A World Designed by God

1
A World Designed by God

• Science and Creationism in Contemporary Islam
• Taner Edis
• Truman State University

2
Abstract

• Public conflicts between science and religion
  have become rare in the industrialized West,
  where even creationism is, in the end, a minority
  sectarian view. However, contemporary Muslim
  thought retains a much stronger sense of an
  explicitly designed universe infused with moral
  purpose. Creationism in biology and in physics,
  for example, has been very successful in Turkey.
  Muslim apologetics emphasizes the created nature
  of humans, to an extent that echoes of
  Aristotelian biology can be found in literature
  on the Islamic role of women. The high level of
  popular misuse of science in the Muslim world
  indicates that major conflicts between science
  and religion will have an increasingly Islamic
  flavor in the coming years.

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Science and Religion

• In the industrialized West
• Intellectual conflict on supernaturalism
• Institutional compatibility
• Cultural separation

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Science vs. Religion?

• In the industrialized West
• Intellectual conflict on supernaturalism
• Institutional compatibility
• Cultural separation
• What about the Muslim world?
• Relation more unsettled, occasionally strained...

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Harmony and Design...

• Traditional Muslim apologetics presents a
  harmonious picture of nature only a fool would
  overlook the obvious divine design.

Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and
the earth were joined together (as one unit of
creation), before We clove them asunder? We made
from water every living thing. Will they not
then believe? (Quran 2130) WWW Wonders of
Creation
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Miracles from the Quran...

• Claims that the Quran anticipates modern
  scientific knowledge are widely circulated.
• We have built the heaven with might, and We it
  is Who make the vast extent (thereof). And the
  earth have We laid out, how gracious is the
  Spreader (thereof)! (Quran 5147, 48)
• Expansion of universe? (Bucaille 1979)
• Belief that all knowledge is in the Quran is
  combined with the prestige of science.

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Islamic Science in academia

• Influential in social sciences, often due to
  Islamist political success. E.g. Islamic
  Sociology, (IIIT 1989, Sahin 2001).
• Even Quranic miracles make their way into
  medical papers and textbooks (e.g. Moore et.al.
  1992).
• Science and religion not yet fully separated,
  culturally and institutionally.

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Example Turkish Creationism

• Widespread anti-evolution sentiment in Turkey,
  from popular creationism to quasi-academic
  attempts at Alternative Biology (e.g. Yilmaz
  Uzunoglu 1995).
• Turkish creationism is successful in making
  inroads into state-run education and in
  attracting media and public attention (Edis 1999,
  Sayin Kence 1999).

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Brief History

• Conservative Muslims have always written against
  evolution (e.g. Akbulut 1980).
• In the 1980s, the conservative government
  discovered Protestant creationism, and let it
  influence education (Edis 1994).
• In the last 5 years, Turkish creationism has
  taken on a more aggressive public and media face
  (Edis 1999).

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Harun Yahya BAV

• Adnan Oktar and his Science Research Foundation
  (Bilim Arastirma Vakfi - BAV) spearheads the
  current creationism. Harun Yahya is their
  pseudonym.
• Particularly notable for their media-savvy
  events, attention to production values, and their
  ability to give away thousands of creationist
  booklets free of charge.

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Harun Yahyas books

• A very familiar creationism, often copied from
  the Institute for Creation Research!

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International Outreach

• Harun Yahya books, articles, videos and web
  materials are available in English, Malay,
  Russian, Italian, Spanish, Serbo-Croat, Polish,
  and Albanian. Translations into Urdu and Arabic
  are forthcoming.
• Yahya has become popular throughout the Muslim
  world he is no longer just a Turkish phenomenon.

13
BAV Resources

• Turkish creationists command significant
  resources, though their financial background is
  unclear.
• Available in Muslim bookstores worldwide.
• A good place to start learning more is the Harun
  Yahya web site (English)
• www.hyahya.org

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Comparison to Christian version

• The most visible form only gives the illusion of
  scholarship -- misrepresenting evidence, quoting
  out of context, using dubious sources etc.

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Comparison to Christian version

• The most visible form only gives the illusion of
  scholarship -- misrepresenting evidence, quoting
  out of context, using dubious sources etc.
• However, academic support exists as well. Some
  theologians in major institutions, and even a
  minority of scientists are sympathetic and
  publicly supportive.

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Comparison continued...

• Primary concern is apologetic and culturally
  defensive. Creationism is geared to a popular,
  already religious market.

17
Comparison continued...

• Primary concern is apologetic and culturally
  defensive. Creationism is geared to a popular,
  already religious market.
• Islamic creationism part of very successful
  re-Islamization movement. Creationists have
  influenced education policies, and institutions
  such as BAV are very wealthy and politically
  well-connected.

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Comparison continued...

• Typical arguments from ID or ICR gaps in fossil
  record, 2nd law, paleontological fraud,
  probability of complex structure,

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Comparison continued...

• Typical arguments from ID or ICR gaps in fossil
  record, 2nd law, paleontological fraud,
  probability of complex structure,
• But not indiscriminate copying. BAV omits flood
  geology and Genesis, and draws on Islamic
  tradition of perceiving a harmonious, complex
  universe as a clear sign of divine creation.

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Why copy the Protestants?

• Fundamentalisms are not traditionalist. Their
  constituency is a modernizing, often technically
  sophisticated population which affords cognitive
  authority to science (Eve Harrold 1991).
• Western creationism provides ready-made populist
  pseudoscience relatively free of Protestant
  doctrinal idiosyncrasies.

21
Defending Morality

• Muslim creationists want to defend a moral order
  revealed in nature as well as scripture. Fitra,
  or created nature is central to morality
  people and life forms have well-defined roles in
  a created universe.
• Evolution undermines this view of the nature of
  morality. Biological facts no longer carry moral
  significance.

22
Aristotelian Biology Revived

• Aristotelianism in apologists view of biology
  (Edis Bix, forthcoming).
• It is true that as a whole, the male sex has
  been created superior to the female. Even the
  sperm which carries the male sign is different
  from the female. The male-bearing sperm is more
  active, the female less. The egg stays
  stationary, the sperm seeks her out, and endures
  a long and dangerous struggle in the process.
  Generally in nature, all male animals are more
  complete, more superior compared to their
  females. Man, being more enduring at work, and
  superior in prudence and willpower, has been
  given the duty of protecting woman. (Ates 1991)

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Conclusions

• Public distortions of science are widespread in
  Muslim countries where modernity has made
  inroads. Possibly more so than in the
  industrialized West.
• Religiously inspired objections to mainstream
  science has, on occasion, found political and
  institutional support in the Muslim world.

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Speculative Conclusions...

• It is not certain that the institutional and
  cultural conflicts between Islam and science will
  be resolved in an accommodation like that of
  liberal Christianity. The strength of Islamic
  revival suggests otherwise.
• Science vs. Religion debates may come to have
  an increasingly Islamic flavor in the coming
  years.

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Further Information

• For more information on Islamic Creationism,
  including copies of this talk and of my papers on
  the subject, visit my web site at
• www2.truman.edu/edis/
• My e-mail is
• edis_at_truman.edu

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References

• Akbulut, S. 1980. Darwin ve Evrim Teorisi.
  Istanbul Yeni Asya.
• Ates, S. 1991. Gerçek Din Bu, vol 1. Istanbul
  Yeni Ufuklar.
• Bucaillle, M. 1979. The Bible, The Quran and
  Science. Indianapolis American Trust
• Edis, T. 1994. Islamic Creationism In Turkey,
  Creation/Evolution, 34 1.
• Edis, T. 1999. Cloning Creationism In Turkey,
  Reports of the National Center for Science
  Education, 196 30
• Edis, T, and A Bix. Forthcoming. Premodern
  Concepts of Gendered Bodies in Current Popular
  Islam.
• Eve, R, and Harrold, F. 1991. The Creationist
  Movement in Modern America. Boston Twayne.
• International Institute of Islamic Thought.
  1989. Islamization of Knowledge. Herndon IIIT.
• Moore, KL. et.al. 1992. Human Development as
  Described in the Quran and Sunnah. Makkah
  Commission on Scientific Signs of the Quran and
  Sunnah.
• Sahin, A. 2001. Islam ve Sosyoloji açisindan
  ilim ve din bütünlügü. Istanbul Bilge.
• Sayin, Ü, and A Kence. 1999. Islamic
  Scientific Creationism, Reports of the National
  Center for Science Education, 196 18
• Yilmaz, I, and S Uzunoglu. 1995. Alternatif
  Biyolojiye Dogru. Izmir TÖV.