Professor Richard Dawkins Wants to Convert Islamic World to Evolution

The author of The God Delusion and The Selfish Gene, whose new book, The Greatest Show on Earth, is serialised in The Times next week, has topped bestseller lists all over the world but never in a predominantly Muslim country.

None of Professor Dawkins’ books, on evolution as well as religion, has ever been translated into Arabic, and his work has been heavily censored in Turkey. In an interview with The Times, he said that popularising evolution in the Islamic world, where creationist beliefs are strong, was a challenge he is keen to take up. “To be a bestseller in a Muslim country would be a personal triumph,” he said.

“I would like to see my books translated into Arabic. They haven’t been. They are all translated into Hebrew. Persian, I’m not sure. My books are translated into Turkish and they regularly get censored and suppressed.

“The experience of my Turkish publisher of The God Delusion was that he was threatened with arrest for blasphemy. He may even have been arrested, and my website has been banned in Turkey. I feel amused really. There’s something to be said for being suppressed, it makes people want to read you.”

While most non-fundamentalist Christian traditions have largely accepted evolution, Islam was still much more hostile, he said. “It’s the fact that Islam teaches the Koran is the literal word of God, unlike most Christian sects, which say the Bible is largely symbolic. That could well be the cause.”

Professor Dawkins added that Islamic influence is the likely explanation for the growing popularity of creationist beliefs in Britain, where a recent poll found that 30 per cent of teenagers accept the rebranded idea of “intelligent design”.

Oh well, they’re messing up the Omega with replacement theology, so they might as well mess up the Alpha. If we’re to pick and choose what to accept, and what to ignore, based upon the beliefs and mores of the times, then there is no absolute truth.

There is absolute truth, though, timeless and unchanging.

Ponder the nature of God. Is evolution necessary at all? An honest answer can only be “no.” Does the Bible itself describe anything remotely like evolution, having explicitly provided a description, however basic you prefer to interpret, of the origin of all life on Earth? No, to that, too.

That the theory of evolution has provided scientific benefit, in having apparently predictive value (odd to call it predictive in hindsight, though), indicates to me, that the meaning of the data has been misinterpreted.

To me, that data just as well shows commonality of design, rather than common descent. To put it into another frame of reference, think of modular code in computer languages. Create it once, use it many times, in many applications. The presence and frequency of similar code, means a greater level of similarity in the application.

Time will bear this out. I have that faith. Speaking of time and of faith, I honestly have no idea, whether day or “yom” must be literally interpreted as meaning a six day long creation process. I certainly see no reason to argue against it, though, just as I certainly see no evidence, Biblically, for hundreds of millions, even trillions, of years. That’s only necessary to make evolution work, so-called “deep time” on an earth that purportedly was not created.

That’s what I believe, freely. You’re free to believe what you choose freely as well. But, when it comes to areas of overlap and seeming conflict, between what you believe, and what I believe, I’ll continue to point out Biblical error, based upon the plain text of the Bible, when I see it.

No animus there, just a desire to see the truth served, the eternal truth.

“How is it “ignorant and disgusting” to point out that you are criticizing someone for something you yourself aren’t doing?”

You are terribly ignorant about Christianity. God didn’t make robots who have the same function. The body of Christ consists of people posessing different gifts. Some are good organizers. Some are good fund raisers. Some are front line field people who will dare to venture into enemy territory, funded by fund raisers and organizers. The body of Christ works together to accomplish goals. God respects our differences and lets us shine with our uniwue abilities.

“Many times he has been criticized on this site for being a coward for not addressing muslims but now that he is he is being called a coward for not going their in person. Guess it is impossible to please some people.”

Again, you do not understand the body of Christ. Some of us $upport them financiallyt because we are unable to be there. Our family supports them finanically and defends Christianity - such as what I am doing now and tries to enlighten folks like you. Again, our God created all of us in His image but each of us are different. Even in the secular world you should understand this. Not all will be mathamaticians. Some will be good fund raisers like the Clinton’s. Some will excell in corruption and fraud like ACORN. How you use your unique ability is up to the individual. The same is true in Christianity.

“If you are currently in the Middle East I retract my original statement.”

I can only hope by now you understand the silliness of your statement.

A wonderful organization we zealously support is Compassion Internaional. It is a Bible based charity that financially supports Christians in Muslim countries. We support those in Thailand.

http://www.compassion.com/default.htm

We are partial to children so we support and correspond with them. We also send them gifts. It is most rewarding.

We also support missionaries. I can’t tell you how uplifting it is to do this. So within the body of Christ, we support fellow Christians. Christians are not robots that all do the same thing but the goal is a common one - reach others about Christ and get them on board, by choice.

I will not go further in discussing what we all support and do since that would be prideful and therefore unChristian.

Prayer is a pwerful weapon ALL Christians have at their disposal. He hears all prayers that are directed to Him. That is a weapon the transends money and people. I wish I could tell you how many times the unexplainable has happened - through prayer - no $$$, no “armey” - simply prayer.

Voice of the Martys is another website I will mention. I leave it up to you to look it up and search through it. Even if you don’t I hope you have a more accurate view of Christianity and what roles Christians perform to make a difference in the lives of others. The difficult part is that Christians go about their roles quietly ... otherwise it is considered prideful.

I wonder ... what have you done for others? Anything?

I have to share this with you as well.

As a Christian, I find these times to be exciting as well as disappointing (Obama = EVIL) times.

When I mentioned prayer as a weapon that transcends all other approaches I mean it!

I share this with you:

The following is an excerpt from National & International Religion Report.

More and more Muslims are having dreams and visions of Christ, Christian ministries say. There is increasing evidence that the supernatural is playing a role in drawing Muslims to Christ.

Campus Crusade for Christ has received thousands of letters from Muslims, many of whom claim to have had a similar dream of Christ, according to the ministry's radio broadcast office in northern Africa. In the dream, Jesus appears and tells people, “I am the way,” Campus Crusade founder and president Bill Bright said. Moved by the dreams, they contact the radio ministry and “freely respond” to the gospel message, he said. In Algeria, an imprisoned Muslim political radical said Jesus appeared to her in her cell. The woman now is a Christian and works with Campus Crusade ministering to Muslims.

In one African Muslim country, a young man violently tore up a Bible tract and threatened the life of the Every Home For Christ worker going door-to-door with the literature, Dick Eastman of Colorado Springs-based EHFC told NIRR. The next afternoon as the worker sat in his home, he was shocked to see the man knock at his door. “I must have another booklet,” the Muslim told him. He explained that the previous night two hands awakened him, and when he turned on the light and asked who was there, a voice said, “You have torn up the truth.” The voice instructed him to acquire another booklet, directing him to the EHFC worker's home, the young man said. There, the Muslim read the booklet and became a believer. He has since been expelled from his wealthy family, lives with EHFC’s Africa director, and is preparing for ministry to Muslims.

In another incident, several EHFC workers were distributing literature in a marketplace. A man who received a booklet gasped and said he had a vision of the person pictured on the cover in his dream the night before, Eastman said. In the dream, the man was in a deep pit when a rope was thrown to him and two strong hands pulled him up. Upon climbing out, he looked into the face of the man who helped him: Jesus. The workers explained the meaning of the dream and the man was converted on the spot. Later, three other people recounted the same dream and two of them became Christians, Eastman said. God is preparing Muslims, and Christian workers follow through, he said.

More here:

http://www.epm.org/artman2/publish/missions_true_stories/Dreams_Visions_Move_Muslims_To_Christ.shtml

If you were part of the Christian community, you'd be familiar with this.

It's prophecy being fulfilled.

Acts.2:17

[17] And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God,I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

Gospel for Muslims is a growing organization that DEPEND on the generosity of Christians to go about their work.

Gospel for Muslims, Inc. (GFM) is a Christian organization dedicated to bringing hope to the 1.3 billion Muslims around the world by helping Muslims follow Christ!

Dr. Abraham Sarker, a former Muslim and author of Understanding My Muslim People, and his wife, Amie, founded GFM to help Muslims follow Christ—through outreach, discipleship, and equipping believers for Muslim

http://www.gospelformuslims.com/

There are many such organizations that not only support the Middle East but other countries like Costa Rica ... our church supports Guatemala and we pay our way and go over there to get others on board for Christ and support them during the year as well as other organziations. What's truly interesting is the MORE you give of yourself, whether it be money, time, direct effort - the more you are blessed.

Some are cut out for direct missionary work, others are helpers, fund raisers, organizers, speakers, teachers etc.. The same is true of any secular organization - people have different roles and contribute to the end goal - which in the case of Christianity is to spread His message and give people a choice.

You'll have to pardon my excitement ... I just had to try and further explain how our God works through people.

“Because a few months back nmh said he lived in the US.”

I DO live in the United States - though well traveled beyond the U.S.!

Maybe my other replies will help straighten you out on what Christianity is and how the body of Christ works.

I'm beginning to feel like I'm having a discussion with an Obama supporter. There is a certain narrow mindedness that happens when it comes to what Christianity is and what the body of Christ does. The same narrow mindedness happens when Obama people view Republicans that are conservative.

Suddenly, like Obama people, there is this skewed view of what a Republican is and in this situation what a Christian should be doing and ONLY that activity should a Christian be doing. It's incredibly shallow and ignorant among other things ... with the bottom line being a method to fit some ugly and ridiculous stereotype to validate their own distaste for either conservative Republicans or in this situation Bible based Christians. I don't allow ridicule and mockery to be a weapon against genuine Christians.

” wasn’t talking about all Christians - I was mainly talking about you - sitting in the US while wishing someone else to risk death.”

There you go again.

You totally ignored what I stated and understated about my family. I noticed you didn't answer the question on what you were doing for ANYONE? I suppose the answer is OBVIOUS.

“So, in the future, when I talk to you please do not try to change the message from being about you to being about all Christians.”

I changed no message. I spoke about Christians, ourselves included in what we do to support fellow Christians and spread our Biblical beliefs. I mentioned some of what we do. I still haven't heard that YOU do anything. It's clear you are preoccupied with yourself.

“But you most likely will as you are one of those who defines a Christian as only those who march in lockstep with you for those who do not share your exact beliefs aren’t true Christians.”

There you go again!

You are the one that tried to state a “Christian” must so the goosestep for missionary work or shut up. Now you're trying to change the subject away from that with this “exact belief” standard. The Bible is the Book for Christian beliefs directly from God via every day people and extraordinary people.

“Rather a sad way to go through life if you ask me.”

I am not surprised you end your rant on this note. I will not take your bait and be a braggart or prideful. That is unchristian.

I truly wish you had the joy in your heart of being a Christian. Clearly it is not present in your heart. If it were, you wouldn't be making such foolish statements.

Have a pleasant night.

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