Harun Yahya (2)

Somehow a number of Yahya apologists have found my little post and commented. One comment in particular I found interesting:

Author probabley (sic) confused with the evolution theory. Getting hair longer, growing fingernail or kids getting taller, is not the purpose of evolution theory. This is quite normal natural process and within the same speciey (sic). Evolution theory says, one speciey (sic)transform into antoher (sic!). For example, Fish became corodile (sic), human was animal or monkey.

Well, I never wrote that growing fingernails and long hair were the be-all and end-all of evolution. And humans are animals. I don’t even claim to completely understand the underlying mechanisms of evolution, just as I don’t understand exactly how gravity works, or medicine. I’m not a biologist. But when a guy like Harun Yahya sends his lavish “Atlas of Creation” to real scientists like Richard Dawkins, it’s a laughable affront to the scientific community and those of us who appreciate what science is all about.

Everything evolves, all the time, from the animal body to the cosmos itself. Nothing is fixed in our universe. Once this is grasped, evolution from one species to the next (where does one species end and another begin anyway?) is not such a great leap. Of course, if you think God or Allah created Adam from scratch and pulled Eve from his rib then you might find yourself in great difficulty accepting the basic principle of evolution.

A suggestion to my Turkish readers (now that I have so many): I am delighted that you are so thirsty for knowledge of the real world. Harun Yahya is not your friend. He will teach you nothing about science. For that you must lose your fear of atheism, Darwin, Dawkins and all the rest. There never was any such thing  as a crocoduck or a fronkey. This is not what evolution is about. A wide world of discovery awaits you. If you should lose your faith and become atheists, well, you might just enjoy the intellectual freedom you get from it.

Harun Yahya

It's a fishing lure, Harun.

According to this guy evolution is responsible for anti-Semitism. He’s apparently challenged “Darwinists” to come up with “just one proof” (sound familiar?) of a “missing-link”. Umm…try, like, a developing embryo inside its mother’s womb. I mean, we evolve every day a little here and a little there. Our fingernails grow out, our hair gets longer, kids get taller and old folks shorter. Life is one long evolution from birth to death. Why would anyone be so silly as to think we are all cardboard cutouts?

Harun Yahya is a big player in creationist circles. A Muslim apologist, he has gained renown for his concentrated attacks on science and reason. To most normal people (better than calling ourselves “brights,” don’t you think?) he’s a wacko. But he’s a well-funded wacko with the ear of the Turkish government. So he gets a lot of air time for his crapola.

And his name isn’t even “Harun Yahya,” either; it’s Adnan Oktar. You’d think that if someone can’t even come out with his or her real name in public when airing opinions, perhaps the opinions themselves are of questionable vintage. I mean, it’s not like he’s voicing support for atheism in Iran or anything dangerous. He’s telling traditional Muslims what they long to hear: the religion of Allah is Islam. Atheists are evil. Darwin is the devil’s helper. Zionists and Freemasons are conspiring for world domination. It’s the usual creationst rant with an Islamic twist.

If you’re really interested in him, this article in the New Humanist is a good place to start.

Bertrand Russell on God

Lest you think Christopher Hitchens is among the first to ruffle feathers, take a look at this video (from 1959!) of Bertrand Russell. You might recognize him as the author of History of Western Philosophy, Why I Am not a Christian, In Praise of Idleness, and What I Believe (one of 25 books I actually read last year).

ps…thanks Pharyngula!

Non-Believers Giving Aid

Skeptic’s Society sent me an email today:

Preachers and televangelists, mullahs and imams, often seem almost to gloat over natural disasters — presenting them as payback for human transgressions, or for ‘making a pact with the devil’. Earthquakes and tsunamis are caused not by ‘sin’ but by tectonic plate movements, and tectonic plates, like everything else in the physical world, are supremely indifferent to human affairs and sadly indifferent to human suffering. Those of us who understand this reality are sometimes accused of being indifferent to that suffering ourselves. Of course the very opposite is the truth: we do not hide behind the notion that earthly suffering will be rewarded in a heavenly paradise, nor do we expect a heavenly reward for our generosity: the understanding that this is the only life any of us have makes the need to alleviate suffering even more urgent. The myth that it is only the religious who truly care is sustained largely by the fact that they tend to donate not as individuals, but through their churches. Non-believers, by contrast, give as individuals: we have no church through which to give collectively, no church to rack up statistics of competitive generosity. Non-Believers Giving Aid is not a church (that’s putting it mildly) but it does provide an easy conduit for the non-religious to help those in desperate need, whilst simultaneously giving the lie to the canard that you need God to be good.

Don’t gloat, just give.

Raising the Dead: Absolute Bullshit

Here is a video of a guy who tells of his “experiences” raising the dead. You don’t need an “ultimate super-level of hyperfaith” to do it, either. Apparently, you just need to command the dead to sit or stand up – in the name of Jesus, of course – and they do. Sometimes they even steal your money and begin to run away.

If you catch them, be sure to give the delinquent zombies a good old Christian-style whippin’. Then convert them.

New Year’s Kick-Off with Greta Christina

It’s already promising to be a very interesting year from many perspectives. I want to offer an article by Greta Christina (via Whyevolutionistrue) called 10 Myths and Truths About Atheism. I realize many people out there believe that atheism is a dogmatic stand-in religion for those who have problems believing in god. This is not really the case, and Greta explains why. Conveniently, she links to Sam Harris’s article on the same subject, so you’re only two clicks away from two great articles that will explain something you were probably in the dark about.

Greta writes:

Atheists aren’t killing, stealing, raping, cheating, at any greater rate than believers. Look at countries in Europe, like France and England and Scandinavian countries, where nonbelievers make up half, or more, of the population. They’re not disintegrating into crime and chaos. They’re doing pretty well, and they treat each other pretty well, with a strong sense of social responsibility.

Happy 2010!

50 Reasons to Be an Atheist

There is a spanking new book out called 5o Voices of Disbelief:  Why We Are Atheists. If ever you found yourself straddling the fence, wondering on which side to jump off, this book is for you. I don’t have a copy yet, but so far it looks promising, and definitely better than whatever the latest fatheist scribbler has to say about the moral necessity of faith. It feels like we’re at a watershed. Homosexuals came out in the ’70s, after the taboos had been destroyed. The last six years have seen a great destruction of the taboos against being openly atheist. Perhaps the ’10s will see an even bolder stance (oh, please stop using the word militant to describe those of us who simply voice opinions about faith) than that of the New Atheists, or an integration of this stance into public life and political activity. Wouldn’t that be a nice goal for the next decade: to create a climate in which most Americans would potentially vote for a nonbeliever (alias atheist) for president? Perhaps a black Jewish lesbian atheist or something will pop up out of nowhere in time for the 2016 elections, and people will be cured enough of all their phobias to vote for her (provided she is qualified, naturally). But now I’m fabricating reality. I know this will never happen – not in America.

How Italians Argue

It doesn’t really matter if you understand Italian or not. For the record, these people are discussing Islam and whether or not it poses a threat to Italy. Just watch the devolution of discourse. Nobody gives anyone else the chance to speak a full sentence before jumping in with “Fascist!” or “Islamist!” Adele Orioli, representing  the non-affiliated, can’t even make her point that a truly secular society wouldn’t have to face such problems because no religion would have preferential treatment. She just gets drowned out by the blathering heads on either side.

I Finally Saw One of Those Plastic Jesus Dolls

We were in Assisi for a few days and we went to the living manger scene (I’m writing a poem about this, so stay tuned), which is a kind of reenactment of the night Jesus was (supposedly) born in a stall near Bethlehem. At least that’s what happened in the play. I’d have to go and check my NT for the details, assuming they are the same in all four gospels. At the end of the imaginative scenery – complete with faux-synagoge and dress-up rabbi, a rare sight in Umbria – there is the family portrait, sitting patiently bathed in firelight from the burning oildrums (all of this took place out in the cold, a realistic touch). Yosef, Miriam, and little plastic baby Jesus. In this manger scene, most curiously, Jesus had a sister. She looked to be about six or seven, and she was real flesh and blood and DNA. And a hell of a lot more convincing than baby Yehoshua! What she was doing there, assuming the (dubious) virginity of Miriam, is anyone’s guess. But it occurred to me that this is the reason they sell those little baby dolls in religious shops, along with shepherd’s gear and staffs aplenty. It’s a costume party every Christmas.

Afterthought: it occurs to me that perhaps they use a plastic doll for Jesus to accentuate that he was not born of dirty sexual intercourse between two humans.  Apparently they prefer a supernatural kind of rape, which is considered holy. But still, plastic is so cheesy don’t you think?