Atlas of Creation is the most destructive response to evolution

3:52

19 Jul 2011

Evolution

Adnan Oktar

In this brief, undated clip, Adnan Oktar, also known as Harun Yahya, reads a letter from a follower in Gambia (who watches him on A9 TV) and wants Oktar to organize more conferences there.  In response, Oktar suggests opening a library and taking a copy of The Atlas of Creation (Oktar’s book) around to others, as reading even 10-15 pages of it would be enough (he suggests) to convince anyone that evolution is incorrect.

In Turkish with English subtitles.  The setting has Oktar sitting around a table with another man and three women, none of whom are named or do more than agree.

Evaluation:

There is little on Islam here, other than numerous pious phrases (in Arabic) used throughout the clip.

There is little here on science.  The clip suggests that The Atlas of Creation disproves evolution.  However, The Atlas as a work of scholarship is riddled with errors (mislabeled photographs, many of which are merely culled from the internet) and does not critique ongoing scholarly literature, a necessary step to overturn scientific literature.  For a discussion of ongoing efforts to fill “fossil gaps”, see Neil Shubin’s video, “From Fish to Man: Documentary on the Evolution of Fish to Modern Humans”.

The only historical mention here is to the time of the last two sultans of the Ottoman Empire, from the first quarter of the 20th century. Oktar is suggesting that somehow people then would have been eager to hear other theories.  Historically, there were many debates about evolutionary theory (or theories) then, which one might readily enough have learned about.