Muslim Creationists

Reuters reports (via Little Green Footballs via Jim M.):

Unknown outside Muslim circles two years ago, Adnan Oktar — the 52-year-old Turk behind the pseudonym Harun Yahya — caught the attention of scientists and teachers in Europe and North America by mass-mailing them his 768-page “Atlas of Creation”. His lavishly illustrated book preaches a Muslim version of creationism, the view scientists usually hear from Christian fundamentalists who say God created all life on earth just as it is today and oppose the teaching of Darwin’s evolution theory.

Obviously I’m not going to spend the time to acquire this book and evaluate its particular claims. All creationist claims proceed down a similar path. Here I point out merely that creationism depends on supernaturalism.

But this does point out a difficulty with using creationism to promote a particular sect: all religious sects believe in creationism. Creationism invokes some designer, but is this designer a god of the Greeks, other pagans, the Muslims, the Christians, or the deists? As a tool of propaganda, creationism works only with those predisposed to believe the particular faith of the creationist. I somehow doubt that American Christian creationists would appreciate the use of Oktar’s book in a class that taught “intelligent design.”

One thought on “Muslim Creationists”

  1. Actually, the Greek polytheists did not believe in a “creator.” They thought that the universe was eternal. At most, the gods might have ordered existing matter. (That doesn’t bear on your main point, but it’s noteworthy because it’s an indication of the rationality of Greek culture.)

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