Science (16-02-2007)

Science 16 February 2007:Vol. 315. no. 5814, p. 925DOI: 10.1126/science.315.5814.925a

News of the Week

FAITH AND SCIENCE:
In Europe's Mailbag: A Glossy Attack on Evolution
Martin Enserink

PARIS--It's the most gorgeous-looking attack on evolution seen in a long time: That's the consensus among European scientists who in recent weeks have received unsolicited free copies of the Atlas of Creation. The 768-page, lavishly produced tome was written by Harun Yahya, a Turkish author who denounces Darwinism as the source of many evils, including 9/11. Its publisher has sent hundreds if not thousands of copies of the book to researchers in at least four countries in Western Europe.
A source of amusement to some, the book has troubled and outraged others--especially in France, where a French translation landed in the mailboxes of hundreds of high school directors and librarians. "This is a nasty attack on our education system," says evolutionary biologist Armand de Ricqlès of the Collège de France, who worries that the book might touch off a battle over the teaching of evolution in Europe. French Education Minister Gilles de Robien swiftly warned schools to keep the book out of pupils' hands.
Mass mailing. Schools in France have received a slick volume that purports to disprove evolution science.
Harun Yahya is the pen name of Adnan Oktar, the head of the Foundation for Scientific Research (BAV) in Ankara, which has promoted Islamic creationism since 1997 (Science, 18 May 2001, p. 1286). Yahya is credited with hundreds of books; he is "more like a brand name" for a group of writers he leads, says Taner Edis, a Turkish-born physicist at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, who has studied Islamic creationism.
Yahya accepts that the world is billions of years old but rejects the concept of evolutionary change. More than 500 pages in the Atlas of Creation (the first in a series of seven volumes) are filled with pictures of fossils, accompanied by modern-day organisms that look strikingly similar--proof, Yahya says, that evolution theory is false. It's an "absurdly ridiculous" logic, says Gerdien de Jong, one of five biologists at Utrecht University in the Netherlands who received a copy.
Within Turkey, BAV has been "quite successful" in promoting creationism, says biologist Aykut Kence of the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. One recent survey found that more than 50% of biology teachers in secondary education "are not sure about the validity of evolution," says Kence. Yahya's books have also been translated into Arabic, Urdu, and other languages of the Islamic world.
How BAV can afford mass distribution of books, as well as a plethora of DVDs and Web sites in several languages, is unclear. Rumors abound--for instance, about Saudi or U.S. backers--but Turkish law makes finding out the facts very difficult, Edis says. In an e-mailed response to questions, a spokesperson for Yahya declined to address finances. He added that France "can gather up and burn all the books, just like in the days of the Nazis, … yet the collapse of Darwinism cannot be prevented by prohibitions and bans."
French scientists say they need to operate carefully so as not to inflame tensions with France's sizable Muslim minority. But a response is needed, says de Ricqlès, if only to arm teachers with counterarguments. Kence says he and others have tried to promote evolution, but he says he never engages in direct debates with creationists, because that would enhance their credibility.
Meanwhile, some readers were trying to find new uses for Yahya's book last week. Ecologist Michael Hassell of Imperial College London says he's using the 5-kilogram opus as a lamp stand. His colleague Peter Knight, another recipient, says he donated his copy to his ecology group--"I hope they found it was biodegradable and recyclable," he says.