The following review was published in Minaret, the magazine of
Islamic Center of Southern California, after a glowing book review about Yahya's
Evolution Deceit, in Minaret's earlier edition. The real name of Yahya is Adnan
Oktar. Unfortunately, most Muslims who pomote Yahya's book have very little
knowledge about the theory of evolution and science in general.
Book Review by T.O.Shanavas.
THE EVOLUTION DECEIT: A FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN DECEPTION
The book review titled “The Evolution Deceit Reveals Holes in Theory” by an anonymous author in Minaret [vol. 22: 8] is misleading and deceptive. The Evolution Deceit by Harun Yahya is a fundamentalist Christian deception under the cover of Islamic veil. This book misleads those innocent Muslims who lack overall knowledge of theory of evolution and biology. The author of the book review states: the book “gives necessary answers to the evolutionist propaganda.” The author adds: the book “displays the fraudulence and distortions [by] evolutionist scientists.” NO!!! In fact his book Yahya distorts the honest mainstream scientists by fraudulently manipulating their statements.
This book is a classic carbon copy of fundamentalist Christian arguments of Institute for Creation Research (ICR), San Diego, CA. Yahya cunningly launches the ICR arguments to Muslim community with frequent references to Allah and the Qur’an. Behaving like a good student of the ICR, he transcribed into his book all ICR arguments such as lack of transitional fossils, the impossibility of functioning intermediate forms, the fraud of human evolutions, the unreliability of the dating methods, and the statistical improbability of evolution at the molecular levels.
Following the ICR’s modus operandi, Yahya uses psuedoscience to promote his interpretation of the Qur’an. The references from scientific journals that he cites in the book usually support and defend evolution. But he takes just one sentence out of the article that he thinks might seem to support his arguments and use it as his scientific reference. Like the ICR, he generally distorts a single news item from popular journals to “prove” his conclusion. He conveniently ignores the fact that the rest of the article or other articles in the same issue of the journal that defend and support evolution, even though the Qur’an commands, “…Conceal not evidence…” [Qur’an 2: 283].
These tactics and strategies of Yahya in the book are borrowed from and instructed by his fundamentalist Christian mentors from the ICR such as Duane Gish, Henry Morris, John Morris, etc. Yahya and his organization, Bilim Arastirma Vakfi [BAV]-Scientific Research Foundation, has a long history of association with the ICR since 1992 including receiving assistance from it. Yahya became well acquainted with Duane Gish and Henry Morris during their numerous trips to Turkey in search of Noah’s Ark [Ref: Acts & Facts 1998a, 1998b]. Duane Gish and Henry Morris were participants in a conference on creationism organized by Yahya and BAV in 1992. Then later in April and July 1998 Yahya and BAV organized three “international” conferences in collaboration with the ICR with a theme of “The Collapse of the Theory of Evolution: The Fact of Creation.” Gish and Morris were invited main speakers in the conferences.
After the conference Morris described the presence of the ICR in the conferences in Turkey as an “effort to bring Turks to Christ.” [Ref: ICR publication, Impact # 318 December 1999]. In another article, titled, “Creation, Christmas, and the Qur’an” Henry Morris hopes, “the Muslims influenced by the ICR will come to know Christ.” [Ref: ICR publication: “Back to Genesis” December 1998, page 120]. Similar hope is expressed by John Morris, the current director of the ICR, in an article titled “creationist Evangelism.” [Ref: the ICR publication: “Acts & Facts” 1998, 27:9].
In page 222 of Yahya’s book, he presents Duane Gish as “World-renowned evolution expert.” This is another fraudulent claim by Yahya. There is not a single article published by Gish in any of the known peer-reviewed journals in the last 25 years. Of course, he has published many articles in Christian publications. Gish is one of the founding fathers of Christian Fundamentalist organization, the ICR. Gish is a biochemist who has done no paleo-anthropological research himself. One of Gish's tactics is to malign the credibility of the anthropologists in general who study human evolution by citing examples of their mistakes, especially misidentified fossils. One of the protocols of a good scientist is that a person who makes a claim bears the burden of documenting it. But Yahya’s “World-renowned” Gish refuses to follow this protocol after he made a statement that humans are closer to frogs based upon data for amino acid sequence in some proteins in frogs and human. [Ref: PBS science program Nova in 1982]. Gish repeatedly promised to produce the documentation of his claim, but did not. He violated the protocol of a good scientist when he said it was the evolutionists’ job to ferret out the information. [Ref: Eve, Raymond A. & Harrold, Francis B.1990. “The Creationist Movement in America” Boston: Twayne Publishers. Page 83]. Duane Gish’s conduct in this instance shows that he does not fit the mold of a “world-renowned scientist.”
Who are Harun Yahya's other mentors? Henry Morris and John Morris! The father-son combination!! Henry Morris is not a biologist or paleontologist. He is a hydraulic engineer. The best way to introduce him is by his own words so that the readers can make their own judgments. His opinion about science: “It is precisely because Bible revelation is absolutely authoritative and perspicuous that the scientific facts, rightly interpreted, will give the testimony as that of Scripture. There is not a slightest possibility that the facts of science can contradict the Bible.”[Ref: Morris, Henry M., ed. 1974. “Scientific creationism” (public school edition). San Diego: Creation-Life Pubs.].
Henry Morris states about the age of the earth: “In the Bible, which is the Word of God, He has told us everything we need to know about the Creation and earth’s primeval history.”[Ref: Morris, Henry., 1967. “Evolution and the Modern Christian.” Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co.]
"The only way we can determine the true age of the earth is from God to tell us what it is. And Since He has told us, very plainly, in the Holy Scriptures that it is several thousand years in age, and no more, that ought to settle all basic questions terrestrial chronology."
[Ref: The Remarkable Birth of Planet Earth by Henry Morris. Minneapolis, Minn.
Dimension Books.1972. page.94.]. Henry Morris states again in another publication “that the earth almost certainly was created less than 10,000 years ago.”[Ref: Morris, Henry., 1977. “The scientific Case for Creationism.” San Diego: Creation-Life Pub.].
Finally, Henry M. Morris--John Morris's father, Duane Gish's boss, the founder of the Institute for Creation Research--apparently suspects Muhammed [pbuh] of trafficking with the devil? I quote: "Muhammed himself, with his presumed visions and revelations, was something of a mystic, and there is legitimate reason to wonder whether or not his 'angelic' revelations were really from God...The 'revelations' received by Mohammed from his visiting spiritual entities, while stressing the supremacy of Allah, presented a vastly different portrait of God's character and purposes than those inspired by the Holy Spirit through the prophets and apostles of both Old and New Testaments. It is all but impossible that they could have been from the same source." (Henry M. Morris, The Long War Against God, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House 1989, pp. 229-30).
John Morris holds same opinion as his father regarding the age of the earth and probably about Prophet [pbuh]. Otherwise, he would not be the director of the ICR. Anyone holding such views regarding the age of the earth cannot be called "famous geologist" as Yahya venerate him. He can be recognized as a "geologist of the Bible or a biblical scholar" but definitely not as “famous geologist.”
John Morris, current director of ICR, is a geological engineer, not geologist, who is not engaged currently in geological work. John Morris, Yahya's mentor, after attending the conferences organized by BAV and Harun Yahya, wrote: "As a group [BAV of Turkey], they have access to more than adequate financial resources, as well as to the media, are able to blanket the country with creation information. They choose to invite international creationists for their publicity value, but especially welcome Christian creationists in the ICR mold rather than those who those who hold merely an anti-Darwinian stance."
[Ref: Morris, John. "Creationist Evangelism in Turkey." Acts & Facts 1998; 27:9.]
To conclude, Yahya’s mentors are fundamentalist Christians. Yahya’s tactics and strategies are those practiced by the fundamentalist Christians. Yahya even fraudulently venerate Duane Gish, Morris, etc., as “World-renowned” scientists and evolution experts. Therefore, Yahya’s book, The Evolution Deceit, is a fundamentalist Christian fraud, under the cover of Islamic veil, that misrepresents Islam and the Qur’an. Those Muslims, that promote Yahya’s book as savior of Muslims from the theory of evolution, must look for some other source than Yahya’s book.
Book Review by T.O.Shanavas.
THE EVOLUTION DECEIT: A FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN DECEPTION
The book review titled “The Evolution Deceit Reveals Holes in Theory” by an anonymous author in Minaret [vol. 22: 8] is misleading and deceptive. The Evolution Deceit by Harun Yahya is a fundamentalist Christian deception under the cover of Islamic veil. This book misleads those innocent Muslims who lack overall knowledge of theory of evolution and biology. The author of the book review states: the book “gives necessary answers to the evolutionist propaganda.” The author adds: the book “displays the fraudulence and distortions [by] evolutionist scientists.” NO!!! In fact his book Yahya distorts the honest mainstream scientists by fraudulently manipulating their statements.
This book is a classic carbon copy of fundamentalist Christian arguments of Institute for Creation Research (ICR), San Diego, CA. Yahya cunningly launches the ICR arguments to Muslim community with frequent references to Allah and the Qur’an. Behaving like a good student of the ICR, he transcribed into his book all ICR arguments such as lack of transitional fossils, the impossibility of functioning intermediate forms, the fraud of human evolutions, the unreliability of the dating methods, and the statistical improbability of evolution at the molecular levels.
Following the ICR’s modus operandi, Yahya uses psuedoscience to promote his interpretation of the Qur’an. The references from scientific journals that he cites in the book usually support and defend evolution. But he takes just one sentence out of the article that he thinks might seem to support his arguments and use it as his scientific reference. Like the ICR, he generally distorts a single news item from popular journals to “prove” his conclusion. He conveniently ignores the fact that the rest of the article or other articles in the same issue of the journal that defend and support evolution, even though the Qur’an commands, “…Conceal not evidence…” [Qur’an 2: 283].
These tactics and strategies of Yahya in the book are borrowed from and instructed by his fundamentalist Christian mentors from the ICR such as Duane Gish, Henry Morris, John Morris, etc. Yahya and his organization, Bilim Arastirma Vakfi [BAV]-Scientific Research Foundation, has a long history of association with the ICR since 1992 including receiving assistance from it. Yahya became well acquainted with Duane Gish and Henry Morris during their numerous trips to Turkey in search of Noah’s Ark [Ref: Acts & Facts 1998a, 1998b]. Duane Gish and Henry Morris were participants in a conference on creationism organized by Yahya and BAV in 1992. Then later in April and July 1998 Yahya and BAV organized three “international” conferences in collaboration with the ICR with a theme of “The Collapse of the Theory of Evolution: The Fact of Creation.” Gish and Morris were invited main speakers in the conferences.
After the conference Morris described the presence of the ICR in the conferences in Turkey as an “effort to bring Turks to Christ.” [Ref: ICR publication, Impact # 318 December 1999]. In another article, titled, “Creation, Christmas, and the Qur’an” Henry Morris hopes, “the Muslims influenced by the ICR will come to know Christ.” [Ref: ICR publication: “Back to Genesis” December 1998, page 120]. Similar hope is expressed by John Morris, the current director of the ICR, in an article titled “creationist Evangelism.” [Ref: the ICR publication: “Acts & Facts” 1998, 27:9].
In page 222 of Yahya’s book, he presents Duane Gish as “World-renowned evolution expert.” This is another fraudulent claim by Yahya. There is not a single article published by Gish in any of the known peer-reviewed journals in the last 25 years. Of course, he has published many articles in Christian publications. Gish is one of the founding fathers of Christian Fundamentalist organization, the ICR. Gish is a biochemist who has done no paleo-anthropological research himself. One of Gish's tactics is to malign the credibility of the anthropologists in general who study human evolution by citing examples of their mistakes, especially misidentified fossils. One of the protocols of a good scientist is that a person who makes a claim bears the burden of documenting it. But Yahya’s “World-renowned” Gish refuses to follow this protocol after he made a statement that humans are closer to frogs based upon data for amino acid sequence in some proteins in frogs and human. [Ref: PBS science program Nova in 1982]. Gish repeatedly promised to produce the documentation of his claim, but did not. He violated the protocol of a good scientist when he said it was the evolutionists’ job to ferret out the information. [Ref: Eve, Raymond A. & Harrold, Francis B.1990. “The Creationist Movement in America” Boston: Twayne Publishers. Page 83]. Duane Gish’s conduct in this instance shows that he does not fit the mold of a “world-renowned scientist.”
Who are Harun Yahya's other mentors? Henry Morris and John Morris! The father-son combination!! Henry Morris is not a biologist or paleontologist. He is a hydraulic engineer. The best way to introduce him is by his own words so that the readers can make their own judgments. His opinion about science: “It is precisely because Bible revelation is absolutely authoritative and perspicuous that the scientific facts, rightly interpreted, will give the testimony as that of Scripture. There is not a slightest possibility that the facts of science can contradict the Bible.”[Ref: Morris, Henry M., ed. 1974. “Scientific creationism” (public school edition). San Diego: Creation-Life Pubs.].
Henry Morris states about the age of the earth: “In the Bible, which is the Word of God, He has told us everything we need to know about the Creation and earth’s primeval history.”[Ref: Morris, Henry., 1967. “Evolution and the Modern Christian.” Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co.]
"The only way we can determine the true age of the earth is from God to tell us what it is. And Since He has told us, very plainly, in the Holy Scriptures that it is several thousand years in age, and no more, that ought to settle all basic questions terrestrial chronology."
[Ref: The Remarkable Birth of Planet Earth by Henry Morris. Minneapolis, Minn.
Dimension Books.1972. page.94.]. Henry Morris states again in another publication “that the earth almost certainly was created less than 10,000 years ago.”[Ref: Morris, Henry., 1977. “The scientific Case for Creationism.” San Diego: Creation-Life Pub.].
Finally, Henry M. Morris--John Morris's father, Duane Gish's boss, the founder of the Institute for Creation Research--apparently suspects Muhammed [pbuh] of trafficking with the devil? I quote: "Muhammed himself, with his presumed visions and revelations, was something of a mystic, and there is legitimate reason to wonder whether or not his 'angelic' revelations were really from God...The 'revelations' received by Mohammed from his visiting spiritual entities, while stressing the supremacy of Allah, presented a vastly different portrait of God's character and purposes than those inspired by the Holy Spirit through the prophets and apostles of both Old and New Testaments. It is all but impossible that they could have been from the same source." (Henry M. Morris, The Long War Against God, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House 1989, pp. 229-30).
John Morris holds same opinion as his father regarding the age of the earth and probably about Prophet [pbuh]. Otherwise, he would not be the director of the ICR. Anyone holding such views regarding the age of the earth cannot be called "famous geologist" as Yahya venerate him. He can be recognized as a "geologist of the Bible or a biblical scholar" but definitely not as “famous geologist.”
John Morris, current director of ICR, is a geological engineer, not geologist, who is not engaged currently in geological work. John Morris, Yahya's mentor, after attending the conferences organized by BAV and Harun Yahya, wrote: "As a group [BAV of Turkey], they have access to more than adequate financial resources, as well as to the media, are able to blanket the country with creation information. They choose to invite international creationists for their publicity value, but especially welcome Christian creationists in the ICR mold rather than those who those who hold merely an anti-Darwinian stance."
[Ref: Morris, John. "Creationist Evangelism in Turkey." Acts & Facts 1998; 27:9.]
To conclude, Yahya’s mentors are fundamentalist Christians. Yahya’s tactics and strategies are those practiced by the fundamentalist Christians. Yahya even fraudulently venerate Duane Gish, Morris, etc., as “World-renowned” scientists and evolution experts. Therefore, Yahya’s book, The Evolution Deceit, is a fundamentalist Christian fraud, under the cover of Islamic veil, that misrepresents Islam and the Qur’an. Those Muslims, that promote Yahya’s book as savior of Muslims from the theory of evolution, must look for some other source than Yahya’s book.
