MUSLIM SCHOLARS INCREASINGLY REJECT DARWIN

Posted By on November 17th, 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/evolution/6587642/Muslim-scholars-rejecting-Darwins-theory-of-evolution-as-unproven.html

Muslim scholars around the world are increasingly rejecting Darwin’s theory of evolution as an “unproven”.
Muslim students and academics also said they felt they were being asked to make a “binary choice” between Darwinism and creationism, rather than both having a place.

The claim was made by Nidhal Guessoum, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, at a conference organised by the British Council to celebrate the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth.

He told his audience that in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia, only 15 per cent of people surveyed believed Darwin’s theory was “true” or “probably true”.

A poll he conducted at his own university showed that 62 per cent of Muslim professors and students believed evolution to be an “unproven theory”, compared with 10 per cent of non-Muslim professors.

“The rate of acceptance of evolution and of the idea of teaching evolution was extremely low,” he said. “I wondered, who are all these educated people rejecting evolution? They are even rejecting the fact that it should be taught as scientific knowledge.”

Dr Guessoum, a Sunni Muslim, said that contrary to some beliefs, evolution does not contradict Islam, unless the texts were read too literally. “Many Muslim scholars, from the golden age of Islam to today, adopted an evolutionary world view,” he said.

But he said some Muslims were finding creationist theses on the web and taking their ideas to heart, even though the theses were on the fringes of scientific debate and had little credibility in the West.

“It is a serious problem,” he said. “It would be like going to my students and telling them the planets are not related to the stars, there is no relationship between them and gravitational pull or radiation, and they were all created on one day. We would not dream of describing the cosmos in such a ridiculous manner … We cannot allow people to go into the 21st century with no understanding of science.”

There is also debate about the teaching of Darwinism and creationism in the UK. In a poll conducted by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the British Council, 54 per cent of respondents wanted Christian-backed explanations of the origins of life to have space on the curriculum alongside Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Less than a quarter (21 per cent) believed that schools should teach only evolution – a lower proportion than in India and Roman Catholic countries such as Spain. At present, Government guidance states creationism should only be taught in religious education lessons.

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