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DARWINISM VS CREATIONISM Introduction

1. In 1859, an amateur English naturalist Charles Robert Darwin put forward the theory of evolution in his book the origin of species, by means of natural selection. All copies of this book were sold out the same day since the theory caused big sensation in the scientific circles as well as amongst the common populous. Ever since, the theory of evolution given out by Darwin has remained a matter of controversy and great debate all over the globe with no end to the issue in sight. Undeniably, the theory of evolution has profound influence in shaping the modern world as we see it today. 2. The theory of evolution constitutes the underpinning of a deceptive materialist philosophy that has held sway over a large number of people. Materialist philosophy, which accepts only the existence of matter and presupposes man to be 'a heap of matter', asserts that he is no more than an animal, with 'conflict' the sole rule of his existence. The deceptive message of materialism, reducing man to an animal whose existence is coincidental and with no responsibility to any being, demolished moral pillars such as love, mercy, self-sacrifice, modesty, honesty and justice. The theory of evolution, or Darwinism, provides the myth that materialism is a scientific idea. That is why, Karl Marx, the founder of communism and dialectical materialism, wrote that Darwinism was "the basis in natural history" for his worldview. 3. The past two centuries have been a bloody arena of materialism: Ideologies based on materialism have brought permanent violence, war and chaos to the world. Communism and Fascism are the direct outcome of materialistic philosophy. Capitalism certainly is materialistic in its outlook and needs no explanation. 4. The roots of evolutionist thought go back as far as antiquity as a dogmatic belief attempting to deny the fact of creation. Most of the pagan philosophers in ancient Greece defended the idea of evolution. No wonder that despite many scientific inadequacies in the theory of evolution, it has been revised, renewed, nurtured and elevated all this time by the west. However it is interesting to note that the maximum resistance to

evolutionists has also been offered by the west while some Islamic thinkers and scholars have raised their voice only recently.

AIM
5. To question the scientific validity of Darwinism as against Creationism with particular reference to Islamic point of view on this issue. 6.

Sequence
a. b. c. d. e. Theory of Evolution and its scientific follow up. Creationism. Brief History of Evolution and Creation Science Conflict. Islamic Perspective and Evolution Deceit. Fact of Creation.

Theory of Evolution and its Scientific Follow Up

7. Charles Darwin and His Work a. Darwin had never undergone a formal education in biology. He took only an amateur interest in the subject of nature and living things. His interest spurred him to voluntarily join an expedition on board a ship named H.M.S. Beagle that set out from England in 1832 and traveled around different regions of the world for five years. Young Darwin was greatly impressed by various living species, especially by certain finches that he saw in the Galapagos Islands. He thought that the variations in their beaks were caused by their adaptation to the environment. According to Darwin, different living species were not created separately by God but rather came from a common ancestor and became differentiated from each other as a result of natural conditions. Darwin's hypothesis was not based on any scientific discovery or experiment; in time however he turned it into a pretentious theory with the support and encouragement he received from the famous materialist biologists of his time.

developed b.

According to Darwin, man was the most outcome of this mechanism.

Darwin was well aware that his theory faced lots of problems. He confessed these in his book in the chapter "Difficulties of the Theory". These difficulties primarily consisted of the fossil record, complex organs of living things that could not possibly be explained by coincidence, and the instincts of living beings. Comment made by the American physicist Lipson on the"difficulties" of Darwin has been flashed on the screen. While developing his theory, Darwin was impressed by many evolutionist biologists preceding him, and primarily by the French biologist, Lamarck. According to Lamarck, living creatures passed the traits they acquired during their lifetime from one generation to the next and thus evolved. For instance, giraffes evolved from antelope-like animals by extending their necks further and further from generation to generation as they tried to reach higher and higher branches for food. Darwin thus employed the thesis of "passing the acquired traits" proposed by Lamarck as the factor that made living beings evolve. 8. Darwins Racism. One of the most important yet leastknown aspects of Darwin is his racism: Darwin regarded white Europeans as more "advanced" than other human races. While Darwin presumed that man evolved from ape-like creatures, he surmised that some races developed more than others and that the latter still bore simian features. 9. Follow Up. Due to obvious difficulties and discrepancies, Darwins theory should have logically been banished to the dustbin of history. However, it was not, because certain circles insisted on elevating the theory to a scientific platform. According c.

to new modifications in this theory, species evolved as a result of mutations, minor changes in their genes or else through punctuated equilibrium and the fittest ones survived through the mechanism of natural selection. These new claims, however, also did not rest on any rational or scientific grounds and are highly questionable.

Creationism
10. Creationism refers to a wide range of beliefs that mainly accept creation as the act of creator rather than an accidental beginning of life. The differences between types of creationism are not minor. Many creationists disagree as much with other creationists as they do with evolutionists. I will briefly touch upon main categories of these beliefs. a. Christian Creationism. The main branches of Christian Creationists have been flashed:-

Islamic Creationism. The Koran is taken by all Muslims as the direct and unaltered word of Allah, and Genesis is considered a corrupted version of God's message. The creation accounts in the Koran are spread among several surahs allowing a range of scientific and spiritual interpretations. Vedic Creationism. Hinduism speaks of a very ancient earth. Hindu belief argues that anatomically modern humans have existed for billions of years. Other Creation Beliefs. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of creation myths among the peoples of the world. d. c.

b.

Brief History of the Evolution and Creation Science Conflict

11. Prior to 1925. Creation Science was the prevailing belief system before the rise of geology in the late 18th Century. The early European scientists, from Copernicus to Galileo to Newton believed in a literal interpretation of the Bible's account of creation. Friction between science and theology, however, increased with the introduction of Darwinist idea of life. 12. Scopes Trial. An important event in the history of this conflict occurred in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925. John Scopes, a high school biology teacher was on trial for teaching of a theory that denied the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible. The trial quickly degenerated into a media circus. Although Scopes was found guilty, it was generally felt that he had won a moral victory. 13. 1950-1975. The Roman Catholic Church had never formally condemned the theory of evolution. However, in 1950, Pope discouraged belief in evolution because it played into the hands of materialists and atheists. Since approximately that time, the Church taught that the Genesis creation story should not be interpreted literally, but symbolically. 14. American Trials-1980 to 1990. Relevant detail of some important American trials pertaining to this conflict is flashed on the screen. 15. Recent Developments. Some significant recent developments in the context of ongoing tussle between the evolutionist and Creationist camps are also flashed on the next slide. 16. Public Opinion Polls in USA. The results of public opinion polls held recently in USA are somewhat tilted in favour of creationism as you can see on the next couple of slides.

Islamic Perspective and Evolution Deceit

1 7. Arg u me n t s Ag a i n s t D a r w i ni s m a. Fossil Record. Since evolutionists allege that all living things evolved from each other step-by-

step, the number and variety of these transitional forms, therefore, should have been in the millions. Since Darwin, evolutionists have been searching for fossils and the result has been for them a crushing disappointment. Nowhere in the world neither on land nor in the depths of the sea has any intermediate transitional form between any two species ever been uncovered. Life Emerged on Earth Suddenly and in Complex Forms. Living creatures that are found in the strata belonging to the Cambrian period (530520 million years old) emerged in the fossil record all of a sudden without any pre-existing ancestors. Most of the organisms found in this stratum have highly advanced organs like eyes, or systems seen in organisms with a highly advanced organization such as gills, circulatory systems, and so on. In other words, living beings did not come into existence through evolution. They were created. Many renowned scientists share this belief the world over. c. Evolution Forgeries (1) Deception in Drawings. The fossils unearthed are most of the time unsatisfactory for reliable identification. They usually consist of scattered, incomplete bone fragments. For this reason, it is very easy to distort the available data and to use it as desired. Not surprisingly, the reconstructions (drawings and models) made by evolutionists based on such fossil remains are prepared entirely speculatively in order to confirm evolutionary theses. b.

(2) Piltdown Man. Charles Dawson, a wellknown doctor, came forth with a claim that he had found a jawbone and a cranial fragment in a pit in the area of Piltdown, England, in 1912. These specimens were christened the "Piltdown Man". Alleged to be 500 thousand years old, they were displayed as absolute proofs of human evolution and racial supremacy of Europeans. In 1949, scientists examined the fossil once more and concluded that the "fossil" was a deliberate forgery consisting of a human skull and the jawbone of a monkey. Ota Benga. Ota Benga was captured in 1904 by an evolutionist researcher in Congo. In his own tongue, his name meant "friend". He had a wife and two children. Chained and caged like an animal, he was taken to the USA where evolutionist scientists displayed him to the public in the St Louis World Fair along with other ape species and introduced him as "the closest transitional link to man". Two years later, they took him to the Bronx Zoo in New York. Unable to bear the treatment he was subjected to, Ota Benga eventually committed suicide. Whale Fantasy. One instance of National Geographic's 'sensational, unsubstantiated and tabloid' evolutionist propaganda was its 'Evolution of Whales' article carried in the issue of November, 2001. The article maintained that a string of fossil discoveries had proved the evolution of whales thesis. The pictures, reconstructions and diagrams plastered all over the 14-page article were intended to (4) (3)

visually reinforce the same claim minds. However, the 'evolution of scenario, so fiercely defended by Geographic, was-and isnothing but fairy tale, devoid of any scientific evidence. (5)

in readers' whales' National a

Men And Apes. According to the claims of the theory of evolution, men and modern apes have common ancestors. These creatures evolved in time and some of them became the apes of today, while another group that followed another branch of evolution became the men of today. Evolutionists arranged various ape and human fossils in order to form a "human evolution" scheme. Research, however, has demonstrated that these fossils by no means imply an evolutionary process and some of these alleged ancestors of man were real apes whereas some of them were real humans. d. Accidental Beginning of Life (1)

Composition of Cell. The theory of evolution holds that life started with a cell that formed by chance under primitive earth conditions. With all its operational systems, systems of communication, transportation and management, a cell is no less complex than any city. Far from being formed under primitive earth conditions, the cell, which in its composition and mechanisms is so complex, cannot be created in even the most sophisticated laboratories of our day. (2) arranged Protein Molecules. Proteins are giant molecules consisting of amino acids in a particular sequence in certain

quantities and structures. These molecules constitute the building blocks of a living cell. The probability of the coincidental formation of only one such protein 300 molecule is "1 in 10 ". If the coincidental formation of even one of these proteins is impossible, it is billions of times more impossible for approximately one million of those proteins to come together by chance in an organized fashion and make up a complete human cell. Origin of Birds and Mammals. According to the theory of evolution, life originated and evolved in the sea and then was transported onto land by amphibians. This scenario is again implausible, due to the enormous structural differences between these two classes of animals. A "step by step" evolution of an amphibian is out of the question, because without a perfect and fully-designed egg, it is not possible for a species to survive. On the other hand, when we examine bird feathers closely, we come across a very complex design that cannot be explained by any evolutionary process. The design of feathers also disturbed Charles Darwin and made him sick all over. Ape-Man Similarity. It is claimed that the genes of chimpanzees have a similarity to human genes by 98 % and this is promoted as an evidence to the claim that apes are close to humans, and therefore, to the theory of evolution. In order to claim that the genetic make-ups of man and chimpanzee bear 98 % similarity, the genome of the chimpanzee also has to be mapped for comparative analysis. However no such result is available, because so far, only the gene of mankind has been mapped. In reality, the 98 % similarity between the genes f. e.

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of an

man and ape, which now and then becomes agenda item, is a propaganda oriented slogan deliberately invented years ago. Moreover, the Human DNA is also similar to that of the worm, mosquito and chicken. In fact the genetic similarities upset the "Evolution Scheme" that is sought to be constituted. Similarities are not evidence for evolution but for creation. Natural Selection. Contrary to Darwins contention, natural selection serves as a mechanism of eliminating weak indls within a species. It is a conservative force which preserves the existing species from degeneration. Beyond that, it has no capability of transforming one species to another. 1 8 . Fact of Creation. P rominent names in the discipline of microbiology today admit the fact of creation and have begun to defend the view that everything is created by a conscious Creator as part of an exalted creation. Scientists who can approach their work with an open mind have developed a view called "intelligent design". It has not been the ancient pagan philosophy, but faith in God which has played a stimulating role in the birth and development of modern science. Most of the people who pioneered modern science believed in the existence of God; and while studying science, they sought to discover the universe God has created and to perceive His laws and the details in His creation. One of the reasons why non believers cannot see the realities of their existence is a kind of "spell" impeding their reasoning. People are exposed to such an intense indoctrination about the correctness of the theory of evolution that they often do not even realise the distortion that exists. The psychology of the unbeliever has existed throughout history. In the Qur'an it is described thus: Even if We did send unto them angels, and the dead did speak unto them, and We gathered together all things before their very eyes, they are not the ones to believe, unless it is in God's plan. But most of them ignore (the truth). (Surat al-Anaam : 111). As this verse makes clear, the dogmatic thinking of the g.

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evolutionists is not an original way of thinking, nor is it even peculiar to them. In fact, what the evolutionist scientist maintains is not a modern scientific thought but an ignorance that has persevered since the most uncivilized pagan communities. Those who do not find the sentence "Allah created you from nothing" scientific enough can believe that the first living being came into being accidentally billions of years ago. As it has been described, the balances in nature are so delicate and so numerous that it is entirely irrational to claim that they developed "by chance". The signs of Allah in the heavens and the earth are completely obvious and they are undeniable. Allah is the Creator of the heavens, the earth and all that is in between. The signs of His being have encompassed the entire universe. 19. Conclusion. There is much other evidence, as well as scientific laws, invalidating evolution, but in my talk I have only been able to discuss some of them. Even those should be enough to reveal a most important truth: Although it is cloaked in the guise of science, the theory of evolution is nothing but a deceit: a deceit defended only for the benefit of materialistic philosophy. Islam actually is exactly in line with the science and supports logic as it is manifested clearly by the Creator in design of Universe. Incidentally, this also happens to be the fundamental difference between Islam and other religions in the world that do not conform to the scientific interpretations and fail to support the faith with logic.