Science, Theism & Atheism

Well, it took me some time to post this on this blog — who said I have a good sense of time –” but down below is comment from me in the “Year of Darwin” special file of the Nature magazine, dated Nov 2008. (Read here, or download the PDF right here.) The cartoon above, meanwhile, is Nature’s nice piece of artwork that supplemented the file, and the funny fellow at the left end seems to be me.

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[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
All of us moderns are familiar with the popular from-ape-to-man drawings, which show a series of bipeds starting with an ape and gradually turning into cavemen, and finally into a fine gentleman. You can see these graphs almost everywhere, and advertisers in particular love them. It has become cliché to put a satisfied customer of this or that product at the very end of the evolutionary line. Read the French daily Libération, for example, an ad implies, and become the most sophisticated chap in the from-ape-to-man saga.

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The week’s The Economist magazine ran a story titled “Evolution and Religion: In The Beginning,” which explored the global controversy over Darwinism and Intelligent Design. The article also mentioned Turkey’s first ID conference, and my work, as follows:

Whatever the defeats they have suffered on home ground, American foes of Darwin seem to be gaining influence elsewhere. In February several luminaries of the anti-evolution movement in the United States went to Istanbul for a grand conference where Darwin’s ideas were roundly denounced. The organiser of the gathering was a Turkish Muslim author and columnist, Mustafa Akyol, who forged strong American connections during a fellowship at the Discovery Institute.

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The first conference bringing Intelligent Design to the attention of the Turkish public took place on Feb 24, 2007, in Istanbul’s second biggest hall, the Cemal Resit Rey Concert Hall. An audience of approximately 500 hundred people, which included many university students, scholars, scientists, and journalists, joined the event and listened to the four-hour long program on “The Origin of Life On Earth.”

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Prominent science journal Nature, in its November 2006 issue, has mentioned my work in its cover story on “Islam and Science.” It reads:

Some Islamic thinkers are reaching out to the West in surprising ways. The prominent Turkish writer and columnist Mustafa Aykol has creationist views and publishes translations of US proponents of intelligent design. He has been building alliances with US faith-based groups such as the Discovery Institute in Seattle, Washington state. In an article for the US National Review last year he wrote: “Intelligent Design can be a bridge between these two civilizations. Muslims are discovering that they share a common cause with believers in the West.”

Well, my surname is “Akyol”, not “Aykol,” I am not a creationist (ID is not creationism), and I haven’t published any translations so far, but that’s all OK. It is good to see that Nature is taking a note of the universality of the argument from design (for God) and the cross-cultural implications of the modern theory of Intelligent Design.
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In a recent TV debate on the Turkish educational system, the country’s Minister of Education, Mr. Hüseyin Çelik**, argued in favor of intelligent design and for incorporating the theory into Turkish high school biology textbooks. The debate was aired on CNNTurk* on 17 October 2006, on the popular TV show Tarafsiz Bölge (Neutral Zone), which is hosted by the trendy Turkish journalist Ahmet Hakan Coskun.

During the 2.5 hour-long program, the minister was challenged by another leading journalist, Ismet Berkan, who has previously argued for Darwinism and against ID in his columns. Berkan contended that the vague reference to “creation” in Turkish biology textbooks as an alternative to Darwinian evolution should be omitted, since it presents faith, not science. Minister Çelik responded by pointing that the idea of creation is not necessarily based on religious texts and that it can be based solely on objective evidence and the latter is what Turkish textbooks refer to. Moreover he gave a brief description of ID, by quoting an op-ed piece of mine — that was, interestingly enough, published in the newspaper that Mr. Berkan edits (Radikal) — and argued that it should be in Turkish textbooks as an alternative theory to Darwinian evolution. The 15-min discussion between Minister Çelik and Mr. Berkan is available here in audio, albeit only in Turkish.

So, watch out. ID might become a part of science standards soon in unexpected places!

* CNNTurk is a joint-venture of CNN International and the Dogan Media Group, Turkey’s no. 1 media empire. It is one of the two most prestigious and popular newschannels in Turkey.

** Mr. Çelik is a member of the incumbent AKP, Turkey’s moderate Muslim party.

The popular Muslim website IslamOnline.net has organized an online debate on “Evolution vs. Intelligent Design” between Mustafa Akyol and Nicholas Matzke, spokesman for the US-based National Center for Science Education. Akyol and Matzke have responded to questions forwarded by the readers, as well as countering each other’s arguments.
The first part of the debate is available here. The second part, which was much more detailed and extensive, is available here.
The full text of the whole debate is also available down below.

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[Originally published in IslamOnline]

“[An] ‘ism’ of great danger to Islam… is Darwinism,” said Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the leading Muslim thinkers of our time, in his book Islam and the Plight of Modern Man. He is certainly right. Darwinism is indeed a dangerous idea, and the reason for that is its seemingly scientific affirmation of the naturalist philosophy – the belief that nature is all there is and that life on Earth, including humans, is the product of the blind forces of nature. If one accepts that philosophy, then one will have little reason to believe in Allah, the Lord and Creator of everything.
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An international symposium titled “Human Genetic and Reproductive Technologies: Comparing Religious and Secular Perspectives” and organized by the World Health Organization, Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences and Council For International Organizations Of Medical Sciences was held in Cairo, on 6 – 9 February 2006.

At the symposium Mustafa Akyol presented the following paper explaining how recent scientific discoveries challenge the materialist theories on origins.
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[Originally published in National Review Online]

When President Bush declared his support for the teaching of intelligent design (ID) theory in public schools along with Darwinian evolution, both he and the theory itself drew a lot of criticism. Among the many lines of attack the critics launch, one theme remains strikingly constant: the notion that ID is a Trojan Horse of Christian fundamentalists whose ultimate aim is to turn the U.S. into an theocracy.

In a furious New Republic cover story, “The Case Against Intelligent Design,” Jerry Coyne joined in this hype and implied that all non-Christians, including Muslims, should be alarmed by this supposedly Christian theory of beginnings that “might offend those of other faiths.” Little does he realize that if there is any view on the origin of life that might seriously offend other faiths

BBC’s Worldwide Service Radio made an interview with Mustafa Akyol in its program about Intelligent Design. You can listen to Akyol’s replies to the questions of BCC editor Trevor Barns by downloading this sound file. Or you can listen to the whole program at the related page in the BBC website.

Intelligent Design and its proponents face a great deal of insult, mockery and ad hominem attacks nowadays. But there are saner voices out there. One good example is a recent op-ed piece in The Boston Globe by Jeff Jacoby.

Mr. Jacoby begins by pointing that the recent hype about “Flying Spaghetti Monsterism” (FSM) — a cheap demagoguery to discredit ID — is completely irrelevant.

I agree. ID argues that there is a Designer and does not address the nature of that Designer, because that is scientifically undetectable. While many ID supporters, including myself, keep the personal opinion that the Designer is God — of the Bible and the Koran — such personal opinions are not a part of ID theory. FSM, on the other hand, is a fantasy about the Designer and people have the right to believe in it — if they find it really plausible. Yet theirs would be a subjective faith that has no place in the science class.

Another good point in Mr. Jacoby’s article is his comment on the Scopes-trial-is-back rhetoric. Yes, it is back — but in reverse:

How things have changed. When John Scopes went on trial in Tennessee in 1925, religious fundamentalists fought to keep evolution out of the classroom because it was at odds with a literal reading of the Biblical creation story. Today, Darwinian fundamentalists fight to keep the evidence of intelligent design in the diversity of life on earth out of the classroom, because that would be at odds with a strictly materialist view of the world. Eighty years ago, the thought controllers wanted no Darwin; today’s thought controllers want only Darwin. In both cases, the dominant attitude is authoritarian and closed-minded — the opposite of the liberal spirit of inquiry on which good science depends.

Mr. Jacoby’s conclusion is correct, too: “[ID] isn’t primitivism or Bible-thumping or flying spaghetti. It’s science.”

A reply to Robert McHenry, Former Editor in Chief of the Encyclopaedia Britannica

[Originally published in Tech Central Station]

“All truth passes through three stages,” Arthur Schopenhauer declared. “First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

As a proponent of the Intelligent Design (ID) theory, nowadays I am witnessing the first two stages simultaneously. And most recently I owe this to, among many others, Mr. Robert McHenry, who waged a powerful attack on ID and ID theorists in his recent TCS piece, Intelligent Decline.
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