Creationism Goes Global, from American to Islamic Fundamentalism

51:59

1 Jan 2010

Evolution, History of Science

Ronald L. Numbers

Salman Hameed

The lecture in this video was the evening keynote address given by Ronald L. Numbers on October 2, 2009 as a part of Hampshire College’s conference, “Darwin and Evolution in the Muslim World”.  Numbers discusses the rise of creationist movements in the United States, primarily in Christianity and Islam, and their connections to the Islamic world, focusing in part on the ideas of Adnan Oktar and the Harun Yahya group.

Topics discussed include:  William Jennings Bryan, the Scopes trial (1925), “gap theory”, Noah’s flood, Young Earth creationism, Henry Morris and the Institute for Creation Research, Duane Gish, micro-evolution, BAV (Turkish Science Research Foundation), materialism, anti-Semitism, Communism, intelligent design, Jewish anti-evolutionism.

The speaker is introduced by Salman Hameed.  Questions and answers are not included in this video.

Ron Numbers is the Hilldale Professor of the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He has written extensively about religion and science in the United States (and elsewhere), and about myths about science and religion.

Evaluation:

There is relatively little about Islam or science here, except to the extent they are presented within the ideas of particular anti-evolution groups.  The ideas of those groups do not represent the historical mainstream of Islamic thought or academic scientific thought.  Dr. Numbers’ own views do not misrepresent either Islam or science.

The historical material and connections drawn here are sound.