Morning all,
Deep in the throes of writing grant proposals, I’m going to do a bit of a different post today. A colleague of mine recently visited Turkey, and came back with a massive copy of (real name Adnan Oktar) Harun Yahya’s “Atlas of Creation”. This book has been mentioned briefly on NN, in 2007, so it’s unlikely to be new news0.
I flicked through it’s sumptuous, glossy pages, marvelling at the range of beautiful photographs and hand drawn images. It’s the kind of “science” book I would have loved as a kid. Chunky, authorotative and not too many words.
Which brings us to the book’s downfall. Words. The author has apparently done no research of the scientific literature in an attempt to back up his arguments. There are numerous inaccuracies in his descriptions of the pictures (in some cases not even getting within a sub-kingdom of the correct species) By far the majority of pages in this book contain a paragraph along the lines of:
“Here is a fossil skull/pelvis/bone/leaf from a (generic common name, e.g. wolf/tiger/tree). This fossil is 50 millions years old. The fact that there is no difference between this fossil and currently living individuals of the same species [and I’ll quote verbatim here, p. 394] reveals that the theory of evolution is a myth”.
Let’s be quite clear (for any non-specialists who may have stumbled into this page). The theory of evolution by natural selection1 is currently the best scientific explanation we have to describe the diversity of organisms in our world. There is a great deal of work that shows how changes in specific genes can lead directly to changes in morphology and behaviour. This leads to changes in reproductive success (altering the ability to find mates in sexual healing organisms) and/or survival (ability to avoid disease, predation…) which directly affect the progression of specific forms of genes (alleles) through time. Tiny, tiny changes can make big, big differences over a long enough period of time.
Upon reading these blatant mistruths, then spluttering into my morning cuppa, I began to wonder what the best way to respond is. We had a bit of a laugh in the office about the book, but I thought, “This really is an attractive book. People who don’t understand the scientific process are going to read it and take the nonsensical slaverings of a deluded lunatic as fact”.
The sufficient education I have caused me to splutter, and also allows me to sort the, well frankly there is nothing of substance in this book (except its hardback cover, which seems to have reduced a decent chunk of the Amazon to smouldering pulp), from the chaff. Yes, it’s all chaff.
So, “How can the scientific community respond to such glossy, exotic challenges?”
Well, as parents will often advise their chidlers in response to bullies/monsters under the bed/noxious fumes, and as much of the scientific community seems to be happy to do, “Just ignore it, and it’ll go away”.
I felt this morning that this is too passive an approach, and imagined using the power of t’interweb to DAMN THIS BOOK AND ALL IT’S FALSE CONTENTS!
Please link to this post as often as possible, click on it frequently, add comments citing literature that contradicts specific quotes in the book, send this message to your family and friends! This will all help various search engines promote these ideas high on their results pages, and “Hey, Presto!” any interetsed readers of this book will find out that there is more to the world than Harun Yahya’s blinkered, inaccurate view.
I’m not a fan of book burning or even banning books. Any books. We should all have the opportunity to tell people how we think the world works, then we can all make informed decisions based on a variety of information. I would almost make an exception here, but if we can get the message out there loudly and clearly that this book is ridiculous, containing no information grounded in scientific principles, then people will simply start ignoring it anyway.
Epilogue Reading back through all this, I feel a little depressed and wonder what the point of posting it really is. Am I preaching to the converted? I certainly hope so. But let’s preach a bit louder so everyone has a chance to hear an alternative version. The only controversy with Evolution and creationism ID is that creationists want their religious views to be taught as science.
</impassioned plea>
Prof. Steve Steve wasn’t too impressed with it either
Especially as we were in the Linnean Society at the time.
I’m sure it’s an effect of the photo, but the bottom left hand picture appears to be of a car. Now that’s what I call a wonder of evolution!
Henry, don’t look at this one though.
I looked. And I survived to tell the tale. Yes, this enormo-tome made it to the Nature office where we, too, marveled at its exuberance, its raw power, and its punctuality. Four shaven, oiled eunuchs had to lift it all three floors to Nature editorial in its own sedan chair.
Alas, I have come across Harun Yahya of old. He is one of the several quote miners that fasten their trematode-like suckers onto my works like the many varieties of poo found at the Maison Des Girrafes attach themselves to one’s crocs.
Some crocs, yesterday. Poo not pictured.
What’s important here (and a point that HWMNBN clearly appreciates) is that creationism is not just a Christian phenomenon. There are Jewish creationists, too (though not many) and there are Islamic creationists. What many people don’t seem to know is that there are high-level contacts between Islamic and Christian creationists. I wrote an essay about this some time ago – I really should dig it out and post it here. I was inspired by a (sadly) long-forgotten feature in Science on the subject. I must dig that out, too.
Hey, I should use that trick to increase my traffic.
Or I could try writing intelligent, articulate and well-thought out entries.
Naw, I’ll go with the mob approach. Much easier.
As if it’s a coincidence, the NCSE website has been re-designed. They must have plenty of information about Harun Yahya in their archives.
Cool site, Bob. Thanks.
I was just offered the chance to interview the author of that book. Does anyone have any suggestions for questions I should ask?