John Derbyshire saw this coming. He predicted that eventually Christianity in the West would move away from creationism, pushed by the tide of fact, and that creationism’s new home would be Islam. The slick but silly tome being promoted by a mysteriously-financed Turkish crank is showing up all over Europe – also being mailed to Christian creationists.
One of the most astonishing claims in the book is that Charles Darwin – the quiet Victorian gentleman naturalist – was responsible for the worst evils of the 20th century: racism, communism, fascism, Nazism, terrorism and, ultimately, 9/11. In a piece of overt symbolic theatre the book’s creators marked the anniversary of 9/11 last year by sending the Atlas to a large number of Protestant priests across Europe. The message was clear: in the fight against the theory of evolution Christians and Muslims stand united.
But despite the hyperbolic claims the shock caused by Atlas of Creation is largely unrelated to its contents, which do not stand up to even the most cursory scrutiny. The real point is that before the book arrived many had no idea there was a resurgent Muslim creationism in Europe, and certainly didn’t know it was so well funded and organised. Who, people began to ask, is bankrolling Oktar’s Science Research Foundation or Global Publishing of Istanbul, which published and distributed the book? So far no one has been able to find out, and all Oktar says is that he is funded by donations.One thing is clear: creationism has indeed come to Europe and unfortunately, therefore, we have to take it seriously. We can’t afford to be complacent, or imagine that creationism is just a bizarre and distant American phenomenon. Just as manipulative as the worst of American creationists, European creationists are hard at work and some of them have a lot of money (Oktar also sent his book to many universities in the US). What we have seen so far is just the beginning.