One of the greatest embarrassments to the proponents of evolution began in
1912 when they embraced the fossilized remains of the legendary Piltdown man as
one of the missing links in the human family tree. The fragments of skull and
jawbone were shamelessly flaunted by the evolutionary community as
Eoanthropus dawsoni for over four decades before being exposed as the
most famous archaeological forgery and hoax in history.
In a similar vain, Adnan Oktar, aka Harun Yahya, an eccentric Turkish
Creationist Muslim, has recently challenged the eminent evolutionist Richard
Dawkins to a public debate. Yahya maintains that Dawkins' position on,
"…Darwinism is a false theory and… the greatest deception of the world's
history." Dawkins argues that Yahya's position ignores the "facts" and that his
reference to the Piltdown Man hoax is irrelevant.
Evolutionist Richard Dawkins
Muslim Creationist Harun Yahya
Yahya is so serious about his opposition against Dawkins that he is
currently using Turkish blasphemy laws to prevent the publication of Dawkins'
book: The God Delusion. Despite this, Dawkins' has declined to participate in
Yahya's challenge to debate, citing Stephen Jay Gould's famous premis, that what
creationists crave is, "…the oxygen of respectability in the world of real
science."
So begins another chapter in the decades old debate between Creationists
and Evolutionists. The twist in this story, however, is that Evolutionists
are now facing increasing opposition not just from Christians, but also
from Muslims.
