ATTEMPTS TO ISLAMICISE DARWINISM:
A PASSIVE, HOPELESS AND DEFEATIST STRUGGLE

Among those who avoid any intellectual struggle against Darwinism, the common state of mind is a defeatist attitude. Those who imagine that the theory of evolution is based upon scientific fact assume themselves to be in an untenable position. They imagine that the claims made by evolutionists are supported by verified facts and in the face of science, it is next to impossible to question those claims. Since they think they are unable to respond, they are ready to surrender right from the outset.

But the fact is, the misconception that the theory of evolution is scientific has resulted from intense propaganda on the subject. Television reports, and newspaper and magazine articles constantly support the impression that evolution is a proven theory, impossible to deny. They imply that supporting the theory of evolution means supporting science, and that rejecting it means opposing logic and the known facts. Actually, however, scientific facts reveal the exact opposite of this propaganda. Science refutes the theory of evolution, rather than confirming it!

No unbiased person who supports science can also support the theory of evolution. The reason why evolution is maintained on the agenda is not because it's scientific, but because it serves as the foundation for materialism and atheism. To put it another way, evolutionary propaganda is carried out for ideological concerns.

The effect of this intense propaganda also lies at the root of the way some Muslims subconsciously assume that it's impossible to combat Darwinism. The result of this propaganda is the idea- inaccurate though it may be-that opposing evolution means opposing science. So as not to seem backward and unscientific, people make attempts to find some "middle ground" between Islam and the theory of evolution-which, again, is imagined to be respectably scientific. Yet actually this represents a way of avoiding any intellectual struggle against Darwinism.

Anyone who reflects honestly and listens to his conscience can easily grasp that it is impossible for the theory of evolution to be true. It is impossible for life, with all its exceedingly sensitive order and flawless mechanisms, to be the result of blind coincidences. Darwinists maintain that a handful of unconscious molecules combined, driven together by the effects of the wind, rain, thunder and lightning, can create human beings able to think, feel, converse, take pleasure from an attractive landscape, feel affection for a kitten and compassion for the poor, make new discoveries, compose symphonies and erect works of architecture. They say that unconscious molecules gave rise to brightly colored flowers, various fruits with all their different flavors, and animals with all their different perfect systems. The fact, however, is that the structures of living things are far too complex and perfect to have formed as the result of successions of coincidences.

A superior Mind is required for them to come into existence. And every new piece of information obtained shows once again that living things are the work of an Omniscient and Almighty Creator-in other words, of our Lord God. Anyone who closely follows scientific publications can see that the theory of evolution is in a major predicament. Many evolutionists openly admit that Darwinism cannot account for the emergence of life. Moreover, an increasing number of scientists are becoming aware of the situation that confronts Darwinism-and are turning to the fact of Creation.

Therefore, there is no reason to avoid an open, clear intellectual struggle against Darwinism. Those who fear that science has proven evolution, and that they, too, will be influenced by this indoctrination and have their own faith and their world views shaken are worrying needlessly. Science points to creation, not to evolution. Every one of the claims made by Darwinism has been undermined by hundreds of scientific proofs. Muslims need to neutralize Darwinism intellectually by making use of these proofs.

A Passive, Defeatist Mentality Cannot Render Darwinism Harmless

Some Muslims exaggerate evolutionary propaganda carried out for ideological reasons and via entirely speculative methods. They imagine that they will never be able to overcome it, and thus adopt a passive and defeatist stance when they should be joyfully, enthusiastically waging a mental struggle against Darwinism.

One of the ugliest examples of this passive, defeatist attitude is, as we pointed out, an attempt to Islamicize Darwinism. To back up this attitude, such thinkers use pagan beliefs left over from Sumerian societies and report the words of writers to whom they impute great scholarship. They try to give the impression that "this is what the religion says." Yet these are evidently excuses to avoid engaging in an intellectual struggle against Darwinism-the ugly result of a passive, defeatist mindset.

By fearing Darwinism, and imagining that they will be unable to defeat it in the world of ideas, these people have lost before they even begin. Yet this form of struggle is exceedingly belittling for any Muslim who holds a true faith in God and who appreciates His infinite might. It is impossible for a devout Muslim to struggle in a half-hearted, defeatist manner. There is no question of his opposing Darwinism with the logic of "We actually maintain the same exact thing." The truth that a Muslim believes in is that God has created all things. It is therefore impossible for a Muslim to maintain the same theories as Darwinists. A Muslim must wage an open, confident intellectual struggle against Darwinism. A Muslim with a proper fear of God can never espouse the same ideas and ideology as Darwinism.

For those who are unaware of the dangers of Darwinism and have failed to understand the way it fights belief in God, it would be much better to say nothing at all on the subject, rather than to employ insincere, erroneous logic. It is a mistake to avoid the intellectual struggle and to resort to faulty, irrational methods out of fear that one's strength on a subject is not adequate. Darwinism is a grave danger that must be opposed in a serious manner and completely eliminated. In the sight of God, it is a grave error and a serious responsibility to hinder the intellectual struggle against Darwinism by failing to be aware of this threat.

The Vain Efforts of Those Who Seek to Reconcile Darwinism with Islam

In the Qur'an, God has revealed many verses about the creation of life and the universe. Yet these verses contain not the slightest indication that living things descended from one another, or that there exists any evolutionary relationship between them. Of course, had God so wished, He could have created living things by way of evolution. Yet there is no sign of this in the Qur'an, and not one verse supports the idea of species developing gradually by stages, as evolutionists maintain. If such a manner of creation had taken place, we would see detailed accounts of this in verses from the Qur'an. Yet, on the contrary, it is revealed in the Qur'an that God brought life and the universe into being in a miraculous way, by commanding them to "Be!"

The Originator of the heavens and earth. When He decides on something, He just says to it, "Be!" and it is. (Surat al-Baqara: 117)

If, as is claimed, half-ape, half-human life forms had really lived before the Prophet Adam (pbuh)- had mutations and natural selection exerted an effect on the creation of living things-then God would have informed us of this in the Qur'an in a very clear, distinct, and intelligible way. However, no verse of the Qur'an contains any such information. On the contrary, many verses tell us that man was created out of nothing, in the finest form:

We created man in the finest mould. (Surat at-Tin:4)

He created the heavens and the Earth with truth and formed you, giving you the best of forms… (Surat at-Taghabun: 3)

When the Qur'an is viewed as a whole, it can clearly be seen that none of the explanations proposed by those who defend the idea of evolution have any validity whatsoever. Indeed, one of our previous books, Why Darwinism is Incompatible with the Qur'an, responds one by one to the claims of those Muslims who support the idea of evolutionary creation, and has shown all their claims to be completely groundless. (For further detail, see Harun Yahya, Why Darwinism Is Incompatible with the Qur'an [Istanbul: Global Publishing, March 2003])

Due to a lack of sufficient knowledge, some Muslims form the mistaken impression that evolutionary creation might be possible. Yet when a sincere Muslim sees that he is on a wrong or mistaken path, he must abandon his error and turn towards the true way. In the Qur'an, God tells us that:

…(Those who) do not knowingly persist in what they were doing. (Surah Al 'Imran: 135)

Those who abide by the proper values revealed in this verse must see how mistaken it is to Islamicize Darwinism and must change their ways as soon as they arrive at that awareness. The best indication of that change is to avoid offering Darwinism any indirect support, to line up against it in a clear and unequivocal manner, and to support intellectual struggles against it.

Those Who Seek to Islamicize Darwinism Cannot Explain the Creation of the Angels and Djinn

Our Almighty Lord is He Who creates from nothing, from no earlier model, in a form and at a time of His choosing. When God wishes a thing to exist He commands it to "Be!":

Our Word to a thing when We desire it is just to say to it "Be!" and it is. (Surat an-Nahl: 40)

God is He Who is unsullied by any flaw or deficiency, Who has no need of anything. Therefore, God has no need of any prior cause, vehicle or stage in order to create. One must not be misled by the fact that everything in this world depends on specific causes. As the Creator, God is unsullied by any of these laws of nature.

But those who fail to reflect on these facts properly may fall into various errors. People who seek to reconcile Darwinism with Islam are misled by this lack of reflection. Since they cannot appreciate God's sublime creative might and the perfection in His creative artistry, they come up with impossible interpretations such as "Islamic evolution." When asked how the angels and djinn were created, these people-who maintain that man progressed by way of evolution-will answer, "God created them from nothing." These people know that God created the angels and djinn, but fail to reason that He created human beings in the same way. This is a very grave error. It is astonishing that they cannot see that our Almighty Lord, Who created the angels with the command to "Be!", also created man in exactly the same fashion.

In the Qur'an, God tells us that the djinn were created differently from human beings, out of fire:

He created man from dry earth like baked clay; And He created the djinn from a fusion of fire. (Surat ar-Rahman: 14-15)

As we are told in the Qur'an, the creation of the angels was also very different to that of human beings. One verse tells us this about how angels were created:

Praise be to God, the Bringer into Being of the heavens and Earth, He who made the angels messengers, with wings-two, three or four. He adds to creation in any way He wills. God has power over all things. (Surah Fatir: 1)

As you can clearly see from this verse, angels are also very different from human beings in terms of appearance. It is also revealed in the Qur'an that both the angels and the djinn were created before Man. When God was about to create the Prophet Adam (pbuh), the first human being, He commanded the angels and iblis, a djinn, to prostrate themselves before the Prophet Adam (pbuh). One verse reveals that:

When We said to the angels, "Prostrate yourselves to Adam," they prostrated with the exception of iblis. He was one of the djinn and wantonly deviated from his Lord's command. Do you take him and his offspring as protectors apart from Me when they are your enemy? How evil is the exchange the wrongdoers make! (Surat al-Kahf: 50)

Creation is an easy matter for God. Our Lord is He Who creates without the need for a natural cause. If He created the angels and djinns in different ways and out of nothing, then He also created Man as a separate entity out of nothing, without the need for any evolution. The same applies to other life forms such as animals and plants. God created these living things out of nothing in a single moment, without causing them to evolve-in other words, without turning one species into another.

Examples from the Qur'an of God's Creation without Natural Causes

With their distorted logic, those who err in seeking to establish a "middle ground" between Darwinism and Islam are unable to explain the instances of our God's miraculous creation that are related in the Qur'an. In these examples, it is revealed that God created with no natural cause, in a miraculous manner. Those who imagine that the pagan myths from Sumerian legends are actually scientific facts are quite helpless in the face of these examples.

A Bird Made of Mud by the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) Comes to Life

It is revealed in the Qur'an that something of mud made in the form of a bird by the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) came to life, by the will of God, when he breathed into it:

Remember when God said, 'Jesus, son of Maryam, remember My blessing to you and to your mother when I reinforced you with the Purest Soul so that you could speak to people in the cradle and when you were fully grown; and when I taught you the Book and Wisdom, and the Torah and the Injil; and when you created a bird-shape out of clay by My permission, and then breathed into it and it became a bird by My permission…" (Surat al-Ma'ida: 110)

This bird came to life out of inanimate matter through no natural cause, by God's choosing and through a miracle. The bird is one of the examples of God's sublime creation, with no previous model or natural cause. It is impossible for those who wish to Islamicize Darwinism to account for this.

Dead Birds Return to the Prophet Abraham (pbuh)

One example of God miraculously bestowing life is reported in a story about the Prophet Abraham (pbuh):

When Abraham said, "My Lord, show me how You bring the dead to life." He asked, "Do you not then have belief?" He replied, "Indeed I do! But so that my heart may be at peace." He said, "Take four birds and train them to yourself. Then put a part of them on each mountain and call to them; they will come rushing to you. Know that God is Almighty, All-Wise." (Surat al-Baqara: 260)

As revealed in the verse, the Prophet Abraham (pbuh) released the parts of each of four birds on a mountain, but these then miraculously came to life and returned back to the Prophet. This is an example showing that our Lord is unsullied by natural causes and that He creates living things with no natural causes.

The Barren Wife of the Prophet Zakariah (pbuh) Has A Child

One of the miraculous forms of creation revealed in the Qur'an is as follows:

Zakariah! We give you the good news of a boy named Yahya, a name We have given to no one else before. He said, "My Lord! How can I have a boy when my wife is barren and I have reached advanced old age?" He said, "It will be so!…" (Surah Maryam: 7-9)

As revealed in these verses, creation is a simple matter for God. He has no need of natural causes. Our Lord is He Who is unsullied by any lack or deficiency. In addition, some instances of resurrection revealed in the Qur'an also show that in the same way that God creates what He chooses from nothing, at a time and in a form that He chooses, He also restores life through no natural means.

After death every human being will be restored to life on the Day of Judgment. This will take place in a manner similar to the first creation of Man. This fact is revealed in these terms in the Qur'an:

You have come to Us all alone just as We created you at first, leaving behind you everything We bestowed on you. (Surat al-An'am: 94)

This verse emphasizes that the recreation of human beings in the Hereafter will resemble their first creation. A person who dies and becomes one with the earth will be restored to life through our Lord's resurrection, and assume human form once more after being an inanimate substance. God, Who will recreate people's bodies out of nothing on the Day of Judgment, created the Prophet Adam (pbuh), the first human being, out of clay, an inanimate substance:

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 Soul into him, fall down in prostration to him!" (Surah Sâd: 71-72)

Thus the first creation of man resembles the recreation in the Hereafter, and that will take place miraculously, in a single moment, not by stages.

In addition, God has shown miraculous instances of resurrection to certain of His servants in this world. For example, in order to show how He resurrects the dead, our Lord told the people of the Prophet Moses (pbuh) to strike part of a cow they had previously sacrificed. God then performed a miracle, and the tribe witnessed the corpse coming back to life. This account is revealed as follows in the Qur'an:

Remember when you killed someone and violently accused each other of it, and God brought out what you were hiding. We said, "Hit him with part of it!" In that way God gives life to the dead and He shows you His Signs so that hopefully you will understand. Then your hearts became hardened after that, so they were like rocks or even harder still. There are some rocks from which rivers gush out, and others which split open and water pours out, and others which crash down from fear of God. God is not unaware of what you do. (Surat al-Baqara: 72-74)

Another example is that of someone who refused to believe in the resurrection after death. As revealed in verses, God left that person dead for a hundred years, then brought him back to life. This event is described in these terms in the Qur'an:

Or the one who passed by a town which had fallen into ruin? He asked, "How can God restore this to life when it has died?" God caused him to die a hundred years, then brought him back to life. Then He asked, "How long have you been here?" He replied, "I have been here a day or part of a day." [God] said, "Not so! You have been here a hundred years. Look at your food and drink-it has not gone bad-and look at your donkey so We can make you a Sign for all mankind. Look at the bones-how We raise them up and clothe them in flesh." When it had become clear to him, he said, "Now I know that God has power over all things." (Surat al-Baqara: 259)

Another example on this subject provided in the Qur'an is that of the Companions of the Cave. This group consisting of believers fled from those of their tribe who ascribed co-equals to God and adopted other deities besides Him, and sought shelter in a cave. However, God in a miraculous manner sent the Companions of the Cave to sleep for longer than 300 years. He then awoke them. This event is described in the Qur'an thus:

So We sealed their ears with sleep in the cave for a number of years. (Surat al-Kahf: 11)

They stayed in their Cave for three hundred years and added nine. Say: 'God knows best how long they stayed. The Unseen of the heavens and the Earth belongs to Him. How perfectly He sees, how well He hears! They have no protector apart from Him. Nor does He share His rule with anyone.' (Surat al-Kahf: 25-26)

Then We woke them up again so that we might see which of the two groups would better calculate the time they had stayed there. We will relate their story to you with truth. They were young men who had belief in their Lord and We increased them in guidance. (Surat al-Kahf: 12-13)

These examples show, how those who seek a middle road between Darwinism and Islam are mistaken. Because with that logic, people are unable to account for any of the examples revealed in the Qur'an. Since these people have been influenced by naturalist dogma, the cornerstone of Darwinists' ideas, they attempt to account for the origin of Man and living things through the laws of nature. But they make a grave error to think that God created living things in a manner limited by these laws (Surely God is beyond that!). Therefore, they believe in a creation by means of one species developing into another through such imaginary mechanisms as mutation, natural selection and speciation.

It is a serious error for a Muslim to fall prey to such a perverted logic. Our Almighty Lord has the power to create in the manner of His choosing. A sincere Muslim must be able to properly appreciate Almighty God, He Who is free of all imperfections, and must never be taken in by evolutionist dogma, indoctrination and deception.

It Is a Serious Error to Underestimate Darwinism

The importance of the intellectual struggle against Darwinism is crystal clear, but some people still underestimate it by saying, "What's so important about Darwinism?" or else seek to obstruct the struggle with a logic running counter to the facts, along the lines of, "Nobody believes in Darwinism any more, so there's no need to worry about it." These and similar statements are really excuses for avoiding the intellectual struggle against Darwinism.

Darwinism, which claims that human beings are merely animals and must be ruthless in order to survive, lies at the root of the world's present current conflict, anarchy and terror. 1. "Terror Is Globalizing," Newsweek, 19 February 2001. 2. "Europe's September 11," Newsweek, 22 March 2004. 3. "The Slaughter of the Innocents," Paris Match, 15 September 2004. 4. "Tears and Terror," Newsweek, 26 April 1999.

The fact remains that Darwinism was a system of thought put forward not as a scientific thesis, but to urge people to deny God. The theory of evolution and materialist philosophy are two mutually complementary systems. This unity which was born in Ancient Greece, re-entered the equation with the primitive scientific understanding of the 19^th century. And since the theory of evolution supposedly supported materialism-without no regard as to whether or not it was actually scientific-it was immediately adopted by materialists.

It is evident that with the spread of Darwinism and the materialist philosophy that drew support from it, perverted answers began to be given to the question "What is Man?" Some, who previously had responded, "Man is an entity created by God who must live according to the moral precepts taught by Him," now under the influence of much deceptive indoctrination, began, to be misled into answering, "Man came into being by chance, and is an animal that developed through the struggle for survival."

The theory of evolution regards chance, time and inanimate matter as all-powerful and endows these unconscious concepts with the role of creator. No Muslim can ever adopt such a theory based on pagan foundations. Any person of faith believes that God created all things from nothing and struggles against all ideas and beliefs opposed to this.

It is a grave error to ignore the threats that Darwinism poses by being deceived by its adherents' propaganda. Shortly afterwards, someone who fails to understand the danger of Darwinism will begin regarding this perverted ideology as legitimate. Regarding it as legitimate means regarding atheism and materialism as legitimate, too. Avoiding the intellectual struggle against Darwinism means avoiding the intellectual struggle against atheism and materialism. This, of course, is unacceptable for any believer.

Never forget that Darwinism lies at the root of the oppressions, suffering and difficulties experienced by thousands of Muslims, and poor women, children and the elderly in various parts of the world. The terror that leads to the bloodshed of hundreds of innocents and to thousands living in a state of anxiety, doubt and fear is fed by Darwinist indoctrination. Bloody ideologies such as fascism and communism that stamped their mark on the last century, drew their justification from Darwinism. The moral degeneration experienced in many societies is a result of Darwinist propaganda. (This we'll consider in greater detail in subsequent chapters.)

Muslims have a responsibility to wage an intellectual struggle "until no strife remains on Earth." The most serious and dangerous representative of strife today is Darwinism. Instead of being misled by such erroneous statements as "Darwinism is a matter for scientists and of no concern to us," Muslims need to intellectually neutralize this ideology that causes such oppression in the world. Otherwise, they may be approving oppression-a grave error that no true believer ever wishes to assume.

The Responsibility that Results from Avoiding This Great Intellectual Struggle

The faithful are all responsible for establishing a solution for the pain and suffering being experienced by Muslims all over the world. In order to find a permanent solution for malaria, for example, mosquitoes' breeding grounds have to be eliminated, rather than battling with the insects one by one. Darwinism is the breeding ground responsible for the suffering, tears and troubles in the world.

It is pointless to avoid the intellectual struggle against Darwinism, as well as to say that one feels uneasy at all the troubles being experienced in the world, at social degeneration and the various difficulties facing Muslim peoples. Because those who sincerely wish to extend a helping hand to those facing troubles and difficulties, who wish to achieve a permanent solution to hunger, poverty and injustice, and end conflicts, establish peace, who wish Muslims all over the world to be loved and respected, and sacred values to be protected as they ought-these people have a duty to fight Darwinism on the intellectual plane. It is impossible for their hopes and desires to become a reality until Darwinism is eradicated. So long as Darwinism survives, materialism and atheism will continue to influence people and to turn them away from religious morality. These problems just listed will inevitably arise in climates in wherever religious moral precepts are ignored.

In the fight against malaria, the important thing is to eliminate mosquito breeding grounds. In the same way, resolving social problems entails eradicating their "breeding ground"-Darwinism. Some may try killing mosquitoes one by one, but unless their breeding waters are dried up, such people can spend all their time swatting mosquitoes, but still need to start all over again the very next morning.

It is of course important to engage in separate efforts aimed at eliminating injustice, poverty and social inequality and putting an end to conflict. But to arrive at a permanent solution and achieve the desired outcome, it is essential that Darwinism should be literally neutralized. With Darwinism's eradication, these problems will come to a natural end, because their intellectual underpinning will have disappeared.

Thus in the light of that awareness, all Muslims must once again consider, what a great responsibility the intellectual struggle against Darwinism actually is. God informs us in the Qur'an that those who sit back with no good excuse will not receive the same reward as those who strive with all the means at their disposal:

Those believers who stay behind other than those forced to by necessity-are not the same as those who struggle in the Way of God, sacrificing their wealth and themselves. God has given those who struggle with their wealth and themselves a higher rank than those who stay behind. (Surat an-Nisa': 95)

Naturally, true believers seek to obtain as much of God's approval as they can. For that reason, they have a responsibility to use all the means available to them to wage an intellectual struggle against atheism and against Darwinism, which serves as atheism's cornerstone.

One verse reads, "Those who disbelieve spend their wealth barring access to the Way of God. They will spend it..." (Surat al-Anfal: 36) This indicates that deniers will constantly endeavor to spread atheism. It is unacceptable for believers to remain silent in the face of these efforts of deniers, ignore the danger, choose passivity and behave timidly. Devout Muslims, aware of the responsibility attendant upon them, go on the counterattack against Darwinism's threat. They enter upon an active and courageous intellectual struggle, and never seek to avoid it by offering up excuses of one kind or another. They know that turning a blind eye on such a struggle may impose a grave penalty on them in the Hereafter.

Muslims Must not be Deceived by Darwinist Indoctrination

The theory of evolution has lost all its foundations in the face of modern science. Research at the molecular level, and in the fields of biology and palaeontology, has totally discredited claims that living things came into being as the result of any evolutionary process. However, Darwinists still attempt to mislead the public by the use of demagoguery, misrepresentations, sophistry, distorted logic and sometimes, even downright fraud.

A closer examination of Darwinist publications lets you see all these evolutionist strategies. Some of their classic tactics and propaganda can be enumerated as follows:

1. Evolutionists Tell Tall Tales, Rather than Provide Concrete Facts

Darwinist publications never provide conclusions based on concrete scientific evidence. In a few words, they gloss over the basic dilemmas confronting the theory of evolution. To fill the void, they write a great many fairy tale-like scenarios on the subject of natural history. They never concentrate on such fundamental issues as how the first life emerged from inanimate matter, the huge gaps in the fossil record, or the overwhelming complexity in the systems of living things. Because every one of these details, if fully explained, will fall counter to evolutionists' aims and reveal the invalidity of their own theories.

In talking about the origin of birds, for example, Darwinists enter into lengthy accounts of how dinosaurs' forearms supposedly grew feathers as they chased after insects. However, they never explain how the fly itself, capable of 500 wing beats a minute, came into being! Or in describing how a living thing first emerged, they spend considerable time setting out the conditions on the Earth at that time, listing its atmospheric features-and then quickly mention in passing that the cell, the building block of life, formed in a puddle of warm water. They are unable to account, however, for how unconscious molecules gave rise to the cell, with its exceedingly complex organelles that cannot be reproduced in even our most advanced 21st-century laboratories. Nor can they explain how thousands of life forms emerged from that cell. They interpret findings from various palaeontological excavations according to their own preconceptions and draw up charts and diagrams of the supposed evolution of Man. They discover a few bone fragments or stone artifacts, and based on them, enter into lengthy descriptions of how human beings of the time led primitive lives in caves, dressed in animal pelts. Yet they cannot explain cave paintings tens of thousands of years old that possess a perfect aesthetic understanding, or how people in the supposed Stone Age performed successful brain surgery, or the obvious artistry, capacity and intelligence that have survived in the remains of past civilizations, down to the present day.

Evolutionist publications are filled with stories of no scientific value. One of these, constantly repeated, is the myth of dinosaurs developing into birds—a claim not supported by a single piece of evidence, despite being set forth as "scientific." All the supposed evidence for "missing link" dino-birds put forward to date has been discredited. Also, these "fossils" have been revealed to be the products of fraud.

They consistently maintain that all of life developed by hit-or-miss stages through evolving. According to this claim, countless half-reptile/half-bird, of half-invertebrate/half-vertebrate "intermediate forms" should have existed over the course of eons. If so, then at least a few specimens of these "in-between" life forms should be found in the fossil record. An evolutionist may go into a long account of how a fish had to emerge onto dry land because of the drying up of a lake, and its offspring allegedly evolved into amphibians, and then into reptiles. If you ask the evolutionist which fossil specimen actually confirms this claim, you will never receive an answer! Because Darwinists have never found a single fossilized intermediate form, despite some 150 years of investigation. All the fossils specimens they have found show that species emerged suddenly-in other words, they were created. Yet for some reason, Darwinist publications never mention this, preferring to gloss over the subject of the fossil record entirely.

In people who fail to reflect properly or who lack sufficient information, this style that Darwinists adopt may imply that they are dealing with a definitively verified scientific theory. Yet that idea is completely false. Questions of "Why?" and "How?" will leave Darwinists completely nonplussed, because they have no logical and scientific answers to give. In short, their theory of evolution is a hypothesis. In order for a hypothesis to be accepted as scientific, it must be capable of being tested or else confirmed by further findings. But evolutionist fairy tales lack either of these criteria.

2. Darwinists Claim that Belief in Evolution is a Precondition for Scientific Thinking

The evolutionary "news" stories that appear constantly in various publications consist of propaganda, and are of no scientific value.

One of the best-known forms of Darwinist propaganda is the baseless cry of "Anyone who rejects the theory of evolution is just dogmatic," or "Anyone who does not believe in the theory of evolution is uneducated." This Darwinist indoctrination can sometimes lead even members of the faithful into error.

The fact is that evolutionists hold a prejudiced idea of what "science" really is. In the Darwinist mindset, science is not a discipline that investigates, researches and interprets evidence in an unbiased fashion and then accepts the results to which these findings point. According to Darwinists, science must confirm their own beliefs and ideas, and the results that emerge are acceptable so long as they are distorted in a manner suited to evolutionist dogma. Darwinist "science" is intended to distort and direct the facts rather than to look for new ones.

According to the dogmas of Darwinism, science has to be materialistic. That predicates a number of preconceptions and restrictions that are not normally brought to bear in standard scientific research. According to this distorted perspective, every piece of data obtained must be interpreted in the light of the pre-existing materialist world view. Therefore, according to this error, any non-materialist interpretation is not scientific.

Kansas State University's Scott Todd sets out this distorted Darwinist way of thinking in a letter published in Nature magazine: "Even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such a hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic."1

Indeed, even though all the findings from just about every field of science reveal the Fact of Creation, the dogma of "Science must be materialist" in certain circles underlies the way that the media devotes insufficient space to this information and how academic circles resolutely ignore it. If Darwinists genuinely want to abide by the principles demonstrated by science, they have to accept that science invalidates their theories. For those who are unable to accept the facts revealed by science, it is meaningless to make claims in the name of science and to comment on what's scientific and what isn't.

Therefore, it is totally inappropriate for both Muslims and Darwinists to be influenced by this indoctrination. The position reached by 21st-century science proves that those who are unscientific do believe in the theory of evolution.

3. Darwinists Either Conceal or Ignore the Scientific Evidence that Refutes Evolution

Among the ploys that Darwinists resort to in order to sustain their theory, manufacturing false evidence and concealing true evidence occupies an important place. Faking fossils, perpetrating fraudulent experiments and portraying imaginary illustrations as scientific facts are tactics frequently employed by evolutionists. The history of Darwinism is full of such instances.

Piltdown Man, touted as "proof" of human evolution for 43 years, was the result of fitting together human and orangutan bones. However, it was kept on public display for years as supposed evidence of evolution. Nebraska Man, constructed on the basis of one lone molar tooth discovered in 1922, was another example of evolutionist wishful thinking. Just one tooth became the basis for talk of an hypothetical half-man half-ape entity. But it later emerged that the tooth actually belonged to a wild boar! For years, drawings of embryonic development by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel were used as supposed proof of the process of evolution. In fact, however, Haeckel had fraudulently distorted these drawings, adding various imaginary organs to some drawings of embryos, omitting organs from others, and portraying different-sized embryos as having the same dimensions. Haeckel's fraud was definitively revealed at the beginning of the 20^th century.

The history of science is full of evolutionist frauds. Not a single piece of fossil evidence to support the theory of evolution has been unearthed in the excavations over the last 150 years. Confronted by this lack, Darwinists have resorted to producing faked fossils and conjectural drawings of drawings what missing links may have looked like. Of these fakes, Piltdown Man and Nebraska Man are the best-known. Pictured below is the excavation at Piltdown, birthplace of the Piltdown Man scandal, and the fragments unearthed there.

Darwinist literature contains many such frauds, of which these are just a few examples. Darwinists portray a great deal of distorted data as supposed proofs of evolution, taking advantage of their audience's ignorance of scientific knowledge. And on the other hand, they also ignore and carefully conceal new evidence that undermines their theories- evidence that is never shown to the public.

Hundreds of living fossils that prove the Fact of Creation have been carefully concealed from the public gaze. These specimens show conclusively that there is no difference between life forms that existed millions of years ago and forms alive today; and that these living things never underwent any form of evolution. Yet most of the public is unaware of these fossils' existence because they are kept hidden in museum basements and university palaeontology department storage rooms. They are never brought out where the public can see them.

For years, Ernst Haeckel's comparative drawings of embryos were taken as evidence for the theory of evolution. Later, however, they were revealed to be forgeries. Nonetheless, his faked drawings are still being used to mislead people , benefiting from a lack of general knowledge on the subject. Ernst Haeckel

Darwinists make efforts to conceal and distort the truth, but Muslims must not let themselves be influenced. Thinking that "Being scientists, they must be telling the truth" and believing every word that evolutionists say are grave errors-because evolutionist scientists do not hesitate to conceal the true facts, distort scientific data and manufacture fake evidence to support their ideology.

It is exceedingly important to expose Darwinists' frauds and deceptions if Darwinism's power is to be broken. Muslims must be aware of Darwinists' tricks and by exposing them, prevent others from being misled. This is essential if the nightmares caused by atheism are to be eliminated, and for proper moral values to prevail on Earth.

A 24-million-year-old caterpillar fossil preserved in amber shows that caterpillars have remained the same throughout the passage of aeons--in other words, they never underwent evolution. A 24-million-year-old wasp fossil (in Dominican amber)

	A 55- to 35-million-year-old fossilized crab The 210-million-year-old fossil of a bony fish
	The 135-million-year-old fossil of a starfish A 355- to 295-million-year-old fossilized spider
	A 300-million-year-old fossilized tortoise A 33.7- to 53-million-year-old frog fossil
	This 40-million-year-old lizard, fossilized in amber, still contains the animal's head, front leg bones and various tissues. All the features of this lizard in the amber are identical to those of modern lizards.
	A 50-million-year-old fossil scorpion, fossilized in amber
	There is no evolutionary process indicated in the origin of frogs. The oldest known frogs are completely different from fish, appear complete with their own unique structures, and share the same characteristics as present-day frogs. This frog preserved in Dominican amber is approximately 25 million years old, yet there is no difference between it and modern living specimens A 25-million-year-old termite fossil
	A 450-million-year-old horseshoe crab fossil. There is no difference between it and horseshoe crabs still alive today. This species has possessed exactly the same characteristics and attributes for the last half billion years or so. This clearly demonstrates that no evolution took place at the very time when Darwinists maintain that living things should have been evolving. A 146 to 65 million year old fossilized nautilus and a chambered nautilus living today
	This 300-million-year-old fossilized cockroach has exactly the same features as cockroaches alive today. This "living fossil" definitively refutes Darwin's theory of evolution. A 120-million-year-old fossilized bird feather
	1. A fossilized pine cone, some 20 million years old 2. Fossilized leaf of a plane tree (Macginitea), 55 million years old 3. A cowslip fossil, with a modern-day cowslip shown above
	Pecopteris miltani, a plant that lived around 365 to -290 million years ago, identical to present-day specimens. A 35-million-year-old willow tree leaf
	A fossilized gingko leaf from 125 million years ago and its counterpart living today. This three-dimensional birch tree leaf discovered in Montana dates back to the Palaeocene period (65 to 55 million years ago).
	A fossilized maple leaf, dating back several million years, and present day maple tree leaves
	This fossil ray, dating back to the Mesozoic period (245 to 65 million years ago) possesses all the same features as ray living in the seas today. This creature, some 250 million years old, clearly shows that the claims regarding the process of evolution are entirely illusory. A 400-million-year old fossilized starfish
	A 25-million-year-old preying mantis, preserved in amber

4. They Advance the Falsehood that "If the Majority Believes in Evolution, that Confirms the Truth of Darwinism"

One of Darwinists' slogans is the falsehood that "This theory is generally accepted by the scientific world." To put it another way, evolutionists suggest that they are always in the majority, and that the majority is always in the right. They seek to put psychological pressure on the population with false logic: "Since so many people support evolution, and since believers in evolution constitute the majority in universities, the theory must be true." Muslims must not be influenced by such pressure and must not be taken in by this Darwinist untruth.

The number of scientists rejecting the theory of evolution has grown rapidly over the last 20 to 30 years. The majority of them have freed themselves from the dogma of Darwinism by considering the flawless creation in the universe and living things. These scientists have conducted countless studies revealing the invalidity of evolution. These individuals, each one a member of a respected university in various countries, particularly Europe and America, are all career academics and experts in such fields as biology, biochemistry, microbiology, anatomy and palaeontology.

Furthermore, even if evolutionists really are in the majority, that's irrelevant. It is wrong to automatically accept any majority view by saying, "They must be right." Muslims who avoid the intellectual struggle against Darwinism need to know this. As is revealed in the Qur'an, a great many pagan communities in the past tried to turn people away from the true path, to deny God and His religion by saying that they were in the majority. God warns believers against this twisted logic and tells us that going along with the majority may lead to serious miscomprehension:

If you obeyed most of those on Earth, they would misguide you from God's Way. They follow nothing but conjecture. They are only guessing. (Surat al-An'am: 116)

Anyone who takes careful note of what he reads or watches, who thinks about the subject rather more deeply, may be aware of the Darwinist propaganda he confronts. One particular characteristic of Muslims who possess true faith is that they have foresight-in other words the understanding with which to distinguish between true and false. God has revealed this virtue of those who fear Him in these terms in the Qur'an:

You who believe! If you fear God, He will give you discrimination and erase your bad actions from you and forgive you. God's favour is indeed immense. (Surat al-Anfal: 29)

Those who act out of a fear of God and who listen to their consciences can easily see, by God's leave, the threat posed by Darwinism and how that danger can be neutralized. Those who cannot understand the importance of the issue-either out of ignorance, a failure to reflect, or heedlessness-must understand the truth when it is explained to them. Once again they need to be reminded that Darwinism is not some idle supposition that believers can accept or regard as possibly legitimate. Darwinism is the religion of atheism. And every sincere Muslim has the responsibility to wage an intellectual struggle against atheism.

Ignoring this major responsibility in this life may lead to intense regret in the Hereafter. For that reason, one must immediately abandon any despairing, passive, helplessness and defeatist mindset in the face of Darwinism, and must employ all possible means to wage a war of ideas against it. Helplessness in the face of any atheistic ideology is an attitude unbefitting for Muslims to adopt.

Never forget that the intellectual struggle of true believers has already been won. Believers will overcome all atheist ideologies, Darwinism included. God imparts these glad tidings in the Qur'an:

As for those who make God their friend, and His Messenger and those who believe: it is the party of God who are victorious! (Surat al-Ma'ida: 56)

… God will not give the disbelievers any way against the believers. (Surat an-Nisa': 141)

Therefore, in their struggle against atheism, the faithful must act in the knowledge that they will be victorious and in the honor of knowing that they are defending the truth. By God's leave, Darwinism will come to an end and our Lord will make "truth victorious over falsehood." The struggle of the faithful must be to make that intellectual victory a reality.

Darwinism Has Been Scientifically Refuted

The theory of evolution claims that the 1.5 million or so living species in nature came into being as the result of unconscious natural events. According to evolutionists, the first cell came into being through chemical reactions in inanimate matter. (A great deal of scientific evidence shows that this could not actually happen. Researchers have failed to obtain even the smallest building blocks of life in experiments conducted with the gasses determined to have existed in the primeval Earth's atmosphere and by combining the conditions that existed at that time.) To claim that blind chance achieved something as miraculous as the formation of a living organism, something that humans with modern-day technology and an advanced level of science have failed to achieve despite all their attempts and interventions, is of course irrational and illogical. Again according to the evolutionist account, the life that began with this primary cell then became increasingly more complex and diverse. The fictitious process of evolution that began with bacteria is then, finally, supposed to have led to humans. According to this totally unscientific claim, various unconscious mechanisms in nature must have constantly caused living things to develop.

At this point, Darwinism has two mechanisms it proposes as giving rise to evolution: natural selection and mutations. Yet scientific findings have revealed that neither mechanism is an effective force of the kind maintained by evolutionists.

The idea of natural selection is that the fittest and those best adapted to natural conditions survive, while the others are eliminated and fail to reproduce. For example, in any population, an increasing fall in temperature will spell the elimination of those individuals less resistant to the cold. In the long term, only cold-resistant individuals survive, and the entire population comes to consist of their descendents. Alternatively, in a rabbit population endangered by predators, those who can run fastest survive. But note that no new characteristic emerges here. Creatures already existing do not give birth to offspring of a different species, and no different feature is passed along. To provide another example, the fastest running individuals in a herd of antelopes exposed to attacks by lions will survive, while the slower ones are captured. But these fast-running antelopes will never turn into horses or any other species of animal. Therefore, natural selection has no evolutionary force.

When chased by a lion or leopard, the fastest runners in a herd will survive. But those animals that do survive a predator's attacks will not give rise to a new species. In other words, the mechanism of natural selection cannot produce any new species or change the genes in an existing one.

Colin Patterson, chief palaeontologist at London's Natural History Museum and himself an evolutionist, admits as much:

No one has ever produced a species by mechanisms of natural selection. No one has ever got near it and most of the current argument in neo-Darwinism is about this question.2

Mutations, on the other hand, are the impairments that emerge in the genes of living things as a result of external factors such as radiation or copying errors in DNA. Mutations may of course lead to distinctive changes, but these changes are never positive, but always either neutral or destructive. To put it another way, mutations cannot cause living things to develop. Of all the mutations that have so far been observed, most have been harmful, and the rest neutral. As it has advanced, science has described millions of harmful mutations and revealed the inherited diseases these lead to. That evolutionist scientists are unable to point to a single mutation that has increased genetic information represents a serious dilemma for the theory of evolution.

Pierre-Paul Grassé, former director of the French Academy of Sciences (Academie des Sciences), has likened mutations to "spelling mistakes during the copying of a written text." Like any spelling mistake, mutations cannot give rise to information, but rather damage that which already exists. Grassé goes on to describe this situation:

Since mutations take place at random, they almost always damage the organism in which they occur. Mutations can never endow a living thing with any new organ, ability, or characteristics. They merely lead to abnormalities, such as an extra leg emerging from the back. The kind of changes caused by mutations can be seen in those suffered by human beings at Hiroshima, Nagasaki or Chernobyl: deaths, deformities, and handicaps.

Mutations, in time, occur incoherently. They are not complementary to one another, nor are they cumulative in successive generations toward a given direction. They modify what preexists, but they do so in disorder, no matter how… As soon as some disorder, even slight, appears in an organized being, sickness, then death follow. There is no possible compromise between the phenomenon of life and anarchy.3

For that reason, as Grassé puts it, mutations can never give rise to any evolution, no matter how numerous they may be. We may compare this effect of mutations to earthquakes. In the same way that an earthquake cannot make a city more developed or improve it, so mutations cannot lead to positive changes. From this point of view, evolutionist claims regarding mutations are completely invalid.

One proof that demolishes the Darwinist claim that all living things are descended from one another is the fossil record. For instance, evolutionists maintain that fish evolved from such marine invertebrates as sea worms. That being the case, a very large number of "intermediate forms" should have existed between the two groups, in such a way as to permit gradual evolution. In other words, we should encounter in the fossil record a large number of forms bearing both fish and invertebrate sea worm characteristics. Yet although hundreds of fossils of worms and fish that once existed in the ancient past have been found, not one single intermediate-form fossil has ever been discovered. This lack of intermediate forms means that evolution never happened.

The Swedish evolutionist and professor of botany N. Heribert Nilsson, of Lund University, admits this defeat of Darwinism in the face of the fossil record:

My attempts to demonstrate evolution by an experiment carried on for more than 40 years have completely failed… The fossil material is now so complete that it has been possible to construct new classes, and the lack of transitional series cannot be explained as being due to the scarcity of material. The deficiencies [in the fossil records] are real, they will never be filled.4

Even when looked at in very general terms, the invalidity of Darwinism and the fact that it is built upon completely erroneous foundations can be seen immediately. This becomes even clearer as one examines the fine details. (For more detailed information concerning the collapse of the theory of evolution, see Harun Yahya, The Evolution Deceit, [London: Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd. 8^th ed. revised and updated].)

The Intellectual Struggle against Darwinism Must Not Be Ignored

Those who avoid engaging in the intellectual struggle against Darwinism not only fail to fully comprehend the threat, but also ignore the struggle itself. The fact is, however, that a very wide-ranging struggle against Darwinism has been waged especially in Turkey over the last two decades. That effort is now bearing fruit worldwide. For example, the November 2004 English- and German-language editions of National Geographic magazine, previously known for its evolutionist stance, ran a cover story headed "Was Darwin Wrong?" The story discussed individuals and groups who set out the errors of the theory of evolution, and referred to Harun Yahya and his work which, the report went on to say, was causing considerable unease among Darwinist circles:

Harun Yahya, author of a recent volume titled The Evolution Deceit, who points to the six-day creation story in the Koran as literal truth and calls the theory of evolution 'nothing but a deception imposed on us by the dominators of the world system.

A National Geographic magazine article about the intellectual struggle against Darwinism	This report describes Harun Yahya as an "international hero."

The world-famous magazine New Scientist made the following comment in its 22 April 2000 edition:

Harun Yahya became an "international hero" in communicating the fallacy of the theory of evolution and the fact of creation.

18 Mai 2001

Another matter emphasized in the article was the international success of the book The Evolution Deceit and how some Turkish evolutionist scientists complained that these books are more effective than the curriculum being taught in schools in some parts of the country. Turkish evolutionists' alarm was described in these words: "Various evolutionist scientists are concerned that evolutionists lose reputation in front of Turkish creationists in the face of public opinion."

Another example reflecting the effect of the powerful intellectual campaign being waged against Darwinism was a report in a journal published by the American National Centre for Science Education (NCSE). Supported by the American Academy of Sciences and despite being basically pro-evolution, the journal devoted its November-December issue to Harun Yahya's work dealing with the collapse of the theory of evolution, which was described in detail under the heading, "Islamic Scientific Creationism in Turkey."