But this was no mainstream scientific display. One colorful poster advertised the "myth" of the evolution of the horse. Another, displaying a flying pterodactyl, denounced the evolution of birds as "fake."
The display is one of many traveling shows put on by the Foundation for Scientific Research*, an Islamic creationist group that has become a household name in Turkey. Now, the groups says it is distributing its books – published in 59 languages including Arabic, Chinese, Swahili, and Polish – to 80 countries.
"Turkey is now the headquarters of creationism in the Islamic World. This is no longer only Turkey's problem, it is now the problem of the whole civilized world," says Haluk Ertan, a professor of molecular biology at Istanbul University. He's one of a handful of Turkish scientists who have been working to counter creationism's spread in the country.
Get the rest here ...
And our wacko, off-the-wall, illiterate, uneducated, dogmatic fundamentalists are better than their wacko, off-the-wall, illiterate, uneducated, dogmatic fundamentalists because ... ?
If Haluk Ertan is a professor of micro biology, I wouldn't be expecting too many scientific breakthroughs from him or his students. If the final answer to all the hard questions is "its God's will", there won't be any.
* The Foundation for Scientific research may be a household name in Turkey, but I couldn't get any Google hits on it. (There are other Foundations for Scientific Research, but none in Islamic countries that I could find.) And based on the Google hits I got on 'ole Haluk, I don't think he's a world recognized mover and shaker in micro biology. Perhaps he's of the caliber of Professor Michael Behe at Lehigh University, who's academic stand for Creationism has prompted the university to post the following on thie web site:
"The department faculty, then, are unequivocal in their support of evolutionary theory, which has its roots in the seminal work of Charles Darwin and has been supported by findings accumulated over 140 years. The sole dissenter from this position, Prof. Michael Behe, is a well-known proponent of "intelligent design." While we respect Prof. Behe's right to express his views, they are his alone and are in no way endorsed by the department. It is our collective position that intelligent design has no basis in science, has not been tested experimentally, and should not be regarded as scientific."
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