Islamic Creationist Book

The New York Times covers a story about Adnan Oktar (a.k.a. Harun Yahya), an Islamic creationist from Turkey whose massive Atlas of Creation (PDF) has been mysteriously appearing in the mailboxes of thousands of professors, scientists, and museums around the globe.

In the United States, opposition to the teaching of evolution in public schools has largely been fueled by the religious right, particularly Protestant fundamentalism.

Now another voice is entering the debate, in dramatic fashion.

It is the voice of Adnan Oktar of Turkey, who, under the name Harun Yahya, has produced numerous books, videos and DVDs on science and faith, in particular what he calls the “deceit” inherent in the theory of evolution. One of his books, “Atlas of Creation,” is turning up, unsolicited, in mailboxes of scientists around the country and members of Congress, and at science museums in places like Queens and Bemidji, Minn.

At 11 x 17 inches and 12 pounds, with a bright red cover and almost 800 glossy pages, most of them lavishly illustrated, “Atlas of Creation” is probably the largest and most beautiful creationist challenge yet to Darwin’s theory, which Mr. Yahya calls a feeble and perverted ideology contradicted by the Koran.

In bowing to Scripture, Mr. Yahya resembles some fundamentalist creationists in the United States. But he is not among those who assert that Earth is only a few thousand years old. The principal argument of “Atlas of Creation,” advanced in page after page of stunning photographs of fossil plants, insects and animals, is that creatures living today are just like creatures that lived in the fossil past. Ergo, Mr. Yahya writes, evolution must be impossible, illusory, a lie, a deception or “a theory in crisis.”

Read the whole story.

If you find that you like his work, you may be interested to know that you can order the complete collection of all 77 of his books and all 60 of his DVDs, which, according to the site, is “the best gift for friends and family,” for only $1,290.00. Don’t worry; that price includes free shipping to any location in the world!

Some additional links:

• Adnan Oktar’s website: HarunYahya.com
• List of all his available books
• Free PDF of Atlas of Creation

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