ISLAMIC CREATIONISM AND THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION

ISLAMIC CREATIONISM AND THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION GÜLŞAH ERDOĞAN/ 2005103403 Islamic creationism is based on the verses Holy Quran that deal with creation including: Your Lord is Allah, who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and is established the throne. (Quran, 7:54) According to this one God is responsible for the whole creation. Harun Yahya (penname of Adnan Oktar) who believes that the theory of evolution is nothing but the deception imposed on us by the dominators of world system is the theorist of Islamic creationism. 1 Briefly he argues that the theory of evolution is a total delusion and is contrary to Quran. On the other hand, this paper aims at showing that even if there is no explicit and definite support for the idea of evolution in the verses of Quran, the creation in Islam in the light of Quran, does not oppose to it. Harun Yahya wrote immense amount of books against Darwinism and they are available in his web site. He associates Darwinism with non- religionism and it is tried to establish on the masses by means of cultural hegemony. 2 He believes that God created living things and the whole universe from nothing in a conscious and wise way. Moreover he sees the evolution is at the root of evil today, which also the basis of all anti-spiritual philosophies. 3 Darwinism caused many people to abandon their belief in God, their faith and to fall in doubt. He sees showing that this theory is nothing but a deception as a duty of a religionist. To stop this terrorism he offers to put an end to Darwinist-materialist education, to educate young people in accord with a curricula based on true scientific findings and to instill in them the fear of God and the desire to act wisely. 4 For him, the evolutionary theory of Darwin is far from being scientific. It is just a prejudice and a deception. The focus of his 1 Appleman P. (2001) ed., Darwin: A Norton Critical Edition, 3rd ed. New York: W. W. Norton, pp. 551-2. 2 Ibid 3 Yahya, H. (2002) Fascism: The Bloody Ideology of Darwinism, Istanbul: Kultur, ( To the Reader section) 4 Yahya, H. (2002) Islam Denounces Terrorism (3 rd Edition), Bristol: Amal Press, p. 147 1

opposition is on the social and cultural threat posed by evolution in the form of materialism and atheism. In his book, Quran Disprove Darwinism, he maintains that evolutionary theory is a thought, which was suggested to strengthen the atheism. 5 In this book, I do not see any disprove of Darwinism based on the verses of Quran, but it is mostly about lack of a distinct proof of evolution in the Quran. He also argues the contrast between creationism fact and the evolutionary theory s idea that living species exist by an unconscious mechanism and coincidences. 6 I will mention about this subject later. But briefly Harun Yahya thinks that Darwin s theory of evolution never agrees with Islamic creationism. Likewise, there are some other Islamic scholars who reject evolution. For instance, a professor of Islamic studies, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, says, The theory of evolution is the peg the tent of modernism. If it were to fall down, the whole tent would fall on top of the head of modernism. And therefore it is kept as an ideology and not as a scientific theory which has been proven. 7 As well, Muzaffer Iqbal who is the editor of Canadian journal of Islam and science advocates that the logical implication of evolution is nothing but the destruction of the sanctity of species. 8 Most of oppositions are about regarding the evolutionary theory as an opposition of the creation by the divine intellect. According to Caner Taslaman, writer of Evolutionary Theory, philosophy and the God, one of the most prevalent mistakes about relation between believing in the creation of God and evolutionary theory is that the people who support evolution are associated with atheism and the ones who do not believe evolutionary theory are associated with theism. 9 Here, it can be understood that a proposition like God exist is in contradiction with the proposition that evolutionary theory is true. However, I believe that evolutionary theory and 5 Yahya H. (2008) Kuran Darwinism i Yalanlıyor, trans. Gülşah Erdoğan, Istanbul: Secil Ofset. 6 Ibid, p. 34 7 Nasr, S. H. (2006) Islam Sci. 4 (2),181 8 Iqbal, M. (2006) Islam Sci. 4 (2), 89 9 Taslaman, C. (2007) Evrim Teorisi, Felsefe ve Tanrı, Trans. Gülşah Erdoğan, Istanbul: Istanbul Yayınevi, p.322 2

the ontology, which is based on the creation of God, are not contrary to each other. As well, falsification of one of them is not the proof of the other. As a result, I defend the possibility of an evolution, which is created by God. There are several theists who accept various interpretations of evolution or do not see any contradiction between evolution and Islam. For example, a Lebanese scholar, Hussein al-jisr saw room for an accommodation between evolution and Quran and says, there is no evidence in the Quran to suggest whether all species, each of which exist by the grace of God, were created all at once or gradually. 10 Similarly, in his book: Creation and/or Evolution: An Islamic Perspective, Shavanas challenges the inherent conflict between scientific knowledge and religious texts, showing it as a false dilemma, at least where Islam is concerned. Additionally, an Islamic philosopher, Mohammad Iqbal, while accepting evolution reluctantly, credited 9 th century philosopher, Al-Jahiz for the idea of evolution and Ibn- Maskwaih, in the 11 th century, as the first Muslim thinker to give a clear and in many respects a thoroughly modern theory of the origin of man. 11 Evolutionary theory of Darwin points out a mechanism that depended on variation and change: the natural selection and it justifies that all species come from a common ancestor. Namely, it connects all creatures including human, with a common descent. As far as Islamic creation and evolution is concerned, it is important to find the emergence of this first ancestor. Quran portrays God as the creative force behind the universe. However, some advocate spontaneous generation, which asserts that species rise not from reproduction or segmentation of living beings but from lifeless matter. 12 It can explain the emergence of first living being. Nevertheless, with the invention of microscope impossibility of beings emergence from nonliving matter is understood. 13 Therefore, evolutionary theory must accept 10 Whitaker, B. (2009) What s Really Wrong with the Middle East, Saqi Books 11 Hameed, S. Bracing for Islamic Creationism. Science, vol. 322 (2008): 1637 12 Taslaman, C. (2007) Evrim Teorisi, Felsefe ve Tanrı, Trans. Gülşah Erdoğan, Istanbul: Istanbul Yayınevi, p.61 13 Ibid, p.254 3

that at least once, there must be a first cause for a living being. According to Harun Yahya, the main argument of Darwinists is that living beings, without any intervention of a creator emerges by themselves from nonliving matter. 14 However, Darwin completes The Origin of Species, saying, There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone circling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved. 15 In other words, he obviously claims that the first being can be created by the direct intervention of God. God as a creator may not be the only alternative for the emergence of the first being. Nevertheless, this paper seeks the compatibility of Quran and evolutionary theory. Firstly, the age of the earth and universe is argued in relation to the theory of evolution. In The Origin of Species, discussing the time necessary for evolution, Darwin says, all changes having been affected very slowly through natural selection, and process of natural selection will always be very slow. 16 Hence, an old universe is necessary for evolution, but not a sufficient reason to prove it. In Islamic world in terms of Quran, a universe of billions of years is widely accepted. Quranic narrative of creation includes a sixday account of creation. But, the length of each day is not clear. In Arabic language yevm which means the day, can also be used as time periods. 17 Thus, one day can be defined as a thousand years. Consequently, the age of the earth does not constitute a problem for evolution. As a matter of fact, Harun Yahya does not so much deal with this issue. The most important issue, which must be examined for the relation of Islam and the evolution, is the human evolution. It is usually excluded from this scheme due to the fact that human has a special place in Islam. He is the most significant being and everything was 14 Yahya H. (2008) Kuran Darwinism i Yalanlıyor, trans. Gülşah Erdoğan, Istanbul: Secil Ofset, p. 33 15 Darwin, C. The Origin of Species, p.174 16 Ibid, p.146-9 17 Taslaman, C. (2007) Evrim Teorisi, Felsefe ve Tanrı, Trans. Gülşah Erdoğan, Istanbul: Istanbul Yayınevi, p.363 4

created to be in the service of him. Mankind is distinguished from apes and other animals by high intellect, physical form and owning a soul, conscience and free will. Nonetheless, even if Darwin does not suggest that human originated from ape, most of evolutionist like Linnaeus, Lamarck, Huxley as well as Darwin consider that man evolved from an apish being. 18 From Islamic perspective, association of man and monkey may be seen as an insult of human and as a threat of man s honor. However, in Quran, it is asserted, They resemble animals, on account of their way, they are even more bewildered than animals. (Quran, 25:44) In this regard, if a man can be worse than an animal, in sense of human honor, it would be wrong to oppose to association of man and ape. Also, in another verse of Quran, God says that mankind is not his greatest creation: Indeed, the creation of the heavens and the earth is greater than the creation of the mankind, but most of mankind do not realize it. (Quran, 40:57) Separately, according to Quran, He began the creation of man from clay, and made his progeny from a quintessence of fluid. The notion that human like all other species is made from water and earth, support the idea of common descent. Throughout creation process, understanding that God made species evolving from each other and Adam evolved from these species, because the raw material is earth, it does not constitute a problem for Quran. Must the present man be exactly the same as Adam and Eve? Most would accept that human culturally, intelligently and physically changes and improves together with technological and cultural development. We cannot expect that ancient human was exactly the same as present man. For instance, ancient man who was living in caves and was hunting big creatures to survive, has not the same physical and mental features as modern man. The idea that human changes are also stated in Quran: Remember that after Nuh peoples, he made you caliphs and gave you more advanced creation. (Quran, 7:69) 18 Taslaman, C. (2007) Evrim Teorisi, Felsefe ve Tanrı, Trans. Gülşah Erdoğan, Istanbul: Istanbul Yayınevi, p.107 5

In conclusion, in this paper it is tried to show that in terms of Islamic creationism there is no reason to oppose Darwin s theory of evolution, which Harun Yahya argues against. At the same time, even if there is no explicit and clear proof in verses of Quran, evolutionary theory and Islam can even be reconciled. Namely, we cannot say that it is against the honor of mankind and it is impossible that God used evolution as a mechanism of creation. 6

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Appleman P. ed., Darwin: A Norton Critical Edition. 3rd ed. New York: W. W. Norton. 2001 2. Yahya, H. Fascism: The Bloody Ideology of Darwinism. Istanbul: Kultur. 2002 3. Yahya, H. Islam Denounces Terrorism (3 rd Edition). Bristol: Amal Press.2002 4. Yahya H. Kuran Darwinism i Yalanlıyor. trans. Gülşah Erdoğan. Istanbul: Secil Ofset. 2008 5. Nasr, S. H. Islam Sci. 4 (2). 2006 6. Iqbal, M. Islam Sci. 4 (2). 2006 7. Taslaman, C. Evrim Teorisi, Felsefe ve Tanrı. Trans. Gülşah Erdoğan. Istanbul: Istanbul Yayınevi. 2007 8. Whitaker, B. What s Really Wrong with the Middle East. Saqi Books. 2009 9. Hameed, S. Bracing for Islamic Creationism. Science, vol. 322 (2008): 1637 10. Darwin, C. The Origin of Species 7