson & Darrel Falk, they say:
“We are scientists, grateful for the freedom to earn Ph.D.s and become members of the
scientific community. And we are religious believers, grateful for the freedom to
celebrate our religion, without censorship. Like most scientists who believe in God, we
find no contradiction between the scientific understanding of the world, and the belief
that God created that world.” A term for holding both belief in God and belief in
evolution has even been coined - Theistic Evolution.

I am a Muslim who believes in God and who also believes that the theory of evolution is
a fact. I see no conflict between “It is He Who created the heavens and the earth with
truth. The day He says ‘Be!’ it is. His speech is Truth. The Kingdom will be His on the
Day the Trumpet is blown, the Knower of the Unseen and the Visible. He is the All-Wise,
the All-Aware.” (Qur’an, 6:73) and accepting evolution as a fact. Reading Harun
Yahya’s book has not changed my mind in any way. Actually, I wish that I could have
been at the Conference on Darwin & Evolution in the Muslim World at Hampshire
College earlier this month.

SEE ALSO:

A World Designed by God: Science and Creationism in Contemporary Islam, Taner Edis
http://www2.truman.edu/~edis/writings/articles/CFI-2001.pdf
Abiogenesis & Evolution, Austin Cline
http://atheism.about.com/od/evolutionabiogenesis/a/evolution.htm
Al-Jahiz and the rise of biological evolutionism, Mehmet Bayrakdar
http://www.salaam.co.uk/knowledge/al-jahiz.php
An Islamic Creationist Stirs a New Kind of Darwinian Struggle, Andrew Higgins
http://www.rickross.com/reference/islamic/islamic88.html
Archaeopteryx FAQ’s http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/archaeopteryx.html
Are We Ignoring Muslim Creationism?, Salman Hameed
http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/are_we_ignoring_muslim_c
reationism/0017680
Bacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14094-bacteria-make-major-evolutionary-shift-in-
the-lab.html
Bacteria, evolution of
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/48203/bacteria/272371/Evolution-of-
bacteria
Battle over Darwin, Bill Moyers Journal
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03132009/profile3.html
Beneficial mutations list http://www.gate.net/~rwms/EvoMutations.html
Between Two Masters: Qur’an or Science?, Ziauddin Sardar
http://www.ziauddinsardar.com/articles.htm
Bracing for Islamic creationism, Salman Hameed
http://helios.hampshire.edu/~sahCS/Hameed-Science-Creationism.pdf
Bridging the Gap Between Evolution and Intelligent Design: A Quranic Perspective, Iyad
Hijazi & Sylvia Ne mmers, Ph.D. Candidates, New Mexico State University
http://www.truevolution.net/
Inayat Bunglawala v Harun Yahya, A head to head debate about evolution and the origins
of life from a Muslim perspective
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/01/evolution.islam
Cambrian explosion http://www.skepdic.com/cambrian.html
Cambrian explosion - Solution to Darwin’s dilemma: Discovery of the missing
Precambrian record of life, J. William Schopf
http://www.pnas.org/content/97/13/6947.full
Cambrian Explosion explained, Paul Smith http://www.dasmirnov.net/blog/questions-for-
evolutionists-explaining-the-cambrian-explosion
Can You Believe in God and Evolution?, Steven Pinker
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1090921,00.html
Chance, True or False: Darwinian evolution is random
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2007/08/true_or_false_darwinian_evolut.html
Clash of Discourses: The Discussions on Evolution and Creationism in Turkey , Elif
Cavuslu http://vssr.info/docs/2009_participants/Cavuslu-Clash%20of%20Discourses.pdf

Cloning Creationism in Turkey, Taner Edis http://ncseweb.org/rncse/19/6/cloning-

creationism-turkey
Complexity, Michael Le Page http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13617-evolution-
myths-natural-selection-leads-to-ever-greater-complexity.html
Compassionate Justice: Source of Convergence between Science and Religion, Dr.
Robert Dickson Crane (7 parts)
http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/compassionate_justice_tabl
e_of_contents/0014050
The Confluence of Religion and Science, Hasan Zillur Rahim
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/the_confluence_of_religion_and_
science/
Creation “Science” Debunked, Lenny Flank (with numerous links primarily debunking
Christian creationist materials) http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/
Creationist Arguments: Misquotes http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/misquotes.html
Critiques of creationism http://www2.truman.edu/~edis/writings/articles/
Darwin and God: can they co-exist?, Inayat Bunglawala
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/jul/03/darwinismmuslimscientistsha
Darwin’s shadow: context and reception in the Muslim world, Muzaffar Iqbal
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Darwin’s+shadow:
+context+and+reception+in+the+Muslim+world.-a0201086403
Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions, Michael Le Page
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13620
Evolution 101, Saad Shafqat
http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/evolution_101/0017679
Evolution list of links http://sensuouscurmudgeon.wordpress.com/list-o-links/
Is Noetic Evolution a Secular Substitute for God?, Dr. Robert D. Crane
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/is_noetic_evolution_a_secular_su
bstitute_for_god/
Islam and Modern Science, Seyyid Hossein Nasr
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/islam_and_modern_science/
Islam’s evolutionary legacy, Ehsan Masood
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/feb/27/islam-religion-evolution-
science
Dawkins on Harun Yahya’s Atlas of Creation, Salman Hameed
http://sciencereligionnews.blogspot.com/2008/07/dawkins-on-harun-yahyas-atlas-of.html

Double Helix: Science & Religion as Cultural Kindling; A Response to The New
Republic, Arri Eisen
http://religiondispatches.org/archive/scienceenvironment/1277/double_helix
%3A_science_%26_religion_as_cultural_kindling
%3B_a_response_to__the_new_republic
E. coli Long-term Experimental Evolution Project Site, Richard Lensky
http://myxo.css.msu.edu/ecoli/
John Endler’s experiment
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/lines/IVCexperiments.shtml
Equating evolution with atheism will turn Muslims against science, Salman Hameed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2008/dec/12/islamic-creationism-evolution-
muslim
Evolution education resource pages http://www.gate.net/~rwms/EvoEvidence.html
Evolution FAQ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/faq/cat01.html#Q02
Evolution is Only a Theory, Walt Murfin http://www.cesame-nm.org/index.php?
name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=32&page=1
Evolution in the Light of Islam, Ahmed Kamal Sultan
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?
c=Article_C&cid=1158321449901&pagename=Zone-English-HealthScience
%2FHSELayout
Examples of Beneficial Mutations and Natural Selection
http://www.gate.net/~rwms/EvoMutations.html
Evolution of daft ideas, Brian Whitaker
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/may/29/theevolutionofdaftideas
Evolution 101, Saad Shafqat
http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/evolution_101/0017679
Five Major Misconceptions about Evolution, Mark Isaak
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-misconceptions.html
French Scientists Rebut U.S., Muslim Creationism, Tom heneghan
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?
c=Article_C&cid=1173695417187&pagename=Zone-English-HealthScience
%2FHSELayout
God and Evolution Can Co-exist, Scientist Says, Robin Lloyd
http://www.livescience.com/culture/081118-god-evolution.html
God Grows Up: Robert Wright’s Evolution of God
http://religiondispatches.org/archive/rdbook/1679/god_grows_up%3A_robert_wright
%E2%80%99s_evolution_of_god
Harun Yahya: An Invitation to Dogmatism, Francois Tremblay http://mukto-
mona.com/science/evolution/harun_yahya210106.htm
Harun Yahya and Islamic Creationism, Taner Edis
http://www2.truman.edu/~edis/writings/articles/hyahya.html
Harun Yahya’s Dark Arts, Nathan Schneider
http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/harun_yahyas_dark_arts/
Harun Yahya’s views evolving http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/h.php?
news=creationist-adnan-hocas-views-evolving-2008-09-26
Index to creationist claims (with rebuttals), Mark Isaak
http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/index.html
Intelligent Design: A Blind Alley, Taner Edis
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?
c=Article_C&cid=1189959225634&pagename=Zone-English-HealthScience
%2FHSELayout
Irreducible Complexity Demystified, Pete Dunkelberg
http://www.talkdesign.org/faqs/icdmyst/ICDmyst.html
Irtiqa science and religion blog http://sciencereligionnews.blogspot.com/
IS EVOLUTION “JUST A THEORY”?, Lenny Flank
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/theory.htm
Islam and Modern Science, A Lecture by Seyyid Hossein Nasr
http://msa.mit.edu/archives/nasrspeech1.html
ISLAM AND SCIENCE - CONCORDANCE OR CONFLICT?, Professor Abdus Salam
http://www.alislam.org/library/articles/Islam-and-Science-Concordance-or-Conflict.pdf
Islam Doesn’t Inhibit Science, T.O. Shanavas
http://www.metanexus.net/magazine/ArticleDetail/tabid/68/id/7668/Default.aspx
Islam, Rationality and Science, Mohammad Hashim Kamali (Journal excerpt)
http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=KSdLLxV59KCwPcMGJJqmfkw
QQG9T2bXPWpHlMQ4HlZDRxxxpfcfD!1527970456!507429036?docId=5007384211
full PDF http://www.iais.org.my/uploaded_files/Islam%20Science%20and
%20Rationality.pdf (an academic discussion of the issues raised)
The Islamic Creationism of Harun Yahya, Martin Reixinger
http://www.isim.nl/files/newsl_11.pdf
Islamic Creationism In Turkey, Taner Edis
http://www2.truman.edu/~edis/writings/articles/islamic.html
Fishing lures of faith
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/permalink/the_fishing_lures_of_faith/
with photos of lures instead of real creatures
Good religion needs good science,
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/darwin/malcolmbrown.html
Index to Creationist Claims http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/list.html (does a good job
of answering the “allegations” of creationists like Harun Yahya and many others)
Intelligent Design: A Blind Alley, Taner Edis
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?
c=Article_C&cid=1189959225634&pagename=Zone-English-HealthScience
%2FHSELayout
Islamic Creationism: A Short History
http://www.hssonline.org/publications/Newsletter2008/NewsletterJanuary2008Creationis
m.html
Knowledge regained, Usama Hasan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/11/religion.darwinbicentenary
Making sense of Al Jazeera’s strange coverage of “Ardi”, Salman Hameed
http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/making_sense_of_al_jazeer
as_strange_coverage_of_ardi/0017682
Misquoting scientists http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/quotes/mine/project.html
Morality is undermined by evolution myth, Michael Le Page
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13696-evolution-myths-accepting-evolution-
undermines-morality.html
Muslim responses to Darwinism http://saif_w.tripod.com/curious/evolution/muz/muz-
part3.html
Muslim Responses to Evolution, Prof. Abdul Majid
http://www.irfi.org/articles/articles_151_200/muslim_responses_to_evolution.htm
Muslim Scientists Prepare for Battle With Creationists
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,465650,00.html?sPage=fnc/scitech/evolution
Muslims’ debate religion and science http://www.al-
bab.com/Arab/islam_and_evolution.htm
Neo-Darwinism - Challenges to Neo- Darwinism and Their Meaning for a Revised View
of Human Consciousness, Stephen Jay Gould
http://www.tannerlectures.utah.edu/lectures/documents/gould85.pdf
The Non-Science of Intelligent Design, Ahmed Kamal Sultan
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?
c=Article_C&cid=1158321439959&pagename=Zone-English-HealthScience
%2FHSELayout
Only a Theory? Framing the Evolution/Creation Issue, David Morrison
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/only_a_theory_framing_the_evolution_creation_issue
Peppered moth study http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/wells/iconob.html#moths
Peppered moth study by Majerus backs natural selection
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/moth-study-backs-classic-test-case-for-
darwins-theory-462938.html
Punctuated Equilibria http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/punc-eq.html
Religion and Science: Toward a Postmodern Truce, Philip Clayton
http://religiondispatches.org/archive/scienceenvironment/1815/religion_and_science
%3A_toward_a_postmodern_truce
Science and Religion Drive Divinity Professor, Aditi Balakrishna
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=518952
The Science of Evolution and the Nature of Science, Peyton M. West
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?
c=Article_C&cid=1172571427008&pagename=Zone-English-HealthScience
%2FHSELayout
Scientific Hypothesis, Theory, Law Definitions, Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.
http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistry101/a/lawtheory.htm
Second law of thermodynamics and evolution
http://physicsandphysicists.blogspot.com/2009/03/evolution-and-second-law-of.html
Sex, flies and videotape: the secret lives of Harun Yahya, Halil Arda
http://newhumanist.org.uk/2131
Shooting the messenger, Ali Eteraz
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/aug/20/shootingthemessenger
Speciation observed, Joseph Boxhorn http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-speciation.html

Statements from scientific organizations on evolution

http://ncse.com/media/voices/science
Statements from religious organizations on evolution
http://ncse.com/media/voices/religion
‘Survival of the fittest’ justifies ‘everyone for themselves’ , Michael Le Page
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13671-evolution-myths-survival-of-the-fittest-
justifies-everyone-for-themselves.html
Transitional forms http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/lines/IAtransitional.shtml
Transitional fossils, a few selected http://www.transitionalfossils.com/
Transitional Fossils FAQ, Kathleen Hunt http://www.holysmoke.org/tran-icr.htm
transitional fossils http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CC/CC200.html
Transitional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-transitional.html

Transitional Tiktaalik discovered

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/04/tiktaalik_makes_another_gap.php
Transitional Fossils Reveal Truth About Darwin’s Theory
http://www.livescience.com/animals/090211-transitional-fossils.html
Transitional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ, Kathleen Hunt http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-
transitional.html
Turkey: Scientists face off against creationists
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav052407.shtml
Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya, Richard Dawkins
http://richarddawkins.net/article,2833,UPDATED-Venomous-Snakes-Slippery-Eels-and-
Harun-Yahya,Richard-Dawkins
Viruses, Vaccines, and Evolution of Influenza
http://www.college.ucla.edu/webproject/micro12/m12webnotes/viralevolution.htm
Viruses, The Evolution of Emerging Viruses
http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/holmes.html
We believe in evolution — and God, Karl Giberson & Darrel Falk
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/we-believe-in-evolution-and-god-.html
Jonathan Wells’s book Icons of Evolution - responses to claims (repeated by Harun
Yahya) http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/wells/iconob.html#moths
What is Evolution?, Lawrence Moran http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolution-
definition.html
“Where does evolution leave God?”, Karen Armstrong and Richard Dawkins respond
independently to the question
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203440104574405030643556324.html
Without God, Steven Weinberg http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21800

SOME RELEVANT QUR’ANIC VERSES

And when your Lord said to the angels: “I am placing in the Earth a successor.” They
said: “You would place in it who does mischief (harm) in it and sheds blood, and we
celebrate Your praises and glorify You!” He said: “I know what you do not know.”
(Qur’an 2:30)

“Verily in the creation of the Heavens and of the earth, and in the alternation of the night
and of the day, are there signs for men of understanding. They who, standing, sitting or
reclining, bear Allah in mind and reflect on the creation of the Heavens and of the earth,
saying: ‘Oh our Lord! Thou has not created this in vain.’” (Qur’an 3:189-190).

If He wills He will remove you, oh mankind, and bring forth others. And Allah has
always been capable of doing so. (Qur’an 4:133)

“And your Lord is free of need, full of mercy. If He wills He will remove you (mankind)
and place as a successor after you whatever He wills, just as He constructed you from the
descendants of other people (predecessor). Verily, what you are being promised is
coming and you are not preventing it.” (Qur’an 6: 133-134)

Have you not seen that God created the Heavens and the Earth in truth. If He wills He
will remove you (oh mankind) and bring forth a new creation. And that for God is not
any great matter. (Qur’an 14:19-20)

“Do the Unbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, before
We clove them asunder?” (Qur’an 21:30)

“It is He Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; all (the celestial
bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course” (21:33).

Have they not seen how Allah originates the creation and then repeats it? Certainly that
is easy for Allah. Say: “Travel (move) through the earth and look how He originated the
creation.” Then Allah constructs the final creation (resurrection), verily Allah is capable
of everything. (Qur’an 29: 19-20)
Who made well every thing He created, and He began the creation of humankind from
mud. (Qur’an 32:7)

Praise be to God, Originator of the Heavens and the Earth, Who makes the angels
messengers having wings, two or three or four. He increases in the creation whatever He
wills. Certainly God is capable of all things. (Qur’an 35:1)

Oh mankind you are the needy ones to Allah, and Allah He is the free of all need, the
worthy of all praise. If He wills He will remove you and bring forth a new creation, and
that for Allah is not any great matter. (Qur’an 35: 15-17)

“Then He turned to the heaven when it was smoke: He said to it and to the earth: ‘Come
together, willingly or unwillingly.’ They said, ‘We do come together, in willing
obedience.’” (Qur’an 41:11)

“Verily in the heavens and the earth are signs for those who believe. And in the creation
of yourselves, and the fact that animals are scattered (through the earth), are signs for
those of assured faith. And in the alternation of night and day, and that fact that Allah
sends down sustenance from the sky, and revives therewith the earth after its death, and
in the change of the winds, are signs for those who are wise” (45:3-5).

“There are signs in the earth for those who are firm in their faith, and within yourselves.
Can you perceive?” (Qur’an 51:20-21)

“And it is We who have constructed the heaven with might, and verily, it is We who are
steadily expanding it.” (Qur’an 51:47)

On that we replace the like of you (new creation) and construct you in what you do not
know (resurrection). (Qur’an 56:61)

On that we replace better than them (new creation) and We will not be outrun. (Qur’an
70: 41)

“Seeing that He (Allah) created you in successive stages’ (Qur’an 71:14)

It is We who created them, and We have strengthened their joints (upright); and when We
will, We replaced the like of them (new creation) a complete replacement. (Qur’an
76:28)

“Can they not look up to the clouds, how they are created; and to the Heaven how it is
upraised; and the mountains how they are rooted, and to the earth how it is outspread?”
(Qur’an 88:17)