Creationism And Intelligent Design Gain Foothold In Turkey

Washington Post:

With direct and indirect help from American foes of evolution, similarly-minded Turks have aggressively made the case that Charles Darwin's theory is scientifically wrong and is the underlying source of most of the world's conflicts because it excludes God from human affairs.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[mikebarden]

Was I suppose to make a serious comment here?

[deluxebrand]

If god is the answer to "something out of nothing", then what's the explanation for god? To say "god did it" explains nothing.

[deluxebrand]

Watch this film. Very interesting on the topic of Christianity.

www.zeitgeistmovie.com

[lightningbolt]

Creationism and intelligent design have no scientific evidence to back them up, therefore, they must remain in the realm of fantasy.

[HorseChowda]

It's safe to say the concept of "evidence" to support a theory is completely lost on creationists. For some strange reason it's not needed when it comes to "God", and so the lack of it doesn't really mean anything to them.

[freshmind]

Thinking about this constantly drives a lot of people crazy I think, evolution and creationism are way off, creationism simply absurd and evolution which does have huge gaping holes. When Darwin died he claimed he believed in god, how could he believe in both? Why not, god set the universe in motion and knew that life would spring up with the right conditions. He had the blueprint for the universe and then he watches.

[jamiso]

"When Darwin died he claimed he believed in god"

Oh jebus, is this the “Lady Hope Story”, that lying liar christians made up? He was an agnostic, not that it matters.

Here is the two problems with your idea:
1) The 'god' you described is not the god of the bible or quran.
2) The deist god you just mentioned does not really make that much sense either....and even if it did exist, would not matter at all for anyone, since it doesnt do anything...except be a concept.

[Hirnlego]

"which does have huge gaping holes"

No it does not. Every science supports it. And people should stop using the god of the gaps argument. Its weak.

[CrisOmg]

Exactly. Even if evolution were completely wrong, that wouldn't mean - even in the slightest - that goD did it instead.

[ancientmarinader]

I also read on the internet that bigfoot is a hermaphrodite. Once youve finished your internet research into Darwin maybe you can help me with bigfoot.

[HorseChowda]

At least you realize that creationism is absurd. But describing evolution as having "huge, gaping holes" shows that you really know nothing about it. If by "holes" you mean a lack of intermediate species, then go educate yourself on the topic. There are plenty of intermediate species that have been found. Of course, each intermediate species found only creates "two gaps instead of one" according to some creationists, but the expectation of a perfect fossil record, easily found and reconstructed, also shows a severe lack of understanding of evolution, as well as geology. I'm telling you the truth when I say that evolution is a fact. It's been proven, not only by the fossil record but also through experiment, and is not even up for debate anymore. Anyone who denies this and tries to manipulate others into believing the same should be confronted and corrected the same way you'd confront someone who stood outside a highschool proclaiming that the sun revolves around the Earth. In my opinion, denying evolution and believing the sun revolves around the earth are equally embarassing beliefs when the evidence is so easily found. I could go on forever.

[ancientmarinader]

We rank right next to the Turks in science education so this makes sense. Both societies are far behind europe in providing quality science educations.

[erewon]

2009
The Nobel Prize in physics---3 Americans
The Nobel Prize in chemistry-- 2 Americans, 1 Israeli.
The Nobel Prize in Economics--3 Americans.
The Nobel Prize in Medicine--3 Americans.

Th pattern of overwhelming scientific dominance continues.

[Hirnlego]

The effects of todays anti-science views will be something which will be noticable only in the future. Its difficult to see how this will continue the coming decades.

I wouldn't expect much support today for the 60's moon program for instance. Just replace moon with mars..

[ancientmarinader]

For the select few who take their studies seriously. This has nothing to do with the average education standards for the population as a whole.

Americans tend to test poorly on the subject.

[Bloggerrogr]

There's more about this ancient struggle.
New book, "The Case For God" by Karen Armstrong is reviewed over on Daily Kos.

Left, right, Red, blue, it will challenge you intellectually.

FWIW

[Hirnlego]

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/10/the_zombies_will_sup_on_karen.php

[krypton86]

That was as much fun as the first time I read it. Good old P-Zed - he always cheers me up.

[gaiuscaprica]

See an Atheists meets god clip

http://miserablegrouch.blogspot.com/2009/09/sooowhat-are-you-waitng-for-spend-all.html

[Bloggerrogr]

Well, that's 4:51 that I'll never get back.
Oh well.
In an infinite universe there are an infinite number of possibilities.

FWIW

[Bloggerrogr]

There is no conflict between faith and science.

Science gives us the 'how'
Faith gives us the 'why'

It is as simple as that.

FWIW

[jamiso]

Please....IF ONLY

These religions also give you the "how"... unfortunetly the 'how' is always wrong, and the "why" tends to be ridiculous....on tap of that they throw in the 'You Better or elses" and the "who are evils" to seal the deal on making the cancer of Abraham the biggest blight on mankind.

[Horst]

Whenever these people can't explain something...the answer is always the same "God has a plan" Try explaining that to a four year old with leukemia.

[Hirnlego]

Please..

Millions of people choose not to believe in evolution because simply because it doesn't require a deity to explain how it works.

[Ben Cohn]

The ideas of God and evolution are not only NOT AT ODDS. If you went to a reform Hebrew school, or I would imagine reform Sunday schools (by reform i mean non-Orthodox/less doctrinal) you were always taught that the idea of God's creation is 7 days was a METAPHOR. Religion has changed its stances in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence before (things like gravity and the alignment of the planets are no longer contested by the Vatican, nor scientific findings like atoms. If you look closely you will see they don't even deny the existence of the dinosaurs just contest when they lived). Why they haven't done the logical thing and explained the findings in light of their doctrine, rather then denying clear fact is beyond me.

[jamiso]

Mere human science corrects god's perfect revelation­s......rea­lly makes you wonder if people didnt make this god guy up

[deluxebrand]

First is was" We don't believe in Evolution" period! Then after you could actually see evolution in progress (Microevolution), it was "We accept microevolu­tion....bu­t STILL don't believe in Macroevolution.

It's the same story over and over again. When irrefutable evidence is discovered by the scientific community, the story changes... gravity, the earth being round and rotating around the sun, etc. etc. ad nauseum.....

[LiberalLee]

Oh peachy.
We've failed at exporting GBush-style foreign policy, ( thank heaven) but his idio(t)crat theories fotered by the neocon arm of the relgiousri­ghtwingnut­job army is still succeding.

Why does this country excel at spreading it's lowest and dumbest creations?

[blueshield]

And then howl when the willful ignorance we've bred comes back and bites us.

[jamiso]

Hillbilly's in Mississippi didnt make this stuff up, and start spreading it around..... a bunch of desert nomads thousands of years ago did....and they been exporting their disease all over the world since then. Our idiot creationists just showed their idiot creationists how to make good propaganda.

Forget acting like any of this is new.....its the same ol same ol from the books that have brought so much love and wonder and truthiness to the world (sarcasm)

[Redeemer777]

http://www.vimeo.com/1904911

[krypton86]

For anyone who might be wondering what this link is, it's a debate between Frank Turek and Christopher Hitchens. Turek does not fare well. His arguments are mostly in support of deism and the tired "God of the gaps" argument. All in all, it's a bit painful to watch but still interesting if you happen to have a couple of hours to waste. You might want to skip to about an hour or so in, though. The first hour was tedious.

[duxguts]

Yippee, the economy is on the mend, we've started exporting again.

[MarcusT]

Before the establishment of what we recognize as civil society, civil authority, the world was governed by religion. It was nothing more than a form of government and government is about control, order. Feudal society found it necessary to work hand in hand with religious authority, the pope, church of England, the sultan’s caliph. America’s founding fathers recognized this and attempted to exclude this authority from the constitution. But civil authorities have never weaned themselves from employing this authority to augment their more illogical mandates. Think of England’s occupation of Ireland, Israel, Iraq/Iran, and even Bush’s “crusade”. If you look at countries with less nationalism, you find less religion. Where you find a more stable civil society, bureaucracy, you find less religion.

[erewon]

Nice ramble, unrelated to the subject at hand. The discussion is the pernicious encroachment of fundamentalism in Turkey. Any opinions on that subject?

[pmaddams]

If you have a problem with evolution, why don't you ask the Great White Sky Daddy to come down and throw away those evil textbooks? Oh, he isn't answering your calls? And no voicemail? What a shame...

[gaiuscaprica]

Whether in the US or abroad I think people should, chose their religion and practice it how they want –within the rules of a civilized society.

I don’t care which G_d they follow; All@h, any of the 330 million in India, the mighty d0llar, Ra. What I care about is that people don’t strap b0mbs on the name of G_d and k!ll the innocent. But this is the generic sentiment here in the US. What is not so common; is to criticize and stand up to our homegrown zeal0ts; who feel the need to spread Christianity through the world.
Turkey is a Muslim country but that is not good in the eyes of people like John Morris, president of the Institute for Creation Research in Dallas, this is something that must not be. These Christians inv@de countries and leave far more devastation than any army could. Missionaries have been sharing the word of the Christian G_d in Africa over two centuries, African lives have not improved, but at least they have sin. Now it’s the Turks turn.

[SFA]

We have rules against Blood Diamonds........But no rules & no criticisms for all the Blood spilled for Oil & Oil pipelines.­.........W­hat can we do vast majority of Oil(not all but vast majority) is in Muslim lands.

Middle East
Indonesia.­.....that'­s why East Timor was broken from it.
Central Asia
Africa...Sudan etc.

[jamiso]

Wait.....are you saying East Timor is 'muslim lands' now?