Introduction:
While I was chit-chatting with a few friends from Turkey, the topic somehow turned into evolution. It was not a discussion at all, just a brief touch on the topic. However, to my surprise, people sitting around the table all believed that evolution is just an outdated “idea” that is already disproven and ignored by many scientists in the “West”. I was not surprised about the rejection of the theory; what shocked me was the absolute consensus and conviction on the obsolescence of the theory which contrasted with the attitude I have observed out of the country.
After a quick research, I learned that a survey conducted in 2006 by Michigan State University Professor Jon D. Miller, had already a similar observation related to the situation above. According to the survey, Darwin’s idea that humans and apes share a common ancestor is much less likely to be accepted by Turkish people than adults living in Western societies.1 The people who got surveyed were asked to respond “true” or “false” to the statement: “Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals.” The results show that while acceptance of the statement ranged from %85 to %45 in the European countries, only %26 of the Turkish people responded the same. The lowest acceptance rate closest to Turkey by %40 was in the USA, where there is much political debate about the topic, which is the reason why this research was conducted from the start. Although the results clearly show that the theory of evolution is widely accepted in the European countries, my friends were presenting just the opposite as a fact. Consequently, the confidence of my friends got me questioning the sources that shaped their attitude towards evolution: What are the mediums to reach information on evolution? What are the characteristics of these mediums? Are they objective? Is there any propaganda involved? How affective are they on shaping public’s perception of the theory? If so why?
With these questions in mind, I thought that since primary education is obligatory in Turkey, the first resource of information on evolution should naturally be the schools and the biology books, which are published and distributed by the Turkish Ministry of Education. However, I’ve found out that it may not be a good resource at all because of the constant changes in the curriculum over the past twenty years. Originally the information on evolution seems to be excluded from the curriculum; then, got included in the text books; altered over time; lost its objectivity; requested to be thought in schools; and is present once more in the final versions of biology text books. The recent history of evolution in text-books can be traced from the popular media as follows.
First, in an article published in a Turkish popular magazine called Aksiyon, the author, Muhammet Katiboğlu states that in 2001 evolution had been excluded from the curriculum for 15 years due to the argument that the theory lost its scientific validity.2 Then the author criticizes the re-inclusion and dictation of this materialist and evolutionary world view (which makes it impossible to believe Allah) in public schools. Second, a well-known Turkish newspaper, Radikal, publishes an article in 2009, claiming that the evolution theory is almost neglected in school books.3 According to the article, evolution theory is only briefly explained in the 10th grade biology books as: “Darwin supposed that new species occurred due to natural selection, but he doubted his idea till he collected enough proof. Darwin explained his ideas in his published book: On the Origin of Species.” Also the article informs that a petition, which requested that evolution to be included in the curriculum so that it follows science and enlightenment, was signed by 700 academicians. Third, Adnan Oktar, or more commonly known as Harun Yahya, who rejects the idea of evolution and carries on a fierce fight against it, shows the current 2012 edition biology book published by Ministry of Education in his hand during a talk on his TV channel and blames the government that the evolution is all over the books.4 Moreover, he calls this a propaganda of the state. When we explore the 12th grade biology book that is currently in use in Turkish education system, Adnan Oktar’s claim holds to be true.5
From these articles we can see that the issue of teaching evolution in schools has been an important one argued over twenty years and clearly there is a polarization in the perspectives: some supports it as a scientific that should be thought in public schools, while others think that it is not even worth teaching anymore. These two poles can be represented with a few quotes that also present the change in the teaching of evolution in Turkey. In her history text book published around 1930’s, Prof. Dr. Afet İnan states: “In our book, we passed on and explained the scientific theories of our time about the universe, earth and human before we take on the history of human. And we tried to understand the historical reality avoiding superstitious ideas.”6 Fettullah Gülen states in 1960: “The biology books that are thought in the high schools should be prepared in the name of Allah by our people who believes in our religion and roots.” 6 The aim of the One Book Regime of 1976 is: “Exclusion of components that degrades Turkish-Islamic culture, presentation of Islamic values and alienation of positivism.” 6 From the biology text book dated 1992: “Today many scientists related to biology have declared that they comprehend the existence of Allah observing the diversity of life, the vital processes in a cell and the order of the universe.” 6 In 2000’s, Minister of Education, Metin Bostancıoğlu states that it is both wrong to deny Darwin’s theory as a speculative one, as well as accepting it as a proven fact since this issue is being discussed over 150 years. 6 In 2003 the new minister states that they are not going to exclude Creation. 6 And in 2012, we have already seen that the theory is widely included in the textbooks.
The information we got from the history of teaching evolution in Turkey may be enough to understand why my friends strongly rejected evolution: simply they were not thought about it in school when they were kids, or they were thought that it is not a valid theory. However, can we really consider that the situation has changed since the inclusion of the theory into the text books? Today the debate on the inclusion of evolution and creation in the curriculum still continues. Due to this conflict, as well as the personal ideologies of teachers, there is a strong possibility that the theory may not be adequately represented or rejected in class. Therefore, the question of today becomes: How can a student or a person coherently learn about Evolution Theory with its explanations, proofs and criticisms outside the classroom today?
Considering the technological capacities of today, and youth’s familiarity with them it would not be wrong to assume that the next and easiest to access source of information is the internet. Besides, with the initiation of Fatih Project, which soon will provide free tablets to each student in Turkey, the role of the internet will become extremely important as a source of information for the youth, even beyond books. With this supposition in mind, I have conducted an online research on evolution to analyze the learning patterns and the things that affect the communication of information on the internet like popularity, design, presentation of ideas, credibility, and propaganda. I naturally chose Google as my starting point; then, I actively participated in a process of online learning. I assumed the role of a technologically-capable (tech-savvy), academically inclined native Turkish speaker, who does not have enough knowledge of English language but wants to discover the truth behind the evolution theory. Therefore, I intentionally went through only the Turkish websites, and ignored the English ones, which possibly could have affected the results of this research in a totally different direction. However, as stated earlier the focus here is the common Turkish youth. I should also explicitly state that it is not in the interest of this paper to support or criticize evolution at all, but to study online learning patterns, utilization of various sources, effects of any possible online propaganda. With the information collected, the efficacy of the internet on the creation of identity will be questioned since understanding evolution may have a big role on shaping peoples’ beliefs, their social identities.
Starting with Google:
The first thing that comes to mind when searching anything online is Google; therefore, I started my quest on evolution by googleing the Turkish translation of the word evolution – “evrim” – on google.com.tr. The first thing that appears in the search window is of course Wikipedia, but the English version. It gives the translation of evrim as evolution and states that it is a Turkish given name. There is no relation with this information and what I am looking for so I try the second link on the Google search results, which is also an article about evrim on Wikipedia, but the Turkish version. This is exactly the information that is sought for. The content of this article will be considered later on in this paper in comparison with other websites that are used in the research of evolution. However, I want to give a general outline for the results that I got from Google. On the results page that I obtained from Google on evrim, the websites that follow the two Wikipedia articles related to the subject is as follows:
1st Page:
– Evolution Theory, Philosophy and God: http://www.evrim.gen.tr
– Understanding Evolution: http://www.evrimianlamak.org
– Evolution Through Questions: http://www.sorularlaevrim.com
– Hard-Workers of Evolution: http://www.evrimcaliskanlari.org
2nd Page:
– Evolution Tree: http://www.evrimagaci.org
– Deceit of Evolution: http://www.evrimaldatmacasi.com
After these two pages of Google results, there is a blog on evolution on the third page, a page on evolution symposiums, a few YouTube links on evolution after fourth page and on the fifth we have the website of Harun Yahya, which is basically the same in content with Deception of Evolution page since he is the writer of this book. Most of the following pages also seem to have similar contents with the six websites distinguished as a list above and these six websites contain hundreds of pages of reading on evolution, which most of the people may not prefer to go through them all to learn about a subject. Therefore, I limited my research on these six pages. On the other hand, three of these pages advocate the theory of evolution and the other three rejects the idea completely which seems like a balanced argument and analyses could be conducted through them.
Wikipedia Article:
The article starts with a definition of evolution as the process of differentiation of the species through hereditary changes in biology. Then, it states that the innumerable forms of lives on earth are the result of evaluation and all mammals including humans have evolved from a small shrew-like animal 150 million years ago; the ancestor of most animals we know is a water-worm and eventually the microorganisms lived 3 billion years ago. Actually the information is mostly referred from Britannica Encyclopedia. Besides, evolution is defined as the most important concept in biology based on a BioScience article. Other interesting points on the Wikipedia article are the claims: Ibn-Haldun and Ibn-i Sina, well known Islamic thinkers, had various theories on evolution; there is no need to find the origin of life to understand the process of evolution since once organisms come to life, it is observed through experiments that the rules of evolution will take place; a theory is consistent set of explanations and truths not mere hypothesis that are not proven.
After the explanations of evolution, the article goes on to show that evolution is supported by many people and scientist around the world; then critiques the attitude people from various countries including Turkey. For example, it is stated in the article that from 500,000 scientists working in the US on natural sciences, %99.85 of them supports evolution according to a research conducted in 1987.7 It also refers to the survey that is given at the introduction of this paper and states that Turkey has the least percentage of people who believe in evolution among Western societies. Besides, the article includes an overall analysis on the understanding of evolution in various societies and discusses the social and cultural reactions toward it. However, the critiques of the theory is not exemplified or referred to at all throughout the article except it is stated that “intelligent design” is a concept proposed as an alternative to evolution but it is not considered as science by the US court to be taught in the public schools.
Critique of the Wikipedia Article:
First of all, the whole article looks like an explanation of a fact. However, it is interesting to note that an article on a supposedly scientific subject still has the need to support its subject through statistics like above, in which the abundance of the scientists who accept the theory, an attitude toward a scientific concept is presented as a proof of the validity instead of well-referenced and consistent works science. Moreover, even though various social and cultural attitudes towards the evolution theory finds place in the article, the ideas behind the critiques of the theory are not exemplified at all. This may be due to the encyclopedic form of the website but it creates a questionable image for the theory. Consequently, the article “Evrim” is vulnerable to be claimed biased even though it is decided to be one of the best and eloquent articles that the Vikipedi (Turkish Wikipedia) community created.8
When we go into the discussion boards for the article, we get a better taste of the doubt that is explained above and we face a polarity that is far beyond the level of an academic discussion. For example, one of the unsigned and aggressive comments in the discussion board translates as follows: “Who/what are you serving by including the explanations of evolutionists who degrades Turkey?!!! Turkey does not accept the theory of evolution; the reason is not that Turkey has specific problems inside; the reason is not that Turkey got caught on globalization unprepared; the reason is not the desire to separate man from other species. What is told here is: “Turkey can become modern only if it accepts evolution!” Turkey is a Muslim country; you cannot make the Turkish public accept what is against the Quran, the holy book of Allah.”8 Another comment written in response to some arguments against evolution translates: “Before you get references from the books of Harun Yahya, please read one or two scientific books about the topic. For example that argument about the evolution of the eye is totally a lie. Any ‘scientist’ you ask will explain how it is evolved.” 8 In parallel another comment degrades the person in reference against the evolution theory instead of criticizing his work, claiming that he not a reliable source who tries to change the state into a religious government translates as the following: “When we search on Dr. Caner Taslaman, the author of the referenced article, on his own website, he did not graduated from a biology related major, and his books are all about religion, not a single scientific one. And according to the information from the official website of Turkish Parliament, “he is related with the ‘Kızıl İmamcılar’ organization that tries to overthrow the secular regime in Turkey and establish a religious regime instead who are also related with narcotic and gun smuggling, theft, extortion, credit card counterfeiting and rape of young women through exploitation of religious teachings to prevent them from leaving the organization.” 8, 9 Finally, it is important to note that another user refers to an article of Adem Tatlı, who we will discuss later on in this paper, and searches for a support to claim evolution is popular among scientists because of ideological reasons. 8 In conclusion, as seen in the Wikipedia article discussion forums, internet becomes an area of clashing parties, conflict resolution and a tool used by ideological groups to create or find a space for themselves in the cyber-space to extend their impacts on society.
Evolution Theory, Philosophy and God:
When we go through this website, which is the online version of a book, the dominating idea is that evolution is not a scientific concept as assumed by most scientists. Caner Taslaman, the author, states on this website that he believes: “the publications on this important issue are deficient especially in Turkish and in most of the books that discusses evolution theory, consist of abundant aspersions towards the opposite side without serious and consistent approach from scientific, philosophical and theological angles.” Therefore, he tries to analyze the evolution theory according to the criteria like observationality, prediction capacity, falsifiability, and superiority over other theories. He declares: “If one will read only one chapter from the book (which may be directed towards the characteristic of many internet users), it should be the third chapter.” Therefore, he considers the Discussion of Evolution Theory as the most important part of his work, which, as we will see, rejects the scientificity, consistency and validity of the theory.
The distinct argument he uses throughout the chapter is that the evolutionary theory cannot be considered a science, since it does not meet the criterion of falsifiability, which is established by Thomas Kuhn. He builds on the arguments of Popper: “What is being claimed is the survival of the fittest but if we ask: ‘Who survives?’ the answer to this question is: ‘Whoever fits the environment the most?’ Popper tells us that this logic is a tautology. Because the evolution theory is formulated as such it is not open to falsifiability [this argument is also used against the theories of Freud]; therefore it does not meet the criteria of being scientific and it cannot be accepted as a fact.” He also quotes Jeremy Rifkin in his support: “This evolutionary theory which is not based on scientific observation should be a matter of faith. The best thing that can be said about the theory is that it is a faith shared by many on how the life developed which cannot be proved nor falsified.”
Then he criticizes many well-known researches that support evolution. He states that Kettlewell’s famous research on moths is not being done in their natural environment and neither Darwin’s observation on finches nor the observed mutations on Drosophila hold as a proof of differentiation to a new species. He claims that the experiments on Drosophila have been conducted all over the world but no one could find observed evidence that would count as the proof of evolution. The author even references Dawkins, a pioneer advocate of evolution, in his defense. Dawkins explains that orientation using solar systems have evolved independently in whales, bats and some bird species. Therefore the author questions Dawkins: “How could we think that a very complex function like orientation using solar systems evolve independently and randomly in various species if it is very unlike to cross the same path during evolution?”
Moreover, he brings forward Duane T. Gish’s claim that it is made difficult to publish a paper, and get a doctorate degree for people who believe in the independent creation of species; the supporters of evolution dominating the television, radio, other media and popular magazines like National Geographic, Reader’s Digest, Life do not let alternative perspectives to pass. Besides, he denounces the deceptions in favor of evolution like “Piltdown Man”, Haeckel’s embryo drawings, and “Nebraska Man”; he argues against nonfunctional organs, the famous evolution of horses, and transitional forms in fossil records like Archaeopteryx.
Critique of Evolution Theory, Philosophy and God:
This is a well-designed, easy to navigate, semi-professional looking website which discusses evolution theory in the context of the relations between evolution, philosophy and God. It is actually an online version of the book (pdf version is also available to download for free) – sharing the same name with the website – by Caner Taslaman, who has been accused in the Wikipedia article discussion pages to be related with the criminal “Kızıl İmamcılar” organization. Of course for most people who do not do a background check on every author they find, nor read the discussions on Wikipedia, and according to his biography on his website10, he is a professor of philosophy in Yıldız Technical University, a prestigious public university in Istanbul, who has graduated from very prestigious schools in Turkey with double PhDs, and post-doc studies at Tokyo and Oxford Universities. He also thought at Harvard and Cambridge Universities as a visiting scholar. With this incredible background, his page on evolution is the leading website that comes first in the Google search on the topic, after the irresistible Wikipedia domination. He is also very active on television shows and these appearances can be watched from his website. Therefore, he is the first and seemingly very reliable source of information for people who want to learn about evolution, and this is supported by near 13,000 likes of his book’s page on Facebook. Moreover, his book seems very academic, well organized and supported by 30 pages of bibliography, which is not possible or at all easy for a person, let alone a person that does not know English, to go through and check the books validity. With all these properties the website, the online version of the book divided into chapters, definitely seems very convincing to a person researching on evolution especially after the discussions taking place in Wikipedia, which also has a public image that it is not an academic source to be trusted completely.
Understanding Evolution:
On the main page of this website, we can see that the content is separated into five different parts: “What is evolution and how does it work?”; “How does evolution affect our lives?”; “What are the proofs of evolution?”; “The history of evolutionary thought”; “Wrong beliefs about Evolution”. We continue our quest with the first link that presents introductory information on evolution. On the very beginning it says: “The main idea in evolution is that all the living species on earth share a common ancestor… Through breeding this incredible variety of living occurred from this common ancestor: Humans and oak trees, sparrows and whales… Evolution means that all of us are distant relatives.” Then it continues to explain evolution with every next page. On the genealogy page it states: “Much data collected over the last 50 years revealed that birds and dinosaurs came from the same descent.” Then it claims that we know that the Aristo’s “great chain of being” which categorizes the living from the simplest to most complex like a staircase, nothing-minerals-plants-animals-humans-demons-angels-God, is wrong. It corrects two common misunderstanding: “Humans did not evolve from chimpanzees…They share a common ancestor” and “Humans are not more developed or more evolved than other species.” The site continues with the clear explanations of homologous parts, radiometric dating, stratigraphy, natural selection, mutation, genome combinations, etc. with the help of pictures. Later it is claimed: “Mutations in genes that control the development of drosophila may cause important morphological changes like two pairs of wings” and shows a picture of a four winged drosophila. There is another important information on mutations on a different page: “It could be thought that a process like mutation is on a small scale that is incapable of producing the incredible speciation among insects, or it does not have the great scale to create the huge difference between a pine tree and a dog; however, it is not so. Life on earth is accumulating the mutations for 3.8 billion years and processing them through natural selection. That much time would be more than enough to write the history of glorious evolution.” Another one of the claims in the website is: “Natural selection is not a power capable of all and does not produce perfection… None of the populations or organisms adapted to be perfect… Natural selection is sometimes understood as a random process. This is also a misunderstanding. In a population genetic variety occurred through mutations is random.” It also claims that we can see many examples of transitional forms which are created by mutations and natural selection in the fossil records and there is a picture of a dinosaur fossil from the Dromaesaur family, which has hair all along his bones that could possibly evolve into feathers later on. Another example of transitional forms is given with pictures of skulls of the ancestors of whales: The nostrils of “Pakicetus” are at the front skull, the nostrils of “Aetiocetus” is at the middle of the skull and the nostrils of today’s “Gray Whale” is at the top of the skull. More examples of fossil records like the feet of the ancestors of horses and snakes, the teeth of ancestors of whales, etc. are described in a similar pattern.
On the other hand, the site claims that there were predictions while conducting research on evolution. For example when Craig Bergman, William Holiman and Julie Smith was investigating coevolution, they predicted that if trees evolved as a response to animals that feeds on their seeds; then, geographic variations in pine cones should be observed and as predicted, they found out that where squirrels are abundant the pine cones are heavier with less seeds, and where finches are abundant the pine cones are lighter with many seeds. In addition, there is an explanation of speciation and a new observation that is taken place when 15 iguanas escaped from the Marilyn Hurricane using some fallen trees and reached the Caribbean island of Anguilla after a month of journey. Now the scientists are eager to see the change that may occur in the island due to this new life form introduced on the island.
Finally, on the section “Wrong Beliefs on Evolution”, some questions and false statements about evolution are listed and answered very briefly afterwards. Some of the points answered on the list basically claims: All living does not evolve towards better; evolution is not only based on chance; evolution is not a “theory”, theory means an explanation based on many tests and proofs; there are many transitional forms in the fossil records; evolution can be tested and observed; scientist did not reject Darwinism they corrected it.
Critique of Understanding Evolution:
The third website that a possible person on a quest to learn about evolution may come across is a translation of the English website, Understanding Evolution, which is originally created in the University of California Berkeley, to popularize the topic of evolution in Turkey by a group of volunteer people called “Evrim Çalışkanları” (Hardworkers for Evolution). According to the information on the website, over 50 people including biologists, educators, professional translators and computer specialists have made contributions throughout various stages of this website since its beginnings. The common goal of the group is stated as: “To create a reference for the theory of evolution to be understood in Turkey.” For more information on the group and recent news on evolution, a link is provided to the website, “evrimcaliskanlari.org”, which also comes up as the 5th item in our search for “Evrim” in Google. While the overall information on the website is sufficient for an introduction to evolution and the pictures make it easier to understand the concepts, but compared to the Wikipedia article it does not offer new information, actually it has less. When you want to follow the links to reach more information on specific topics, you face the challenge of only English websites. Without the outside sources, the website becomes really simple. Moreover, the content of the original website is not translated wholly. There are so many missing parts, especially on the questions part. Therefore, it cannot help but make it easier to understand the concept of evolution, quite different from the original. One more point on the content is that none of the information has references, it is not different than a child’s book, and it feels like the website is actually designed to cater for the youngsters.
Besides the problems with the content, the style of the website is outdated for at least 10 years, and that may make one feel that the website is not really up to date, professional or “hard-worked” on. This lack of quality in design may also decrease the familiarity and comfort for the internet users that are accustomed to new web-design technologies used by popular websites and cause them to overlook the information inside. Moreover, the site is really complicated to navigate, and it is easy to miss some information, footnotes, or more detailed explanations. With all these in mind, we see that three of these sections on the main page are more related to our research, and after the previous website of Caner Taslaman that criticizes evolution fiercely, one feels the urge to skip the information on evolution and jump to the proofs and wrong beliefs sections.
The most disappointing thing for the reader is the section on false beliefs and proofs. The answers to the questions are brief and quite naïve in a sense compared to the book that is analyzed before. There are no references, and they just give one or two examples related to the criticisms and that’s it. It is like claiming that evolution is true because they say it’s true. If an oppositional group were to create a website in an attempt to degrade the theory compared to other ones, this site would suffice. The original English version of the website is quite different with all those outside sources and adequate answers to questions; however, a Turkish person would not be able to resolve or discuss most of the questions emerged from the oppositional groups and would go on to the next website on Google results.
Evolution through Questions:
The website is created in a way that it explains, discusses and rejects the theory of evolution through questions from the readers. It should be noted that all the answers are signed by Prof. Dr. Adem Tatlı; therefore, the website can be considered more like a personal one similar to Caner Taslaman’s. Under the homepage, the questions are grouped under seven topics. The first one is “The foundations of Evolutionary Theory.” In this section, microevolution and various forms of isolation are explained but the emergence of new species is refuted due to infertility of cross-breeds. Mutations are explained and stated that %99 of the mutations are definitely harmful with a reference to H.J. Muller. Then, a quote from P. Grasse is given: “It is really hard to believe that mutations that meet the requirements of all plants and animals. But the Darwinian theory asks for more. Just a plant or an animal requires thousands of mutations. That is the only way that the desired miracles will come true… There is no law that prohibits daydreaming, but science should not tolerate it.” Then Taylor adds in: “For over 60 years, genetic researchers all over the world have been raising Drosophila to prove evolution. But they still could not observe the emergence of a new species, even of a new enzyme.” Moreover, the argument is supported by quotes of Stephan Gould, Huxley and Ayala. Therefore, the view seems to be supported by many scientists.
Similarly, the transitional forms are also refuted through abundance of quotes from various scientists: Gould, Shipman, Gordon, Monestarsky, Todd, Norman, Carroll, Colbert, Simpson, Wells, Rensberger, Taylor, Patterson, Brush, Feduccia, Derek, Carlton, Tom, Steven, Adler, Mark, Gould and even Dawkins. This excessive list is presented here to transfer the feeling of how overwhelming the argument seems when read. After all, there are 56 references on this page refuting transitional forms. I find it useful to state some of these arguments: “None of the fossils till now were able to bring forth evidence about the past of fish” (Norman). “There are no fossil records that have the properties of a transitional form between frogs and fish… (Also) we do not have even a single example that could be the ancestor of the first reptile” (Carroll).
Then the article critiques and refutes the famous evolution of the horse story with many references that are supposed to be the supporters of evolution again. A quote from Rensberger supports the argument: “The evolution of today’s horse from the four-hoofed animals that lived 150 million years ago lost its validity… These are not transitional forms but each one of them is a different form with various structures.” Then Patterson: “The exhibit of the evolution of the horse… is nothing but a bad story… is nothing but speculation.” On the other hand, the other famous fossil that belongs to Archeopteryx is also criticized in a similar fashion, with a quote from Feduccia: “I have been analyzing the skulls of birds for 25 years. I do not see any resemblance between them and dinosaurs’. The view that birds evolved from four-legged ones will be the biggest shame of the paleontology in the 20th century.” In parallel, the articles on the website reject many of the proofs of evolution: proofs from morphology and anatomy; proofs from vestigiality (loss of function); proofs from similarities in embryos with profusion of quotes and references. Moreover, there is a section that is solely dedicated to the ideas of “world famous authorities” that refuses the idea of evolution.
Besides these critiques of the theory, this website takes its argument another step further and claims that Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism was a tool used for capitalism and racism. The basis for the racism argument is the idea that life is all about struggle and the view that only the strong has the right to live created an acceptable cover for colonialism. Then it refers to Young’s statement: “Evolutionism shows a vis-à-vis conformance with Marxism” to show the relation between Darwinism and Capitalism and elaborates on these ideas. It also finds connections between Darwinism and Missionaries through the travels to the east after Colonialism. According to the articles, Darwinism is the trump card that is used to face the philosophies of the East and because of this ideology the world has been stuck in a materialist behavior and destroys both itself and the environment. Finally, the articles criticize the bigotry of the supporters of evolution and states that the theory became a dogma of “secular religion” of the West.
Critique of Evolution through Questions:
This website is actually an extension of another website called “Sorularla İslamiyet” (Islam with Questions). On that website there are over 200.000 page views specific to questions on evolution and 50.000 of them are only for the question: “Was man created from soil or evolved from apes?” Therefore, they probably see the need to handle the questions on evolution in detail on a separate site. When we look at the other links the website belongs to a religious community, and an IT and publishing company called “Feyyaz” that is related to the followers of Said Nursi, a very influential religious leader in Turkey. Therefore, the fierce refusal of the theory can be traced back to the religious origins of the group. The author on all the articles, and answers to the questions, is Prof. Dr. Ahmet Tatlı, who also has a very strong academic background. He was the provost and the department chair for many universities and departments in Turkey. It is especially important that he was the biology department chair for the Selçuk University with a biology degree with works on botany. Therefore, he seems more eligible to write on the theory of evolution. However, quite a number of the references he uses in his articles are from a long time ago and might be outdated. However, the accessible design of the website with support of videos, news and a textual record of a discussion between Dr. Furkan Aydıner and atheist Psychiatrist Thomas Carmel, which is presented as a resource for people who fights against evolution.
Hard-Workers of Evolution:
This website is the blog of the Hard-workers of Evolution group that created also the Understanding Evolution website stated above. There are some articles and recent news concerning evolutionary theory but it might not appeal to someone that already read the other website. Besides, the structure of the website as a blog makes it harder to reach the information you want. Therefore, I will not consider this website as a resource that would be helpful or attractive to a person on quest of understanding evolution.
Evolution Tree:
The homepage of this website is divided into four columns: photographs, articles, question-answer, and dictionary. When we click on one of the images on the photographs column, we mostly get scientific articles on various topics, mostly related to evolution” like “Finches of Hawaii”; “Brain that works at night”; “Is polar bear a marine mammal?” as well as “Is life found on space, or…”, “Information on vagina” and even some cartoons. Then on the second column consists of links to articles on evolution that seems more relevant to our research. For example, one of the three-section articles on scientific method is called: “What is Evolution? Evolution Theory.” This article is summarized at the end as: “Evolution theory is never going to be a law, and there is no reason for it, because at the top of scientific knowledge there are theories, not laws.” Then another article titled “Are humans evolved from monkeys? Why are there monkeys still today? Why don’t they evolve into humans?” answers the questions in the title in great detail and concludes with certainty that “Human is a genus, and all the other monkeys are different species and asking the evolution from one another is not even a scientific question. That shows that the theory of evolution is not understood.” All the other articles are ordered by date and there are 396 pages under the section. Other random titles from the first few pages are: “Evolution of Zebras and their patterns”; “Evolution of Crying”; “About life and Death”; “Do we all see colors the same?”; “Murderer virus of the evolution: HIV”; “Last developments on Higgs Boson”; “Asexuality and evolution”; “Pornography: A dirty trick of mind, or product of Evolution?”; “Animal testing”; “Questions and discussions on modern physics”; “Neuroscience and Brain”. There is a great variety of articles at the first few pages but not much to cater our research on evolution.
The third column has four questions on the homepage: “Is polar bear a marine mammal?”; “What is adaptation?”; “What is vagina?” and “What is evolution?” The first three are irrelevant since two of them are the same with the ones on the other columns. When we follow the link for “What is evolution?” we get a very short answer/article basically claiming: “the process of change among generations of living beings.” It does not help much either. Then the fourth column has a dictionary for terms like bisexual, homosexual, asexual, degeneration, vitamin B etc. which does not attract any attention, at least for a person searching on evolution.
Critique of Evolution Tree:
Evolution tree is a movement that is founded by METU (Middle Eastern Technical University) Biology and Genetic Community (BİYOGEN) that aims to increase the knowledge and awareness of evolution. The group is related to both the university and the European Society for Evolutionary Biology. Although its relation with the prestigious university, which increases the expectations, the web site does not seem to satisfy a person researching on evolution. The articles on the homepage are not to the point. They do not present a overall explanation of the theory or present a useful section for question-answer that could clarify some of the possible questions of the mind. The website is on Beta mode, so it feels like it is not complete. The variety of the topics on the articles makes one lose focus on evolution and may cause the reader to leave the page easily thinking that it is not what’s searched for. The plenitude of sexual references and articles that are not still easily accepted by the society may cause a reader especially one with religious background to consider the website as a propaganda tool of atheism, materialism and degraded morals in parallel to the other websites have claimed. The cartoons may create a similar effect of flippancy. In general, the webpage seems to lack the quality to be considered as a resource for our research on the first sight.
The “Real” Evolution Tree:
While going through the pages, the first impression I got from the “Evolution Tree” website was that it is inadequate as critiqued above. That means that any person may think in a similar fashion if they overlook the information that revealed itself to me later on through a semi-disguised link. Under the articles page there is a claimer: “You can reach all the articles written by the Evolution Tree Community, through the archives that is sorted in a rational order.” I had skipped the little detail there: the part it says “rational order” and skipped the whole website. I realized this after going through this webpage numerous times in pursue of writing this paper, not as the supposed/imaginary researcher in the quest of evolution. Before this realization I was excited about the direction this paper was heading because there was not much information, especially an organized and well-presented one supporting evolution and I knew that the final webpage that I was going to analyze belong to Harun Yahya, the most influential, active, outspoken figure that rejects the theory of evolution in Turkey, whose books are distributed free or sold all over the world. However, I faced a huge archive of articles that explain evolution to the details with references, pictures, diagrams, news and advocate the theory with a very scientific attitude. The articles on this archive called “Evolutional Biology: Everything about the Living” are sorted rationally to make it easier to find the information one may need under the following headlines:
- Evolution of Living: Evolution from substance to life
- Speciation: Development of new species and relations between species
- Mechanisms of Evolution: How does evolution occur?
- Evolution in Action: How does evolution work, produces new species, changes them?
- Evolutionary Process: A voyage in to the depths of evolutionary history of living
- Sciences that Support/Use Evolution: Which sciences provide information for evolution and which ones utilize it?
- Evolution of Theory of Evolution: 3000 years of history to reach a law of nature
- Senses: What are the building stones that lay the foundations of our senses
- Evolution of systems: How did the systems that make us “us” evolved?
- Neuroscience and Brain: How did the brain, conscious, intelligence, senses and behaviors evolve in animals?
- Error of Cause and Result: Why cannot we connect incidents together correctly?
- Scientific Method: How does science work?
- Scientific Discussion: Logical errors and techniques of argument production
- Education of Evolution and Science in Turkey: Past, Present and Future
- Taxonomy: How are the species categorized?
- Evolution Theory: General information, topics and concepts
- Scientific Answers to Non-Scientific Claims: To know or not to know
- Evolution of Livings: Evolution of organs, structures, system and organisms
- Evolution of Human: Relation between Human and Evolution
- Everything Left From science (which has more sub-titles)
Each of these titles consist of tens of articles about the specific topic and it is impossible to go through and analyze them for the purpose of this paper and there is no need for it since we are not trying to prove or reject the Evolutionary Theory. However, it is useful to state introduce the content of some of the articles under the title called “Scientific Answers to Non-Scientific Claims: To know or not to know”. The detailed information on each answer seems to academically refute all the questions raised against evolution like the transitional forms, fake fossils, falsifiability, scientific argumentation, Archaeoraptor, trilobit eyes, evolution as just a theory, production of honey and bees etc. Moreover, there are volumes of articles called “Great Atlas of Transitional Forms” which very much resembles the volumes of Harun Yahya’s “Atlas of Creation” which we will see in the next part. These present many fossil pictures, names and information, though without any references, in a similar fashion with its counterpart. The missing references to the pictures of fossils and the figures decrease the reliability of the page. Still with all the content and specific answers in mind this website seems to present the most detailed information on evolution in comparison to others.
Deceit of Evolution:
On the colorful homepage of the website, there is a disclaimer that refutes the theory of evolution directly and claims that the only reason why the evolutionary theory is dictated so widely is its connection with the materialistic philosophy. Moreover, the first link that follows the disclaimer reads: “The Real Ideological Root of Terrorism: Darwinism and Materialism.” It is claimed that the solution to end PKK, which is presented as the Kurdish terrorist organization is also ending the Darwinist ideology. There is also information on Turkish-Islamic State that Harun Yahya presents as all the political, economic and moral problems of the world. Then the other links refers the reader to pages of the book called “Deceit of Evolution” by Harun Yahya which is written to argue against evolution (pdf version is downloadable for free). The book starts with the reasons why the theory is needed by materialists, gives the history of the evolutionary idea, explains the “imaginary” mechanism of evolution and it claims that the biggest miracle of our age is the belief in evolution. The book supports this claim with presenting pictures of many fossil records that shows the species have not evolved for millions of years, without references, similar to the “Atlas of Transitional Forms”. The trilobite eyes, the Archaeopteryx fossil (the transition form from dinosaurs to birds), the fake fossils and all the other claims that can be found in the other websites are brought forward in this book, may be for the first time when it was published and distributed all over the world for free with probably an incredible cost of a colorful atlas. Moreover, there are 170 websites which are hosted by Harun Yahya that explains the miracles of creation and refutes the evolution are presented on the homepage as well as documentaries, videos, interactive CDs, presentations, audio recordings, pamphlets etc.
Critique of Deceit of Evolution:
The book with all the colorful pictures and design definitely earns its name as an “atlas”. It is definitely obvious that the website is not just informing people but propagating the refusal of evolution theory and materialism as well as Harun Yahya’s proposed Turkish-Islamic state that is the solution to world problems. The pamphlet of the Bilim Araştırma Vakfı (Science Research Foundation), which is founded by Harun Yahya and in connection with other foundations in the US that supports “Intelligent Design” theory, simply proves the propaganda. Actually there is no intention of hiding this facet by Harun Yahya. He is quite well-known on the new media and criticized for his deviation from Islam, his acts on his TV channel, which also extends this propaganda and various stages of his life when he was caught for possession of cocaine, accused of creating an organization with the intent to commit crime and even having a mental disease (though all of these accusations are dropped). However, this website and his book are translated into 25 different languages and found in university libraries (we also have them in my school). He is one of the most well-known Creationists in the world who is claimed to influence even the censorship in Turkey at some point. Moreover, all of his 295 books, some are translated into multiple languages, are accessible for free from the same website. He has created 170 sites just to refute evolution as stated on the homepage, and he has a lot more on other issues which makes him very visible on the internet. When the information on his book/website is analyzed, it resembles academic works with many references on the articles and quotes from various scientists. Even if his personal image may create a disadvantage for him, his publications in relation with his Science Research Foundation are quite effective and widespread. The information he provides in this website is quite appealing for a research on evolutionary theory.
Conclusion:
In the Islamic culture, religion and science are generally considered a in harmony and there are many books written on how the Qur’an references or hints to the advancements in the modern science that was not available during the time of the prophet.11 However, many Muslims see the theory of evolution as a challenge to their belief since they claim that it does not fit well with the creation story. 11 Considering that most of the population in Turkey is Muslim and religion has been an element of the dominant culture, it is predictable that the evolution theory is not well-known, misunderstood or rejected. The attitude of the state towards the theory probably might have a big effect on this since the content of the education is wholly shaped by the Ministry of Education. However, the evolution theory is now in the biology books that are distributed during the mandatory years of schooling which creates much debate. Therefore, the theory should have been be discussed at least as a political topic among the public to intrigue some people, especially the youth just enough to direct them for a search on the topic. However, the certainty of some people who reject the theory as an outdated scientific view belies this hypothesis. Therefore, we can conclude that some other factors are effective in the attitude towards evolution, one of which is the influential Islamic Creationist movement. The debate as presented in the paper extends to cyber-space and there is a clash between the supporters and the rejecters of the theory online.
When the popular websites on Google that provides information on the theory of evolution are analyzed, we see some repeating patterns. The arguments revolve around some core issues and questions; among the authors of the articles there are people who hold strong academic titles; and most of the information is referenced to many inside and outside sources in a seemingly academic form; the opinions of scientists on the theory of evolution is considered important in the arguments; and there is excessive information on the topic to be compared and contrasted for a common person who seeks to know a little more on the truth of the theory. However, the design and the presentation of the ideas differ between the websites which may disrupt the balance for the benefit of anti-evolutionary propaganda.
First of all, it should be noted that the popularity and accessibility of the websites that support and reject the theory is balanced considering that the search on Google for the Turkish term for evolution presents us with an equal distribution of the opposing websites. On the first page of the search results, we get two websites that support evolution and other two that refutes it, excluding the Wikipedia article. On the second results page we get two other websites, one for each opposing poles. Therefore, we can say that the opportunities presented two both sides are equal online and there is no domination of one another. Then we have to look inside the websites and compare them by their content and presentation of this content.
The Wikipedia article comes first in the search and explains the theory in quite clear ways. However, there is a widespread doubt about the credibility of Wikipedia articles and it is possible for a common person to look into another resource especially since the article does not explicitly present the questions raised against evolution but presents that the theory is widely accepted by scientists all over the world and the people who are reacting to the theory are mostly motivated by religion. This lack of clarity on the proposed problems seems like a disadvantage for the article, even though they might have been disproven completely. The second most popular search result after Wikipedia is an online version of a book written by a well-known Turkish academic person, Caner Taslaman, refuting the evolution theory liked and followed; therefore spread by many on Facebook. The background of the author definitely adds into the credibility of the website. Besides, it is appealing with its design and simplicity. Moreover, it gives it an edge that the book can be downloaded for free. In contrast, the website created by the group called “Hard workers of Evolution” lacks these qualities. The website is a translation of a foreign source, though it is related to University of California Berkeley, and the group members seem anonymous which decreases the credibility of the website. Since science and technology are thought in relation with each other, the ten year old-look of the website does not help with its reliability. The navigation makes it harder to reach information while the step-by-step presentation of the information with low-quality drawings, very little basic information and almost no resources, makes it feel like a student book for middle school children. The fourth website is the blog of this group and does not lure the reader to seek for more information there either.
In contradiction, the third website, “Evolution Through Questions,“ appeals the reader at the beginning with its name. If one trying to learn about evolution, he/she probably has questions and this site feels like a resourceful one for the purpose. Moreover, when you enter the site, it allows you to direct any question on evolution to be answered later on by the administration. The professional design of the site is very easy to navigate and the sidebar separates the content into various topics to be explored. The links at the bottom of the page shows that the site is connected with other eleven sites that are religious oriented, especially connected to “Nur” community. This may feel more reliable to a believer but may repulse others. One of these connected websites is the popular “Sorularla İslamiyet” (Islam through Questions) which publishes the number of its online visitors on its homepage: average of 500 people during day time. The referral from this site greatly increases the visibility of the site in question.
Considering only these pages on the first page of Google search results, which people may very well end their research due to the fast characteristics of the internet usage, the balance in the representation of opposing ideas are seems disrupted. The quality and the credibility of the sites that refute evolution in the first four pages presented definitely surpasses the ones that support it, especially considering the two resources on this result page are from the same group and not well presented. If one does a quick online research on evolution, what possibly remain with him/her would be the many questions raised to refute the theory because of the well-argued, cited, and supported information from the two websites that critiques evolution. Even if one did not believe all these claims, he/she definitely would have doubts about the theory of evolution, and if coming from a religious background, easily be tempted to refuse it.
If we suppose that the research on evolution continued through the other pages in Google search results, the most relevant sites are the two discussed above on the second page of the results. Again the website of Harun Yahya seems superior in argumentation and presentation then the site of “Evolution Tree” considering that the page of sorted articles is not easy to locate on the latter site. Actually the information on Harun Yahya’s site seems even more convincing than the first two pages that refute evolution. As a result one would probably leave his/her quest with a negative perspective on evolution. If we suppose that the reader reached the sorted articles on the latter site, then it changes the balance of the situation; however, the information on these two websites is so long that it is quite hard to go through, let alone compared, especially with the characteristics of a quick online research. They both have seemingly strong arguments, many examples and uncountable references that need to be checked to make sure the information is reliable. The abundance of the information on both sites may cancel each other out for the reader’s quest on evolution if it is not overwhelmed by the hundreds of colorful images that Harun Yahya’s “Creation Atlas” presents.
After going through the websites discussed above with this presumed role of a common person, who does not speak English, and interacting with online information, it can be concluded that the overall impact of the websites that refute the theory of evolution have greater potential to reach the reader and be trusted. We can see how important the design and presentation of ideas are in online form. Since the elements of design are so crucial for communicating the message of reliability and competency on the internet, any propaganda which has the resources for a professional outlook may gain advantage the other. After all, it is just so natural for a person, especially if religiously inclined, to reject the evolution theory or at least to doubt it; there will surely be question marks on any Turk’s mind after doing an online search on evolution and that may present an additional hint to why Turkey hosts the highest percentage of population that rejects the theory of evolution compared to Western countries. Moreover, since evolution is seen as a challenge to the Islamic account of creation, internet gains an effective role on the creation of a religious Muslim identity, especially since youth, early adulthood is the time when the identity formation occurs.12 The statements which present evolution as the biggest hindrance against the spread of Islam by the supporters of creationist ideology leads to online propaganda to secure a place for the religious groups and cyber-space becomes a public sphere for political purposes and discourse.
Appendix
Figure: % of acceptance of human evolution from apes
References:
1. Owen, James. “Evolution Less Accepted in U.S. Than Other Western Countries, Study Finds”
National Geographic. Published August 10, 2006; Last access January 13, 2013.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060810-evolution.html
2. Katiboğlu, Muhammet. “Müfredat Evrime Uğradı.” Aksiyon Magazine. Published March 31,
2001; Last access January 13, 2013.
http://www.aksiyon.com.tr/aksiyon/haber-7459-34-mufredat-evrime-ugradi.html
3. Radikal Newspaper. “Evrim Teorisi Ders Kitaplarında Özetle.” Published March 03, 2009;
Last access January 13, 2013.
http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?aType=RadikalDetayV3&ArticleID=925583&
CategoryID=97
4. Channel A9. Appearance of Adnan Oktar in December 12, 2012. Published December 16,
2009; Last access January 13, 2013. http://harunyahya.org/tr/AO-Sohbetlerden-
Bolumler/155113/okullarindaki-ders-kitaplarinda-evrim-acikca
5. Turkish Ministary of Education. Grade 12 Biology Book. “Ortaöğretim Biyoloji 12.”
Click to access BIYOLOJI%2012.pdf
6. Öztürkler Somel, R. Nazlı. “Türkiye’de Biyolojik Evrim Kuramı Eğitiminin Tarihsel ve
Sosyolojik Bir Değerlendirmesi.”
7. Martz, Larry; McDaniel, Ann (1987-06-29). “Keeping God Out of Class (Washington and
bureau reports)”. Newsweek (Newsweek Inc.) CIX (26): 22–23
8. Vikipedi: Tartışma-Evrim. Last access January 13, 2013.
http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tart%C4%B1%C5%9Fma:Evrim
9. TBMM Genel Kurul Tutanağı. Turkish Parliment Offical Website. 05 May 1998. Last access
January 13, 2013.
(http://www.tbmm.gov.tr/develop/owa/tutanak_b_sd.birlesim_baslangic?P4=357&P5=B&page1=60&page2=60)
10. Biyografi: Türkçe. Caner Taslaman. Last access January 13, 2013.
11. Hamed, Salman. Evolution and Creationism in the Islamic world. 2010. Cambridge
University Press. p.133-152
12. Wikipedia: Religious Identity. Last access January 13, 2013.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_identity
The Websites Included in the Research:
1. Evrim on Wikipedia: tr.wikipedia.org/evrim
2. Evolution Theory, Philosophy and God: http://www.evrim.gen.tr
3. Understanding Evolution: http://www.evrimianlamak.org
4. Evolution Through Questions: http://www.sorularlaevrim.com
5. Hard-Workers of Evolution: http://www.evrimcaliskanlari.org
6. Evolution Tree: http://www.evrimagaci.org
7. Deceit of Evolution: http://www.evrimaldatmacasi.com
Figure : “Evolution Less Accepted in U.S. Than Other Western Countries, Study Finds.” Last
access January 13, 2013. Published October 28, 2010.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/21329204.html
TransBabel Project 