We were forwarded a PR from The Technics & Science Research Foundation (TSRF). Turkey is rapidly degenerating into an authoritarian state (journalists imprisoned, etc.), so one should assess what one hears with caution.
That said, the following media release on removing evolution teaching from the schools is from an organization associated with longtime Turkish ID advocate, Adnan Ottar (pen name Harun Yahya), whom we interviewed in 2009. (Here is a recent conference.) A couple of comments are interspersed:
Turkey recently made a decision to remove the teachings of the theory of evolution from the curriculum taught in classes, a move that is contrary to how the world usually approaches this subject. The news spread very quickly via the European pro-evolutionists press.
For more than one and a half centuries, Darwinism has provided the justification for harmful and violent ideologies like communism and fascism. Many communist, fascist and anarchist ideologues such as Marx, Engels, Hitler, Lenin, Stalin and Pol Pot repeatedly stated that Darwinism inspired their theories and actions. Social Darwinism, an ideology based on the poisonous ideas offered by the now-discredited theory, led to the death of millions of people in a bizarre and misguided attempt to strengthen societies by eliminating the so-called weak, the old and the disabled. Justifications for slavery, colonialism, ethnic conflicts and genocides were all grown in Darwinian evolutionary thinking. Generations upon generations grew up with the mistaken idea that humans or human life had no Divine value, and thus had to “earn” their “right” to survive.
However, over the last fifty or so years, scientific progress in the field of archeology and genetic theory has uncovered the most compelling evidence which demonstrates that a Creator with infinite power created life.
Well, the Council of Europe believes that the idea of design in nature is a human rights offense. That says more about them than about anyone or anything else.
For instance, science has shown that in order for a single protein to come into existence, 60 different proteins have to be present for the synthesis of this new protein. Those 60 proteins would need existing proteins to produce them as well. However, this dependent chain of created proteins cannot extend back infinitely. Like a long line of train cars moving down a track, there must be an engine, not pushed by anything behind it, which pushes the first car, which in turn, pushes all the rest. There must have been a Creator, one that created life and related biological structures.
Not quite. The evidence demonstrates that intelligence underlies the universe. That is, intelligence is not a randomly evolved outcome of unintelligent processes, as the naturalist insists. But pantheism (the universe is itself the intelligence) can account for the intelligence as well as monotheism can, at this stage of the discussion. So a case against pantheism must rely on additional arguments.
Furthermore, of the more than 700 million fossils that have been unearthed over the last two centuries, not one demonstrates an evolutionary, transitional form of a creature that would support Darwin’s theory of evolution. Instead, the fossil record proves creatures have remained unchanged for millions of years.
All of this considered, we believe that Darwinism should continue to be taught in Turkish high schools, but for the sake of balance, fairness, and accuracy, it should be taught alongside a clear scientific rebuttal. As long as the scientific evidence is accurately and objectively presented, there is no problem in teaching Darwin’s theories of evolution as a matter of general knowledge.
Until now, schools in Turkey have taught only the theory of evolution and have not included a discussion of the clear and irrefutable signs of creation. We believe that students should be presented with the scientific facts in an objective manner, being allowed to make up their own minds.
This has been the position of ID sympathizers all along. An interesting new development is the growth over the last decade of evidence-backed non-Darwinian evolution theory coming from non-ID sources. Those researchers resent the educational monopoly (gravy train) to which Darwinists consider themselves exclusively entitled as much as anyone else does.
If Darwinian, evolutionary theory alone were true, we would be its foremost defenders. However, we see both in nature and in the Holy Books that such an evolutionary process never took place.
Never took place? We actually don’t know what happened. The official accounts have been an enforced Darwinist interpretation of all events. Evolution could well have happened but not the way they say. “Never took place” is an additional claim.
Lastly, we should note that the fears expressed in certain Western media that Turkey is sliding back into a new dark age are as exaggerated as they are unfounded. The truth is that Darwinism and the harmful ideologies it has spawned and supported plunged the world into the darkness of the 20th century, a hundred-year period marked by war, death and famine, the likes of which the world had never seen. Turkey, on the other hand, is now headed towards a brighter future.
Ah, the chickens of Darwinian racism are finally coming home to roost, far from the United States, where the topic is not discussable! It should be.
Only an educational system based on scientific evidence and freedom of thought will help raise brilliant, open-minded generations for Turkey. We hope that the other nations of the world will follow Turkey’s bold example and spare their youth from the deceit of a Darwin-only school curriculum.
Technics & Science Research Foundation (TSRF) is a non-governmental organization established in Istanbul in 1990. The TSRF operates in a progressive, democratic and pro-human rights line in its activities and with total commitment to spread moral values globally. The inspiration behind our activities is the 300-book corpus of the Honorary President of our Foundation Mr. ADNAN OKTAR, who writes under the pen-name Harun Yahya.
One hopes for the best for them.
See also: Interview with Turkish Darwin doubter
EvoKE: ID as anti-”human rights” and “civic rights” As is usual with these new fascist groups, evidence that ID is a threat to “human rights” or “civic rights” is not headlined. The argument will likely depend on casuistry.
How naturalism rots science from the head down
What the fossils told us in their own words
Eugenics was, from first to last, aDarwinian project. Darwinism did not invent racism but it provided science-based claims for it, which was very important in an age of great respect for science.