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Creationism in Turkey: A fellow hack’s field trip

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Nathan Schneider draws my attention to his article on Turkish creationist Harun Yahya (a pen name for Adnan Oktar). He asked for my comments, and here is more or less what I said:

I know little about Yahya myself – and find it useful to know more.My chief worry with Islamic apologetics (which I take to be his primary purpose) is anti-Semitism – a major problem right now in Canada. Yahya says he is totally opposed to anti-Semitism.

(I don’t mind any religion using science facts to bolster its belief system. Such uses can lead to much greater interest in sciences and also to voluntary financial support for research projects. But such projects should never be aimed against another group, only toward bolstering the claims of one’s own group.)

A kind person in the Middle East sent me a number of Yahya’s books, though not the huge Atlas of which you speak. The books are lavishly prepared – and the style is distinctly Eastern rather than Western.

I admit, I have not read them, but your article motivates me to begin one over the Christmas season, when I have a bit more private time. [I have started this already. – d.]

I was puzzled by your somewhat fatalistic closing: “Simply by writing about Oktar, I reinforce his vision. Anything critical I’ve written here will be overlooked as the decrepit volleys of Darwinism in retreat.” Or did I misunderstand, and fail to see the irony you intended?

I think Darwinism is necessarily in retreat – as I have said elsewhere, I don’t think that Darwin would be a Darwinist today – he would more likely be the 17th Altenberger – looking for a non-theistic, non-teleological version of evolution that actually fits the evidence.

And if you are all here anyway:

A message to my American readers – May you have a Prague summer forever, but …

Intelligent design and popular culture: Podcasts to listen to while driving

Welcome to the year of Darwin: Darwin and plagiarism

Born in Saskatchewan (a Western province of Canada) – or not? Either way, enjoy this Western art.

I gathered that he was in some kind of trouble

with the Turkish government recently. Is he really in jail?
Comments
So Carl is back in town! Hey, everything old is new again. For the record, Carl, I never pay attention to Wikipedia, a vast source of false information where the intelligent design controversy is in view. There is no doubt a book in that for someone (= Errors of the Vulgarians). I haven't bothered to go and check, but I could very well still be "Diane O'Leary" on one of their worthless hit pages. I sympathize with anyone who uses them as a source. Many free sources are vastly better on this topic.O'Leary
January 2, 2009
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Carl is back. Well Carl, why don't you explain why Darwinism is not nonsense. Then explain why ID is nonsense so we can compare the two nonsense scenarios. But maybe on another thread so we do not give credence to a thread about Harun Yahya.jerry
January 2, 2009
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Denyse, It is perfectly easy to find out more about Harun Yahya and whether he's in jail. Look up Adnan Oktar on Wikipedia. Frankly, associating with this guy is a fantastic way to discredit ID. Has he ever recanted his view that the holocaust was just some Jews dying of typhus? Full disclaimer: I think that ID is nonsense.Carl
January 2, 2009
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Interesting. Nice to see that ID is an international phenomenom and not exclusively something found in the English speaking world.Platonist
January 1, 2009
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