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Professor Richard Dawkins Wants to Convert Islamic World to Evolution
The Times ^ | 8/22/09 | Mark Henderson

Posted on 08/22/2009 10:05:09 AM PDT by nickcarraway

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”.

(Excerpt) Read more at entertainment.timesonline.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dawkins; evolution; islam
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
As far as the meaning of “day” in Creation, I'm not going to argue for the literal, 24 hour day, or against it, or, argue for “yom” potentially being 1,000 years, or against it. Either stands up reasonably well, exegetically, in my understanding of the terms involved.

But, you've got to admit, the symmetry is very interesting, when running with “yom” as 1,000 years. You'd have 6,000 years for Creation, and 1,000 years of rest at the Alpha. And, going to the Omega, you have 6,000 years of Creation in existence, and the millennial kingdom to come, 1,000 years.

It's interesting to me, at least.

81 posted on 08/23/2009 11:50:02 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: Ethan Clive Osgoode
Imagine that. A robot writing evolution books for other robots to read.

Thank goodness he has that remaining utility, otherwise he'd be junked, applying Dawkins' own book of rules to himself.

82 posted on 08/23/2009 11:56:38 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
why are you stuck on 6000 years....it is billions for the planet and millions from the precursors of the human race to the present...the bible of genesis...the Jewish part...is not even taken seriously when it comes to the stories in Genesis, by those self same Jews whose forebears wrote it....

evolutionists are not materialistic, they are scientists...you know the ones who cure cancer, do heart (and various other organ)transplants, fly to the moon with those same human beings on board....whether they are believers or not is irrelevant to what they have discovered and they can put their so called ‘materialism’ on hold to worship God in whatever fashion they wish...or not...as they chose.

83 posted on 08/23/2009 2:16:58 PM PDT by Vaquero ("an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Vaquero

He’s only “stuck” on 6,000 years because you provided the example, from the teaching of your learned Marist Brother William, Vaquero.

You appear to have been thinking that you were somehow refuting a literal reading of Genesis by providing it.


84 posted on 08/23/2009 2:29:08 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: RegulatorCountry
‘Bio Bill’ as we affectionately knew him as, 40+ years ago in a Bronx NY, Catholic HS.... was not stuck on the wrote interpretation of genesis. For his home room(not mine), he was also the Religion teacher who taught his class that Jesus was God, taught the trinity, taught about Christianity as we Catholics understand it.

My Homeroom teach...'Brother Christopher'(no nicknames...NEVER), had been a gold glove boxing champion and beat the living crud outta me at least once for mocking another brother who we called Mr Machine after his exaggerated stiff gait. as part of his religion class to us he cleverly showed a picture of how colony creatures possibly evolved into a fish looking creature and once he had the chalk simple fish on the blackboard...he went into the whole symbolism of the fish as the sign of Christ.... he used that analogy to show that God works in mysterious ways to make creation happen and except for the gospels, which are the transcription of the word of Jesus, hence God's own words, that the early, Jewish bible was in many ways (definitely not all by any means) just stories that firmed up our Judeo Christian morality and examples of how to live and why we must have faith in God....but we also must use the brain God gave us to improve human knowlege as that was Gods wish....

85 posted on 08/23/2009 3:23:25 PM PDT by Vaquero ("an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Clintonfatigued
Naguib Mahfouz wrote about evolution and the breakdown of traditional beliefs in Islamic society. I've recently been reading his Cairo Trilogy and just ordered the final volume from Amazon. It's great writing for anyone interested. As you can see from the following bio, he was nearly killed by fundamentalists extremists in 1994.

Socially committed Egyptian novelist, essayist, and short story writer who explored the problems of traditional and modern Egyptian society; author of thirty-two novels, thirteen collections of short stories, screen plays, and several stage plays; awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988.

Darwin's theory of evolution deeply influenced Mahfouz's thinking and made him abandon traditional beliefs. The concept of evolution became the center of his understanding of history, society, and civilization. Mahfouz's reaction to Darwin is represented in the Cairo Trilogy in the experiences and thoughts of the young Kamal.

In 1994, 82-year old Mahfouz survived a terrorist attack (stabbed several times in the neck) by Islamic religious fanatics who have targeted him for his criticisms of their fundamentalist ideologies.

86 posted on 08/23/2009 3:43:39 PM PDT by cerberus
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To: Vaquero

I’m in agreement with you, your Brother William and your Brother Christopher, up to the point that interpretations of scientific data directly and inescapably controvert the Bible. We part ways there.

Mutation and death being an objective good under evolution destroys the whole attempt to accomodate, though, even if one concocts a way around the time problem.

So, I just don’t see it, and sincerely doubt that anyone who follows the plain text of the Bible, abandoning none of it, excepting as Jesus Christ and the New Covenant provide, can believe such things.

It’s entirely possible to be completely Jewish, and completely Christian, simultaneously, in my assessment. There is no separation, other than refusal to accept the Messiah.


87 posted on 08/23/2009 4:56:02 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: nickcarraway

Cool! Go for it. Dr. Dawkins.

BTW, where can I take term life insurance policy out on his sorry @$$?


88 posted on 08/23/2009 4:59:13 PM PDT by Little Ray (Obama is a kamikaze president aimed at the heart of this Republic.)
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