In its October 2-8 edition, the Turkish
magazine Tempo published an article titled "Islam Accepts
Darwin" as its cover story. That same article was also published
in daily Hurriyet and on various Internet sites. Sabah columnist
Emre Akoz cited the file as a reference in an article called "Islam
Makes Peace with Darwin," dated October 2.
The report in Tempo magazine was based on interviews with
three academics from the Ankara University Theology Faculty. The teachers
in question were of the view that the theory of evolution is compatible
with Islam.
However, that view is mistaken. There can be no question
of Darwinism "being compatible" with Islam, because Darwinism
violates the fundamental tenet of Islam, the fact that God created and
fashioned the universe and all living things. Darwinism is a theory which
was established to make people deny that truth. It is essentially a theory
which targets religion. In the same way that there can be no reconciliation
between Islam and Marxism, which makes the invalid claim that "religion
is the opium of the people," so there can be no reconciliation between
Islam and Darwinism, which holds that "life is the product of chance."
Besides, there is no need to attempt such a reconciliation,
because Darwinism has no scientific foundation. Contrary to what is thought,
it is not "a scientific fact" but a falsehood maintained despite
the scientific facts.
In this article we reveal how and why "Muslim evolutionists"
who seek a reconciliation between Islam and Darwinism are mistaken. Our
aim in doing so is certainly not to disparage Muslim evolutionists. Our
aim is to be a means whereby they come to adopt a more correct perspective
by explaining why their approach to the theory of evolution is mistaken,
to be of intellectual assistance to them in that regard, and by explaining
why it is that evolutionists keep the subject on the agenda.
Those who wish to acquire more information on this subject
can find it in Harun Yahya's book Why
Darwinism is Incompatible with the Qur'an, in which it is set
out in great detail why it is that "Muslim evolutionists" are
so gravely mistaken.
Where "Muslim Evolutionists" Are Mistaken
Those people known as "Muslim evolutionists" -
or Theistic evolutionists in general - have fallen into the error of imagining,
as a result of materialist suggestion and propaganda, that the theory
of evolution is a scientific fact, and seek a "middle road"
between the theory and faith in God. These people accept the Darwinist
scenario concerning the origin of life word for word, yet try to establish
a "reconciliation" between the theory of evolution and Islam
by maintaining that this scenario is under the control of God.
This perspective is gravely mistaken, however. That is because
the theory of evolution is an atheistic concept with a secret ideological
agenda, put forward in order to reinforce and firmly establish atheism,
and fiercely backed by materialist circles. It has been constructed on
materialist philosophy and offers a materialist interpretation of world
phenomena.
Materialist philosophy has been in existence since ancient
Greek times, and claims that matter is the sole absolute reality. Materialists
maintain that the universe was shaped by itself as a result of coincidences,
and that life emerged by evolving from inanimate matter, again as the
result of blind chance.
For that reason the first theory of evolution was proposed
by ancient Greek materialist philosophers. Greek or Roman thinkers such
as Epicurus, Democritus and Lucretius laid the foundations of the atheistic
theory of evolution to which Darwin would add the details hundreds of
years later. Born in ancient Greece, this myth re-emerged onto the agenda
with the primitive scientific understanding of the 19th century, and since
the theory of evolution provided an alleged support for materialism -
whether it was scientific or not - it was immediately accepted by materialists.
Opposed to the theory of evolution there is the fact of creation.
The truth of creation, which can be understood by means of reason and
observation (in other words by the scientific method) alone has been taught
since the dawn of history by monotheistic religions. All the three monotheistic
faiths have revealed that God created the entire universe by commanding
it to "Be!" and that the flawless functioning of that universe
is evidence of God's superior creative artistry. This truth is also revealed
in many verses of the Qur'an. In the verse "[God is] the Originator
of the heavens and earth. When He decides on something, He just says to
it, 'Be!' and it is." (Qur'an, 2:117) God reveals that He miraculously
created the whole universe from nothing. In Surat al-An'am it is revealed:
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)
This divergence of views between materialism and belief in
God is the fundamental difference between religion and atheism. There
can be no question of a Muslim seeking intellectual "reconciliation"
on this subject. There can be no reconciliation with a theory put forward
in order to deny God and His creation.
Materialists Support "Religious Evolutionism" for Tactical Reasons
Indeed, evolutions know that such a "reconciliation"
will be damaging to religion, and are thus trying to force certain Muslims
to take that step. In order to gain the support of believers and to weaken
their intellectual struggle against the theory of evolution, evolutionists
are trying a different method, that of covertly supporting the idea of
"evolutionary creation." Although they themselves do not believe
in God, but make a divinity out of chance and are totally opposed to the
truth of creation, they remain silent in the face of the idea that God
created living things by means of evolution, and generally even encourage
the idea, since they think that this will accelerate the acceptance of
their theories.
Yet this is only a tactical move. The aim is to eliminate
the objections of the devout and to impose the theory of evolution on
all of society. Following the dissemination of the theory of evolution
in this way, the vague interpretation of "religious evolutionism"
will be done away with, to be replaced by the materialism which represents
the essence of the theory of evolution. Muslims must take great care not
to be taken in by this tactic and not to be a tool of this cunning strategy.
The Acceptance of Darwinism Does Not Show That It Is
True
One of the errors made by Muslim evolutionists is to believe
that the theory of evolution is a scientific and proven fact. This can
be seen in the Tempo magazine article, and it is noteworthy that one of
the respected theologians who support the theory of evolution says, "The
theory of evolution is today a valid theory."
The truth is, however, that the theory of evolution has today
lost all its foundations in the face of modern scientific findings. Research
both at the molecular level or in the fields of biology or palaeontology
has totally invalidated the claims that living things came into being
as the result of an evolutionary process.
It is a grave error to ignore these facts and to think in
line not with the scientific evidence but with "the trends in the
scientific world."
One of those identifying this erroneous analysis was former
Bogaziçi University professor of philosophy the late Arda Denkel, who
stated that evolutionists in Turkey were unable to give a scientific response
to creationism, that they only say, "This theory is widely accepted
in the scientific world," but that this is meaningless:
Does the fact that many respected individuals and bodies
have accepted evolution prove that the theory is correct? Or is the truth
of the theory to be decided in court? Does the fact that respected and
powerful people believe something to be the truth actually make it so?
I would like to recall one historical event. Did not Galileo Galilei speak
and defend the truth in the face of all the respected individuals of his
time, of lawyers, and especially of scientists? Receiving the support
of respected and dominant circles is something which neither creates truth
nor has any direct connection with what is scientific. 1
As noted by Prof. Denkel, the wide acceptance of a theory
is no proof that it is true. The history of science is full of facts which
were first embraced by the minority, the truth of which was only later
generally accepted.
Another aspect of the matter is that the theory of evolution
is not "a theory accepted by the scientific world." The number
of scientists who reject the theory of evolution has grown apace over
the last 20-30 years. Most of these have freed themselves from Darwinist
dogma by seeing the intelligent design in the universe and living things.
Countless studies by these scientists have revealed the invalidity of
evolution.
The Myth That Darwin Believed in God
Another error made by Muslim evolutionists is that Darwin
believed in God.
The fact is though that despite being faithful to Christian
belief in his early years, Darwin lost his faith in parallel to his development
of the theory of evolution. He is also known to have increasingly turned
towards atheism. Biographies of Darwin frequently state that the only
reason why he did not openly voice his atheism was in order not to upset
his devoutly Christian wife, Emma. The atheism which Darwinism failed
to openly express in his books can clearly be seen in his letters. In
one letter he said: "… disbelief crept over me at a very slow
rate, but was at last complete…"2
In another letter, written in 1878, Darwin openly confessed
his atheism:
… This conclusion (theism) was strong in my mind about
the time, as far as I can remember, when I wrote the "Origin of Species";
and it is since that time that it has very gradually, with many fluctuations,
become weaker…3
Leaving the question of Darwin's personal beliefs aside,
the attempt to reconcile Darwinism as a theory with belief in God is also
empty. The Canadian thinker William Provine, himself an evolutionist,
says:
As the creationists claim, belief in modern evolution
makes atheists of people. One can have a religious view that is compatible
with evolution only if the religious view is indistinguishable from atheism.
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Erroneous Interpretations of Qur'anic Verses
At the root of the way in which some Muslims esteem the theory
of evolution lies the fact that they ignore God's power to create and
destroy whatsoever He wishes at the moment He wishes. Such evolutionist
Muslims are thinking under the influence of "naturalist" dogma
which assumes that the laws of nature are immutable and unchanging and
that no phenomenon can take place outside those laws. This, however, is
a serious error. That is because the concepts we refer to as "the
laws of nature" stem from God's creation and maintenance of matter
within a specific order. These are not properties which stem from matter
itself. For that reason, in the same way that God has set these laws out,
He can alter them when He wishes, and performs actions outside them.
We human beings call these actions "miracles."
For instance, the way that the Companions of the Cave remained alive for
more than 300 years is a miracle outside the laws of nature. The people
whom God killed and later resurrected as revealed in the verses of the
Qur'an are also miracles. Every event takes place by the creation of God,
but those which appear to be in conformity with specific laws are "normal"
for us, while the others are "miracles."
The element which needs to be understood here is that God
is not bound by the laws which He has created. If God so wishes he can
do something totally contrary to the laws of nature. This is easy for
God.
The True Meaning of Creation from Water
When we look at the verses in the Qur'an concerning the creation
of living things and man, we can clearly see that this happens not within
the laws of nature but in a miraculous manner. God reveals His creation
of living things thus:
God created every animal from water. Some of them
go on their bellies, some of them on two legs, and some on four. God creates
whatever He wills. God has power over all things. (Qur'an, 24:45)
The verse is pointing to the basic groups which live on land
(reptiles, birds and mammals) and it is revealed that God created these
from water. Close inspection shows that these were not created "from
one another," as envisaged by the theory of evolution, but "from
water." In other words, they were created separately by God shaping
a common material.
The fact that this common material is water is evident. Water
is the most fundamental component of organisms. Mammal bodies consist
of come 70% water. It is thanks to the water in its body that every living
thing establishes communications inside the cell, among cells and among
tissues. There can be no life without water.
The interesting thing is that some Muslims seek to attach
a meaning to the above verse which is compatible with the theory of evolution.
Yet the "creation from water" in question has nothing to do
with the theory of evolution. The theory makes no such claim as "every
living thing emerged from water and evolved" for such a relationship
to be established. On the contrary, the theory maintains that living things
evolved from one another, a claim which totally contradicts the fact revealed
in the Qur'an that every living group was created from water (created
separately).
The Period Before Man
This verse is another which Muslim evolutionists propose
as evidence:
Has man ever known a point of time when he was
not something remembered? (Qur'an, 76:1)
It is necessary to force the meaning of this expression to
portray it as evidence of "evolutionary creation." Indeed, this
verse is not interpreted as an evolutionary process by Islamic scholars.
For example, Omer Nasuhi Bilmen offers the following interpretation:
These verses reveal that the Lord created human beings
capable of hearing and seeing from a drop of water before they were ever
known or existed and that He subjects them to a test …
Man never existed at the beginning, but a while later he was incarnated
from a drop of water, from earth and mud, and made a body. That human
being was not then known, and neither the people of the sky nor those
of the earth knew his name and why he had been created. Later on, the
consciousness of the soul began to be inspired in him." 5
Imam Taberi interprets the verse thus:
Such a period of time passed before the man (Adem) that
he had no fame or superiority. He was merely sticky and unfixed mud."
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For that reason, to describe the expression of time in the
verse as an "evolutionary process" is a subjective interpretation
which has no basis in the Qur'an.
God Miraculously Created Man from Clay
In the Qur'an God reveals that the creation of man took place
in a miraculous manner. The first human being was created by God shaping
clay into the form of the human body, and afterwards breathing a soul
into it:
Your Lord said to the angels, 'I am going to create
a human being out of clay. When I have formed him and breathed My Spirit
into him, fall down in prostration to him!' (Qur'an, 38:71-72)
We created man from the purest kind of clay. (Qur'an,
23:12)
On close inspection it is revealed in the verse that, unlike
the claims of Muslim evolutionists, man was not created from a primate
or any other living thing, but from mud, an inanimate substance. There
is no "natural process of evolution" here. What there is, however,
is God's direct, miraculous creation. Indeed, the expression "I created
with my two hands' used by God in the following verse, shows that man
was directly created by the might of God:
He [God] said, 'Diabolis, what prevented you prostrating
to what I created with My own Hands? Were you overcome by arrogance or
are you one of the exalted?' (Qur'an, 38:75)
In short, there is no "evolutionary" account of
the creation of man and living things in the Qur'an. On the contrary,
it is revealed that God miraculously created man and all living things
from such inanimate substances as water and earth.
The Evolutionism in Islamic History Is an Influence from
Greek Philosophy
Although there is no evolutionary account in the Qur'an,
there have been people in the history of Islam who, under the influence
of Greek philosophy, have adopted materialist and evolutionist elements
in that philosophy and sought to make them compatible with the Qur'an.
Those who made such evolutionist interpretations were particularly the
Ikhwan as-Safa' society active around Basra.. This community, affiliated
to the Ismaili sect, resembles Freemasonry in some respects, and it is
interesting that modern-day Masons praise the society. For instance, Selami
Isindag, a well known Turkish Masonic grand master and opponent of religion,
writes:
In the Islamic world there was a counterpart of Masonry
called the Ikhwan as-Safa' [The Brethren of Purity]. This society was
founded in Basra in the time of the Abbasids and published an encyclopedia
composed of 54 large volumes. 17 of these dealt with natural science and
it contained scientific explanations that closely resembled those of Darwin.
These found their way even to Spain and had an influence on Western thought.
(Dr. Selami Isindag, "Kurulusundan Bugune Masonluk ve Bizler"
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The evolutionist ideas carried to the Islamic world from
ancient Greece by means of the Ikhwan as-Safa' in turn influenced
certain Muslim thinkers of the time. As well as those who supported the
theory of evolution in the Muslim world at that time there were also thinkers
who believed in materialism, denied the existence of the hereafter and
were unable to agree that God possesses infinite knowledge of events,
in short, thinkers who were caught up by perverted beliefs. Rather than
taking such false ideas as models, present-day Muslims should avoid them.
In fact, the great Islamic scholar Imam Ghazali totally invalidated
this ancient Greek philosophy which had entered the Islamic world. In
his work Al-Munqidh min al-Dalal (Deliverance From Error),
Ghazali directly criticised the evolutionist Ikhwan as-Safa' society.
He declared that this was a false philosophy directly influenced by ancient
Greek thinking. In his work Fedaih-ul-Batinniyye, he demonstrated
the perversity of the teachings of the Ismaili sect, to which the Ikhwan
as-Safa' belonged.
Not Being Deceived by Materialist Propaganda
As we stated at the beginning, the attempt to reconcile Islam
with Darwinism is a tactic used by materialists to impose Darwinism on
society. Muslims must be aware of this.
When evolutionists say, "Let us not confuse religion
and science, belief is one thing, the fact of evolution another,"
their aim is to undermine Muslims' intellectual struggle. The real message
is this: "There is a real world, and this can be understood through
science, and science shows us that there is no such thing as creation,
although those who wish can believe in what they want in their own personal
views."
This is a great deception. It is an evident truth, the literal
truth, that God created the universe and living things. Every detail in
the universe is proof of God's creation. It is evolution, bereft of any
evidence, which is the superstition and which can be regarded as peoples'
"personal beliefs." Muslims must be aware of this deceptive
suggestion which places the truth under the dominion of materialist philosophy
and seeks to portray the fact of creation as a "personal belief."
This indoctrination can easily be overcome. It is sufficient
to think rationally, with common sense, to free oneself from the dogma
that science and materialism are one and the same thing, and to study
the true results of science. Everyone who does this will see that the
origin of life on Earth is intelligent design, in other words, creation.
It must not be forgotten that it is impossible for
a Muslim who has a detailed knowledge of the theory of evolution to remain
ambivalent in the face of the evolutionists' claims. In addition, thinking
deeply about God's creation and His art which encompasses the whole universe,
clinging tightly to the Qur'an and understanding the facts revealed in
the Qur'an is the simplest way of freeing oneself from this negative influence.
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