A special chapter is assigned to the collapse of the theory of evolution because this theory constitutes the basis of all anti-spiritual philosophies. Since Darwinism rejects the fact of creation – and therefore, Allah's existence – over the last 140 years it has caused many people to abandon their faith or fall into doubt. It is therefore an imperative service, a very important duty to show everyone that this theory is a deception. Since some readers may find the chance to read only one of our books, we think it appropriate to devote a chapter to summarize this subject. All the author's books explain faith-related issues in light of Qur'anic verses, and invite readers to learn Allah's words and to live by them. All the subjects concerning Allah's verses are explained so as to leave no doubt or room for questions in the reader's mind. The books' sincere, plain, and fluent style ensures that everyone of every age and from every social group can easily understand them. Thanks to their effective, lucid narrative, they can be read at one sitting. Even those who rigorously reject spirituality are influenced by the facts these books document and cannot refute the truthfulness of their contents. This and all the other books by the author can be read individually, or discussed in a group. Readers eager to profit from the books will find discussion very useful, letting them relate their reflections and experiences to one another. In addition, it will be a great service to Islam to contribute to the publication and reading of these books, written solely for the pleasure of Allah. The author's books are all extremely convincing. For this reason, to communicate true religion to others, one of the most effective methods is encouraging them to read these books. We hope the reader will look through the reviews of his other books at the back of this book. His rich source material on faith-related issues is very useful, and a pleasure to read. In these books, unlike some other books, you will not find the author's personal views, explanations based on dubious sources, styles that are unobservant of the respect and reverence due to sacred subjects, nor hopeless, pessimistic arguments that create doubts in the mind and deviations in the heart.
Now writing under the pen-name of HARUN YAHYA, Adnan Oktar was born in Ankara in 1956. Having completed his primary and secondary education in Ankara, he studied arts at Istanbul's Mimar Sinan University and philosophy at Istanbul University. Since the 1980s, he has published many books on political, scientific, and faith-related issues. Harun Yahya is well-known as the author of important works disclosing the imposture of evolutionists, their invalid claims, and the dark liaisons between Darwinism and such bloody ideologies as fascism and communism. Harun Yahya's works, translated into 57 different languages, constitute a collection for a total of more than 45,000 pages with 30,000 illustrations. His pen-name is a composite of the names Harun (Aaron) and Yahya (John), in memory of the two esteemed prophets who fought against their peoples' lack of faith. The Prophet's (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) seal on his books' covers is symbolic and is linked to their contents. It represents the Qur'an (the Final Scripture) and Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), last of the prophets. Under the guidance of the Qur'an and the Sunnah (teachings of the Prophet), the author makes it his purpose to disprove each fundamental tenet of irreligious ideologies and to have the "last word," so as to completely silence the objections raised against religion. He uses the seal of the final Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), who attained ultimate wisdom and moral perfection, as a sign of his intention to offer the last word. All of Harun Yahya's works share one single goal: to convey the Qur'an's message, encourage readers to consider basic faith-related issues such as Allah's existence and unity and the Hereafter; and to expose irreligious systems' feeble foundations and perverted ideologies.
Harun Yahya enjoys a wide readership in many countries, from India to America, England to Indonesia, Poland to Bosnia, Spain to Brazil, Malaysia to Italy, France to Bulgaria and Russia. Some of his books are available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Urdu, Arabic, Albanian, Chinese, Swahili, Hausa, Dhivehi (spoken in Mauritius), Russian, Serbo-Croat (Bosnian), Polish, Malay, Uygur Turkish, Indonesian, Bengali, Danish and Swedish. Greatly appreciated all around the world, these works have been instrumental in many people recovering faith in Allah and gaining deeper insights into their faith. His books' wisdom and sincerity, together with a distinct style that's easy to understand, directly affect anyone who reads them. Those who seriously consider these books, can no longer advocate atheism or any other perverted ideology or materialistic philosophy, since these books are characterized by rapid effectiveness, definite results, and irrefutability. Even if they continue to do so, it will be only a sentimental insistence, since these books refute such ideologies from their very foundations. All contemporary movements of denial are now ideologically defeated, thanks to the books written by Harun Yahya. This is no doubt a result of the Qur'an's wisdom and lucidity. The author modestly intends to serve as a means in humanity's search for Allah's right path. No material gain is sought in the publication of these works. Those who encourage others to read these books, to open their minds and hearts and guide them to become more devoted servants of Allah, render an invaluable service. Meanwhile, it would only be a waste of time and energy to propagate other books that create confusion in people's minds, lead them into ideological chaos, and that clearly have no strong and precise effects in removing the doubts in people's hearts, as also verified from previous experience. It is impossible for books devised to emphasize the author's literary power rather than the noble goal of saving people from loss of faith, to have such a great effect. Those who doubt this can readily see that the sole aim of Harun Yahya's books is to overcome disbelief and to disseminate the Qur'an's moral values. The success and impact of this service are manifested in the readers' conviction. One point should be kept in mind: The main reason for the continuing cruelty, conflict, and other ordeals endured by the vast majority of people is the ideological prevalence of disbelief. This can be ended only with the ideological defeat of disbelief and by conveying the wonders of creation and Qur'anic morality so that people can live by it. Considering the state of the world today, leading into a downward spiral of violence, corruption and conflict, clearly this service must be provided speedily and effectively, or it may be too late. In this effort, the books of Harun Yahya assume a leading role. By the will of Allah, these books will be a means through which people in the twenty-first century will attain the peace, justice, and happiness promised in the Qur'an.
First English Edition in November 2007 Translated by Carl Nino Rossini Edited by Jay Willoughby
Published by: GLOBAL PUBLISHING Talatpasa Mah. Emirgazi Caddesi Ibrahim Elmas ‹fl Merkezi A Blok Kat 4 Okmeydani - Istanbul / Turkey Phone: (+90 212) 222 00 88
Printed and bound by Secil Ofset in Istanbul 100 Yil Mah. MAS-SIT Matbaacilar Sitesi 4. Cadde No: 77 Bagcilar-Istanbul/Turkey Phone: (+90 212) 629 06 15 All translations from the Qur'an are from The Noble Qur'an: a New Rendering of its Meaning in English by Hajj Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley, published by Bookwork, Norwich, UK. 1420 CE/1999 AH.
w w w. h a r u n y a h y a . c o m - w w w. h a r u n y a h y a . n e t
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 DNA: A Glorious Marvel of Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 The Atmosphere: A Perfect Protective Shield . . . . . . . . . .20 Enzymes: A Detail That Permits All Vital Functions . . .24 A Fly’s Incredible Compound Eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Humanity’s Magnificent Perception of Scent . . . . . . . . . .28 The Body’s Flawless Stimuli Signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 The Amazing Hatchet Fish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 The Water That Always Returns to Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 The Sublime System of Photosynthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 The Honeybees’ Superior Architectural Abilities . . . . . . . .38 Talented Liver Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Genes: An Important Detail in the Cell, Yet Invisible to the Naked Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 The Amphipod: A Detail Living in the Depths of the Oceans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Miraculous Molecules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 The Big Bang: One of the Proofs of Creation . . . . . . . . .48
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Allah’s Sublime Artistry Prevails in All Things . . . . . . . .50 The Miraculously Renewed Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 The Extraordinary Details in Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 The Human Brain’s Magnificent Neural Network . . . . . .56 Wings That Beat 500 Times a Second . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 The Perfect System That Perceives Scent . . . . . . . . . . .60 The Superior Details in Bacteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62 The Beauty in Earth and Sky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 The Ant’s Glorious Nervous System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66 The Size of the Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68 The Perfect and Astonishing Details in the Human Eye . . .70 The Brain’s Superior Nerve Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 The Miraculous Atom: The Building Block of All Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 The Incredible Seed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76 The Striking Detail in Living Things Capable of Perceiving Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 The Pituitary Gland: Regulator of the Human Body . . . . .80 The Perfect Detail That Protects Ice-Dwelling Polar Bears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 The Superior Details in a Pair of Eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84
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The Superior Detail in Taste Perception Cells . . . . . . . 86 Water: One of His Greatest Blessings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 The Human Brain’s Great Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 The Atom’s Astonishing Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 A Mosquito’s Impressive Heat Receptors . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 The Nutcracker’s Superior Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 The Skin: An Amazing Detail and Blessing . . . . . . . . . . 98 Protein: The Cell’s Most Basic Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 The Kidneys’ Flawless Purification System . . . . . . . . . 102 The Superior Detail That Permits Life under the Ice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 The Body’s Special Cleaning Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 The Brain’s Impeccable Communication Network . . . . . 110 The Superior Detail in the White Shark’s Eyes . . . . . . 112 The Flawless System In A Single Cell . . . . . . . . . . . 114 The Perfect Detail in Message-Transmitting Cells . . . 116 Snowflakes: An Incomparable Miracle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 The Deception of Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
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nyone who carefully considers this world and the things that enable him to live for even a few minutes will be completely astonished. Our planet, which was specially created for life in one of the giant galaxies in the endless void of space, constantly revolves within that boundless void. The Sun, just one of the universe’s billions of stars, sends its rays to Earth within that same void. As a result, our planet is warmed; the various food, water, and nitrogen cycles occur, and human beings, animals, plants, and micro-organisms are able to survive due to the countless conditions that make their continued life possible. Countless details have been combined and presented to human
beings in the most beautiful and flawless manner to meet the requirements of human life and/or to bestow beauty and blessings. Each detail, which has its own artistry, is a distinct marvel of creation. Sometimes, these details are so crucial that life would cease without them and Earth would become a dead planet. Scientists cannot come anywhere close to creating or imitating most of them, let alone create them out of nothing. Allah (God) bestows blessings on human beings at all times. For example, people survive thanks to their DNA (which is copied every moment), their continual and uninterrupted process of breathing, their always-beating hearts, the ever-revolving Earth, the atoms’ non-stop motion, and countless other details. Various kinds of foods, the solar rays that give color to Earth, the plants that engage in photosynthesis, rain, the micro-organisms that feed plants, the oceans, and countless other blessings are all means whereby life survives. Earth’s location, the existence of the Sun and Moon, their distance from Earth, and their location within the Milky Way; their sizes, angles, and orbits; and the gasses, molecules, and atoms they contain have all been created in the most ideal form for humanity’s existence. People must reflect on how they have been created so flawlessly along with all of the blessings that ensure their continued survival, and how these things are all reminders of a most important truth: It is Almighty Allah Who created all people out of nothing, Who created all of the beauty that surrounds them and all of the blessings of which
they are aware or unaware. He constantly renews each of these blessings and creates the astonishing details in each one. This is Allah’s art of detail. With His unbounded knowledge, Allah created systems that human beings cannot comprehend because they have not yet discovered their details. Inside each detail are even more delicate beauties that reveal His Greatness and Might. This is a very simple matter for Almighty Allah, Who creates from nothing, sets a value on all things according to His will, and Who has the power to create them when He wills to do so. If He willed, he could dispose of them all while still creating. Our duty is to thank Him for these unconditional blessings, know that we need Him, and turn only to Him. This book seeks to remind people of this important truth, which He revealed in the Qur’an: Everything in the heavens and Earth glorifies Allah. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise. The kingdom of the heavens and Earth belongs to Him. He gives life and causes to die. He has power over all things. He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward. He has knowledge of all things. It is He Who created the heavens and Earth in six days, then established Himself firmly on the Throne. He knows what goes into the ground and what comes out of it, what comes down from heaven and what goes up into it. He is with you wherever you are–Allah sees what you do. (Surat al-Hadid, 1-4)
Intelligent Design - in Other Words, Creation In Order to Create, Allah Has No Need to Plan It’s important to properly understand the word “design.” If Allah has created a flawless design that does not mean that He first conceived a plan and then followed it. Allah, the Lord of the Earth and the heavens, needs no “designs” in order to bring anything into existence. Allah is exalted above all such deficiencies. Both His planning and His creation take place at the same instant. Whenever Allah wills a thing to come about, it is enough for Him just to say, “Be!” As verses of the Qur’an tell us: His command when He desires a thing is just to say to it, “Be!” and it is. (Surah Ya Sin: 82) [Allah is] the Originator of the heavens and Earth. When He decides on something, He just says to it, “Be!” and it is. (Surat alBaqara: 117)
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DNA: A Glorious Marvel of Creation Each person has an average of 100 trillion cells, each of which contains a DNA molecule. Just one of these contains information regarding 3 billion different subjects, enough information to fill approximately 1,000 volumes of books, each one containing 1 million pages. If we were to lay these pages out side by side, they would stretch from the North Pole to the Equator. If we were to read it 24 hours a day, it would take 100 years to finish it. This glorious information belongs to a single DNA molecule, which exists everywhere in our body, such as in a single fingernail or a single hair. How could such an incredible library have been squeezed into a minute hair too small to be seen with the naked eye? How could it have been packed into all of the cells that constitute that hair and all of the other cells that make up our
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body? How could so much information, which we could never carry on our own, have been installed in our bodies 100 trillion times? Could human beings manage to do this themselves? Can any known technology achieve such an amazing feat? Could this glorious information be present in the cells by chance? Clearly, random events, human beings, and technology cannot produce such an astonishing work. This fact has been scientifically proven. This amazing work in our bodies belongs to Allah, Whose might makes all things according to His will: We created humanity from a mingled drop to test him, and We made him hearing and seeing. We guided him on the Way, whether he is thankful or unthankful. (Surat alInsan, 2-3)
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ALLAH'S ART OF DETAIL
The Atmosphere:
The exosphere
A Perfect Protective Shield In order for a living thing to survive on this planet, countless details must exist: Earth being located a specific distance from the Sun; a specific temperature range; the carbon, ozone, and water cycles; the minerals produced by micro-organisms; photosynthesis; Earth’s particular angle of inclination; gravity and other forces that The thermosphere The ozone layer absorbs ultraviolet rays from the Sun.
The atmosphere, which surrounds our planet and contains many different balances, is one of the main reasons why life survives on Earth. The atmosphere permits light and heat to reach Earth at levels specially determined for life. This perfect structure is a mani- The mesosphere festation of Allah’s sublime artistry.
{
{
The stratosphere The troposphere
{
{
{ The atmosphere reflects back 7% of the Sun’s rays.
The clouds reflect back 24% of the Sun’s rays.
Earth’s waters and land reflect back 4% of the Sun’s rays.
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keep atomic particles together; and many, many more. This world has been created in such a way that all of these conditions are maintained. If the atmosphere that surrounds this miraculous planet and maintains all of these balances were removed, life would end. A specific range of temperature and light permits human beings to live on Earth. The flaming
Solar radiation from space
heat and freezing cold in space, and its deadly rays, only reach us through the filter-like atmosphere at levels sufficient to keep us alive. A single solar burst gives off a level of energy equivalent to a 100-billion-ton bomb of the kind that deThe atmosphere absorbs 14% of the Sun’s rays.
stroyed Hiroshima. Thanks to the atmosphere, this destructive force reaches Earth in the most ideal form. Were a slightly higher level of infrared and ultraviolet, gamma, and micro rays allowed through, all living things would cease to exist. The atmosphere re-emits part of the absorbed heat. Earth absorbs 51% of the Sun’s rays.
Clouds re-emit part of the absorbed heat.
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This shield has protected Earth for billions of years from these rays’ deadly effects. If the atmosphere were to stop functioning, could another protective shield be established to replace it? Is there any other method of protecting human beings from potentially lethal rays and blazing heat? The answers to both questions is “no,” for no human power or technology could devise such a flawless system. This being the case, how could anyone logically expect a new atmosphere to come into being by chance? Nobody whose powers of reason are fully functional and who has a conscience could even admit the possibility of this flawless work coming into being by chance. There would also be no time for such a waiting period, since life would come to an end in the very first moment. In other words, our planet’s atmosphere is part of Almighty and All-Powerful Allah’s magnificent artistry, He Who reveals His greatness at all times and in all events: We placed firmly embedded mountains on Earth so it would not move under them, and put broad valleys as roadways in it so that, perhaps, they might be guided. We made the sky a preserved and protected roof, yet still they turn away from Our Signs. (Surat al-Anbiya’, 31-32)
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Enzymes: A Detail That Permits All Vital Functions It takes just a few seconds to read a sentence. Yet if one of the body’s enzymes failed to work, it would take 1,500 years to read that same sentence. Enzymes activate cells and initiate and accelerate reactions up to 1010 (10 billion) times. In their absence, those cells that are waiting to go into action and perform many other reactions that keep you alive, even though they are unaware of each other and motionless, would start to die one by one before you even finished reading this sentence. As a result, you would die before you reached the end of this sentence. Enzymes carry out all of a cell’s reactions. If they stopped working, it would be very difficult to restart them in a simultaneous and rapid manner. Despite today’s advanced medical science and impressive technology, scientists have failed to produce a comparable system. Evolutionists claim that such a magnificent mechanism came about by chance. But despite all of their knowledge and resources, scientists can neither copy this system nor produce a comparable one. In fact, they have been unable to manufacture a single model that can perform reactions as quickly as enzymes. This shows that it is impossible for all of these miraculous proteins, which initiate and accelerate the body’s chemical reactions and perform vital functions (e.g., reproduction, control, and copying) to
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have come into being spontaneously as the result of unconscious events. Therefore, one needs to reflect on the fact that Allah, Lord of the universe and all of its details, creates each person and his or her body’s enzymes: Do you not see that Allah has subjected to you everything in the heavens and Earth and has showered His blessings upon you, both outwardly and inwardly? Yet there are people who argue about Allah without knowledge or guidance or any illuminating Book. (Surah Luqman, 20) Enzymes accelerate reactions inside the cell by 10 billion times. Everything you do depends on these activities.
Enzymes, one of the reasons why life continues, are a perfect detail and an astonishing marvel of creation.
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A Fly’s Incredible Compound Eyes The fly is a marvel of creation; its wings beat 500 times per second and, as a result, it has a glorious flying ability. Even more amazing are its eyes, each one of which has thousands of extraordinarily complex lenses. A fly has compound eyes on both sides of its head, each of which is divided into 4,000 sections, each of which, in turn, has a lens that perceives an image from a slightly different angle. When a fly looks at a flower, the full image appears separately in each of its 8,000 lenses. When these images reach the brain, they combine together like the components of a jigsaw puzzle. As a result, an image that is highly significant for the fly emerges.1 It is extraordinary that such a small creature should have thousands of lenses in its eyes and a cerebral system capable of interpreting what it sees. We can only acquire this information by
The fly, which has wings that beat 500 times per second and magnificent compound eyes consisting of 8,000 separate lenses, is a flawless marvel of creation displayed and created by Allah.
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studying the animal. Yet all flies have had this perfect structure since they were first created, for, like all the other living things, they are miracles created by Allah, matchless marvels of creation that amaze one the more one researches and studies them. Scientists lack the knowledge and technology to install 8,000 lenses into an area just a few millimeters in size and to enable each one to see. None of them can produce a nervous system that will permit these lenses to perceive light and then make that perception visible in such a perfect way. Given these facts, could such a flawless structure have emerged by chance? The answer is “of course not,” for chance cannot give rise to even one of a fly’s 8,000 lenses or even a single protein of these lenses’ countless cells. Only Almighty Allah, Who sees and observes all entities at all times, creates all beings with their perfect details, equips a tiny fly with such miraculous abilities, and bestows reason and conscience on human beings so that they can comprehend and reflect on these matters, can create in such a manner: O humanity, an example has been made, so listen to it carefully. Those whom you call upon besides Allah are not even able to create a single fly, even if they were to join together to do it. And if a fly steals something from them, they cannot get it back. How feeble are both the seeker and the sought! (Surat al-Hajj, 73)
1. Kathy Wollard, How Come? Planet Earth (New York: Workman Publishing, 1999), 116.
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Humanity’s Magnificent Perception of Scent A carnation always smells the same to you. The second time you smell a perfume, you recognize it immediately, because even if you only smell something once in your life, that smell always retains its place in your memory. The human nose has around 1,000 different scent receptors. Human beings can perceive more than 10,000 different smells through combinations of these different receptors. When you smell a carnation, the molecules that allow you to perceive its fragrance combine with scent receptors and establish the carnation’s code. This code, which has long existed in your memory, reminds you that you are smelling a carnation. What would happen if this system did not exist? Since the perception of taste is closely linked to the sense of smell, it is generally smell that causes you to realize that a piece of food has spoiled and should be spat out. If this sense ceased function-
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ing, you would be unable to perceive the item’s full taste and thus would be unaware of this danger. You would not realize a fire had broken out in your home until you saw the smoke, for you would be unable to perceive the smell of burning things all around you. The information stored in your memory consists solely of molecules. Nobody has the power and knowledge needed to install thousands of smells in your memory or to endow molecules with smells and make them compatible with the relevant parts of the brain. Only Allah, the Lord of all life, can do all of this; only He can create smells, the olfactory system, and the memory with its perfect characteristics: He laid out Earth for all living creatures. In it are fruits and date-palms with covered spathes, and grains on leafy stems and fragrant herbs. So which of your Lord’s blessings do you both then deny? (Surat al-Rahman, 10-13)
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The Body’s Flawless Stimuli Signals People’s skin is in constant contact with many things for varying lengths of time (e.g., clothing, watches, and furniture), and yet they do not constantly perceive their presence. There is a very important reason for this: after a certain length of time, the skin’s receptors grow used to whatever is touching the skin and stop sending the relevant signals to the brain. This marvelous system, comprised of countless flawless details, enables people to live without constant discomfort. Were it not for this familiarization system, even such an ordinary matter as wearing clothes would become a major concern. The receptors’ constant perception would turn wearing clothes into a torment, and we would find it hard to perceive the signals from other things that we touched. People might concentrate forever on how much their socks were squeezing their ankles or on how their wristwatches were sliding up and down their arms. In
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such a situation, one could neither sleep nor rest properly. In short, life would become very unpleasant. Just as the sense of touch is a blessing, our gradually decreasing awareness of it is also a blessing. A single detail makes human life easier and provides a significant degree of comfort. Evolutionists’ imaginary mechanisms have no consciousness that can direct the body to feel or when to get used to that feeling. Only the Sufficient, Almighty Allah, Who bestows this blessing and meets the needs of everything that exists, can do so: Any blessing you have is from Allah. Then when harm touches you, it is to Him you cry for help. (Surat al-Nahl, 53)
Eventually, the skin’s receptors stop sending signals to the brain about the material touching the skin. Thus, we do not constantly feel the presence of items that are in constant contact with our skin. This is a great blessing created by Allah.
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The Amazing Hatchet Fish The hatchet fish, a great marvel of creation, lives at depths of around 1,000 m (3,280 ft). Its large eyes, which face upwards, enable it to see in the dark and hunt their prey, which passes overhead. However, these creatures also have to be invisible to threats that might arise from above. Their superior bodily structure, which is flat and silver colored, protects them from this danger by allowing them to camouflage themselves easily in the dark. But how are they protected against potential threats coming from below, for those fish living at even greater depths are, thanks to their own large eyes, just as predatory. This problem is solved by a superb method of deception, thanks to special cells located in its stomach: photophores. These extraordinary cells, which produce a biological light by combining two chemical substances to initiate the necessary reaction, imitate the changing color of the light filtering down from above and emit light of exactly the same color. As a result, predators below cannot see the hatchet fish’s shadow as it passes over them. You may never have heard of this fish or what it looks like or how it lives. So how does knowledge of its magnificent features benefit you? Had Allah so willed, He could have created this fish without all of its attributes or willed to not create any of the countless attributes necessary for its survival. The details that His creatures display for human beings may transform them from discontented and restless individuals chasing after worldly interests into happy and contented people with faith and hope in the Hereafter. It is enough to see His blessings in everything and to consider His absolute existence for this to happen. Every beauty and detail belong to Allah, Who constantly bestows them upon us:
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And in your creation and all the creatures He has spread about, there are Signs for people with certainty. (Surat alJathiyyah, 4)
With its large, upward-facing eyes, the hatchet fish is always aware of dangers above it. But it also needs to be prepared for threats from beneath. The phosphorus cells in its stomach area, which produce light, imitate the color of the light coming from above. As a result, it is undetectable to the predators below it.
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The Water That Always Returns to Us Allah gives people knowledge and possibilities in a wide range of fields. For example, modern-day technology allows us to observe the formation of many things in a laboratory environment. However, some fundamental events can neither be brought about nor even observed in such an environment. One of these great blessings is water, which covers much of Earth and meets our most basic needs. During the Earth’s formation, water was created, and then its production period ended. In order for hydrogen and oxygen molecules to create water, they first have to collide so that their bonds will weaken and enable the atoms that make up these molecules to combine into a new molecule: H2O (water). Such a collision can only occur at a very high temperature and energy level. As Earth does not possess a sufficiently high temperature to permit water’s formation, no new water can be formed. As stated above, all water that exists was created during our planet’s formation. In other words, its amount never changes. The water we drink and use is always exactly the same water, because it evaporates and then returns as rain. Allah has revealed this in His verses:
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Have you thought about the water that you drink? Is it you who sent it down from the clouds, or are We the Sender? (Surat al-Waqi‘ah, 68-69)
If the water that Allah created in a ready state on Earth were to dry up and disappear, nothing could bring it back. If Allah willed to suspend the water cycle of evaporation, it would never rain again: All blessings come from Allah. It is Almighty Allah Who constantly places blessings at human beings’ disposal and Who creates them out of nothing. We sent down a measured amount of water from heaven and lodged it firmly in the ground, and We are well able to remove it. (Surat al-Mu’minun, 18)
Hydrogen and oxygen atoms have to collide in order to form water, one of our most vital needs. Earth lacks the levels of heat and energy to permit this collision to take place. Water came into being during our planet’s formation, and that same water is constantly returning to us in a purified form.
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The Sublime System of Photosynthesis Pick up a leaf and look at it closely. Although it appears quite ordinary, what you cannot see are the wide-ranging and magnificent chemical processes that enable it to carry out photosynthesis. Its countless factories, which are invisible to the naked eye, accomplish in seconds a process that is so sublime that scientists equipped with the most modern laboratory facilities cannot replicate it. This chemical process, which is performed very quietly by a usually unnoticed part of creation, is one of the main reasons why humanity is still present on this planet. Every square millimeter of each leaf contains around 500,000 chlorophylls, the magnificent molecules that are necessary for photosynthesis. Were we able to examine this molecule, a great many more details would become apparent. For example, the entire photosynthesis process that takes place inside this particular molecule occurs within one ten-millionth of a second. In other words, the complex process initiated by the light reaching a leaf’s water and then activating the relevant subatomic particles and changing their orbits is repeated 10 million times a second. In addition, this process takes place separately in each chlorophyll molecule. If Allah willed chlorophyll molecules to cease their activities or the wavelength of the light reaching the leaf to change, no means of locating another source of oxygen would exist. If photosynthesis stopped, there would be no other way to convert into oxygen the carbon dioxide that human beings and animals exhale. It would be illogical to expect a chlorophyll molecule, which is essen-
tial for continued life, to come into being and set about cleaning the air and giving rise to nutrients all by itself. The fact that a plant can consume carbon dioxide and release oxygen is a great miracle. This extraordinary system is a great blessing and astonishing work of Allah, the Lord of the Worlds: Good land yields up its plants by its Lord’s permission, but that which is bad only yields up scantily. In this way, We vary the Signs for people who are thankful. (Surat al-A‘raf, 58)
Each leaf makes photosynthesis as the result of impressive and wide-ranging processes. Allah has equipped every square millimeter of a leaf with 500,000 chlorophyll molecules. By Allah’s leave, this special process, which has still not been capable of being performed in the laboratory, is carried out in a flawless manner in every millimeter of the leaf.
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The Honeybees’ Superior Architectural Abilities When it comes to making contiguous hexagons with an exact angle of 109 degrees and 28 minutes, one would need compasses and set squares to produce the various angular measurements and regularity necessary for devising the angles that determine these shapes. In the absence of such tools, there is both a considerable likelihood of error as well as the need to make various adjustments and redraw some of the hexagons. All of this would probably take a considerable amount of time. While this is a difficult matter for human beings, who possess reason and consciousness the same task is carried out by honeybees, who possess no reason or consciousness, in a perfect and continuous manner without any compasses or set squares. All honeybees build their combs using this flawless angle. Although there are hundreds of bees around the hive, there is no deviation from the angles of 109 degrees and 28 minutes and 70 degrees and 32 minutes when building their honeycombs. The combs are built by bringing in their edges by 13 degrees, which prevents the honey from pouring out. If you stand close to a honeycomb, all you will see is honeybees flying around it. Yet every one of them is also an expert mathematician that knows where to stick the wax it is carrying and at what angle. How is this possible? Given that they possess no mathematical knowledge, did they learn to build these perfect combs by chance? Could each one of them, over the course of millions of years, have been born with this ability by chance, an ability that human beings never managed to acquire by chance? It is certainly impossible for a bee to possess an ability that human beings do not as the re-
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sult of chance. It is Almighty Allah, the infinitely powerful, Who creates these creatures together with their superior abilities and Who inspires His own knowledge within them. Your Lord revealed to the honeybees: “Build dwellings in the mountains and the trees, and also in the structures which men erect. Then eat from every kind of fruit and travel the paths of your Lord, which have been made easy for you to follow.” From inside them comes a drink of varying colors, containing healing for humanity. There is certainly a Sign in that for people who reflect. (Surat al-Nahl, 68-69)
Every comb is prepared by many honeybees working together, and is constructed from the floor upwards. The square floor (1) comes first and is followed by two touching walls (2). A second square is added to the base (3), thereby forming two more combs (4). The third square section (5) and two more walls complete the hexagon (6). These combs are suspended vertically, and the combs on either side are separated by a wall down the middle. The workers knead and soften more wax and install this in various thicknesses, not exceeding 0.02 mm (0.00078 in), in the walls. Such perfection manifests our Lord’s art of detail.
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Talented Liver Cells Each liver cell carries out some 500 different chemical processes. Somehow, they are aware of each activity taking place in the body’s circulatory, digestive, excretory, and other systems. Due to these tasks that they perform, each cell is the site of intense and continuous activity. If any part of the liver is damaged or extracted, its cells immediately switch to a new function—highspeed multiplication—to repair the affected part. As a result of the cells’ extraordinary abilities, the liver is the only bodily organ that can reconstitute itself. When the liver regains its normal size and is fixed, the cells suddenly cease this activity. There is no difference between liver cells and those in your finger tips, for both sets carry exactly the same information. What makes them different is what part of that information they use. A single cell, invisible to the naked eye, knows that the reproduction process has to begin and so begins copying itself. When it learns that the regeneration process has been completed, it and all other cells stop this activity in a perfectly orderly manner that betrays no haphazardness. During reproduction, no cell decides to postpone the other functions and thereby cause interruptions in the system. No new
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Liver cells perform 500 different processes. When part of the liver is damaged, the cells’ new job is, as Allah wills, to multiply.
copied cell is told what to do. Nonetheless, every new cell unhesitatingly begins its work inside the liver. This wide-ranging system does not belong to human beings. Evolutionists, however, must first account for how a single liver cell came into existence if they are to defend their claims that this complex system is the result of chance. That they have been unable to do so is hardly surprising, for only the Omniscient Allah Who creates all living things and their cells, and Who controls and supervises them at every moment, can perform such a miracle. This miraculous system is the work of Almighty Allah, Who remains unchanging, Omniscient, and Allpowerful: O humanity, if you are in any doubt about the Rising, know that We created you from dust then from a drop of sperm, then from a clot of blood, then from a lump of flesh, formed yet unformed, so that We may make things clear to you. (Surat al-Hajj, 5)
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Genes: An Important Detail in the Cell, Yet Invisible to the Naked Eye Human beings cannot control the beating of their hearts, manage their salivary glands while eating, or remember to breathe every few seconds. Countless such vital functions take place without any human intervention at all. Yet despite this lack of personal supervision, all bodily systems function flawlessly. An individual’s chromosomes contain information regarding that person. Each of the forty-six chromosomes in the nucleus possesses genes that, utilizing the framework of the blueprint contained therein, construct each bodily organ according to His will. For example, a person’s skin is controlled by 2.559 genes, the brain by 29.930, the eye by 1.794, the salivary glands by 186, the heart by 6.216, the breast by 4.001, the lung by 11.581, the liver by 2.309, the intestines by 3.838, the skeletal muscles by 1.911, and the blood cells by 22.092 genes. The way that countless tiny components hidden inside a cell that is invisible to the naked eye supervises a person’s bodily systems is a great miracle. It is extraordinary that this system is never interrupted and that the same genes control the same systems and organs in every new-born human being. Despite the vital functions for which they are responsible, genes consist of nothing but blind and unconscious atoms. Therefore, how can the superior consciousness and flawless regulation visible here belong to them? Each gene, which is an
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amazing marvel of creation, acts according to His will instead of some posited model. Proof for this statement is all around us, for how could an unconscious gene accomplish such miraculous deeds if Allah did not will it to be so? This state of affairs makes itself crystal clear in every detail in the universe. Everything is a manifestation of Allah’s sublime creation. Genes are able to control everything related to the body’s systems at every moment. This sublime control belongs to Allah, the Elevated One, the true Lord of this entire system: Allah, there is no deity but Him, the Living, the SelfSustaining. He is not subject to drowsiness or sleep. Everything in the heavens and Earth belongs to Him. Who can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is before them and what is behind them, but they cannot grasp any of His knowledge, except for what He wills. His Footstool encompasses the heavens and Earth, and their preservation does not tire Him. He is the Most High, the Magnificent. (Surat al-Baqarah, 255)
Each chromosome in a cell’s nucleus possesses genes that carry all of an individual’s personal information. By His will, all of a person’s bodily organs are constructed within the framework of a blueprint described by the cell’s genes. These miracles, invisible to the naked eye, are just one of the flawless details that Allah has created in human beings.
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The Amphipod: A Detail Living in the Depths of the Oceans Human beings cannot breathe oxygen dissolved in water or withstand the pressure under water, which is some 1,300 times heavier than air. Moreover, this pressure rises rapidly the further down one goes, approximately 1 atmosphere for every 10 m (32.8 ft) of depth. When one descends to 150 m (492 ft) under water, the veins may collapse and the lungs contract to the size of a soda can. Thus, in the absence of man-made technology, human beings can live only on dry land. Human beings are exceedingly vulnerable to water pressure. However, there are other life forms on Earth that, thanks to their special equipment, possess qualities that are far superior to those of human beings. For example, the Mariana Trench, the Pacific Ocean’s deepest point, is home to colonies of amphipods, which are shrimp-like transparent crustaceans. This area lies some 11.3 km (7 miles) below the ocean’s surface. Even the intense pressure at 4 km (2.5 miles), the average ocean depth, is equivalent to that applied by the weight of fourteen cement trucks loaded with concrete.1 This creature, about which almost nothing is known to us, can survive under even harsher conditions. The animal itself is unaware that it lives many kilometers below the surface of the ocean and can survive under a pressure that would kill a human being. The way that it remains alive at depths we cannot reach is one of the proofs that all living things, whether in the ground, in the depths of the ocean, or in the highest skies, are created through Allah’s sublime artistry. A person may see and appreciate His greatness by looking at such a creature and understanding that only He can create bless-
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ings and everything that exists. To that end, it is enough to reflect on just one feature. People are responsible for seeing the proofs set out before them and realizing that Allah is the Lord of all that exists: (People with intelligence are) those who remember Allah [while] standing, sitting, and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and Earth: “Our Lord, You have not created this for nothing. Glory be to You! Safeguard us from the punishment of the Fire.” (Surah Al ‘Imran, 191)
1. 1. Bill Bryson, A Short History of Just About Everything (USA: Broadway: 2004), pp. 209-210
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Miraculous Molecules All mountains, water, our own bodies, poisonous and healthgiving plants, furniture, buildings, sweet and sour tastes, pleasant smells, beautiful colors—in fact, everything that exists—is made up of various combinations of only 109 atoms. This is one of Allah’s greatest miracles. When atoms come together, they give rise to molecules that enable very different physical characteristics to emerge. A pen, your hand, and water are all the result of different combinations of similar atoms. Sometimes an atom is added to a molecule, with the result that ordinary drinking water can become a poison. One atom added to or removed from a molecule can turn something inedible into something edible, or turn a harsh and unpleasant smell into the glorious perfume of a rose. Depending upon how the same atoms bond to each other, a molecule’s color can change or a fluid can turn into a solid. The variety of life on Earth is quite extraordinary. By giving various properties to molecules, Allah exhibits a most sublime artistry. For example, an apple’s sweetness, a stone’s hardness, and cotton’s softness are all great miracles that He displays in invisible atoms. Allah created the world out of nothing, made atoms (which are 99.99999% empty) the basic constituents of all
This book is the result of various combinations of atoms similar to those in your hand. A single atom added to or removed from a molecule can make sweet things bitter, solid things liquid, or inedible things edible.
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All mountains, seas, human beings, space, butterflies, and flowers, in short absolutely everything that exists, are combinations of just 109 atoms. Allah displays His infinite might and creative artistry through all of these combinations.
beings, and exhibits an astonishing artistry in this world that is invisible to the naked eye. People must realize that they need Him at every moment, cannot do anything unless He wills it, understand His bestowed blessings, and discover that whatever they possess actually belong to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. If they can reach this point, they will experience the joy of faith because of the blessings they enjoy in this world, and will also experience the highest level of these blessings in the Hereafter: And the Garden will be brought up close to the heedful, not far away: “This is what you were promised. It is for every careful penitent: those who fear [and respect] the AllMerciful in the Unseen and come with a contrite heart. Enter it in peace. This is the Day of Timeless Eternity.� They will have there everything they want, and with Us there is still more. (Surah Qaf, 31-35) ADNAN OKTAR
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The Big Bang: One of the Proofs of Creation It is quite hard to upset the equilibrium between the elements that are essential to life on Earth. You do not suddenly start breathing carbon monoxide or floating away from your chair into space due to a decrease in the force of gravity. Sunlight does not suddenly damage your eyes and skin, and oxygen levels do not rise so high that your lungs begin to burn. There are many reasons for this. However, the interesting thing is that all balances assumed their present forms due to the Big Bang, defined as the explosion of a single point of zero volume that contained all matter in the universe. Countless conditions combined in order to maintain this equilibrium. For example, if the rate of the universe’s post-Big Bang expansion had been just 1 in 1 billion billion (1/1018) different, the universe would not have emerged. If the universe had ex-
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panded just slightly more slowly, it would have imploded due to the gravitational force; if it had expanded a little more quickly, all cosmic matter would have dispersed and vanished. If a 1/1018 difference in the explosion’s speed had arisen just when that speed
had reached a particular level, the equilibrium in question would have been destroyed. If just one of these minute variations had arisen, the universe would have disappeared. Let’s take a look around us. Everything is in an extraordinary state of stasis, calm, and perfection, because nothing in the universe is coincidental. In fact, everything depends on a flawless and perfect level and the extraordinarily delicate balances created and set into motion by Almighty Allah, Who rules everything, created a flawless artistry and miracle via a single explosion, and is all-giving: … He Who created the seven heavens in layers. You will not find any flaw in the creation of the All-Merciful. Look again – do you see any gaps? Then look again and again. Your sight will return to you, dazzled and exhausted! (Surat al-Mulk, 34)
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Allah’s Sublime Artistry Prevails in All Things Human beings breathe as a reflex; dolphins do so consciously. In the same way that we decide to walk, they decide to breathe. When they rise to the surface, they fill 80-90% of their lungs with air so that they can stay underwater for a long time. Breathing while asleep is no problem for them, for they use their brain’s right and left lobes alternately for 15-minute periods. While one lobe sleeps, the other is on duty so that the dolphin can ascend to the surface and breathe. Human beings are not the only entities on Earth with complex features. Just about everywhere you research and investigate, you can see countless complex and varied life forms flying in the sky or living in the depths of the oceans. The way that they have been created differently from us and from each other, as well as in different kingdoms, is part of the wisdom of Allah , the Creator of all distinct works and beauties. Human beings cannot equip living things to breathe underwater or enable them to fill their lungs with air to a specific level. They cannot endow anything with the ability to control its cerebral lobes, or teach it how to operate the systems it needs to sustain life, while asleep. They cannot bestow upon any living thing the most appropriate means and features to survive in
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their various environment. In fact, human beings cannot do these things even for themselves. Given these facts, how can blind chance and coincidence accomplish that which conscious human beings cannot? The theory of evolution, which makes chance its deity and maintains that everything came into being in a random manner, has completely collapsed in the face of modern science’s ongoing revelations of these previously unknown complex structures. Only Almighty Allah can give life, endow living entities with what they need to survive, bestow blessings upon them, and equip them accordingly. People, who encounter these blessings at all moments, need to reflect on our Lord’s mercy and blessings and to turn to Him: In the creation of the heavens and Earth, and the alternation of the night and day, and the ships that sail the seas to people’s benefit, and the water that Allah sends down from the sky–by which He brings the ground to life when it was dead and scatters about in it creatures of every kind–and the varying direction of the winds, and the clouds [that are] subservient between heaven and Earth, there are Signs for people who use their intellect. (Surat al-Baqarah, 164)
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The Miraculously Renewed Body No one’s body is ever the same as it was the day before, for some of its cells have been renewed or have died. Only the soul is unchanging. Scientists have proven that the body’s tissues are constantly regenerated. In order to bring this about, 200 million cells are born each minute to replace those that have died. Allah has willed a single hormone called thyroxin to regulate this flawless phenomenon. Thyroxin monitors the body, identifies cells that have come to the end of their life spans, and forwards the command for new production to the units concerned. The whole process of bodily renewal depends upon this hormone. If it did not calculate the number of missing hormones and thus produced more or fewer than were needed, the resulting state of confusion would cause the body’s external appearance to age and its organs to cease functioning. Excessive production would result in uncontrolled organ growth and tumors, leading to rapid death. Is it logical for such a vital process to be controlled by a single hormone that, according to evolutionists, acts in a supposedly unconscious manner and functions purely by chance? Even if such were the case, could a single hormone calculate how many cells have died and produce enough new ones to fill the gap? Clearly, such a hormone cannot come into being by chance and spontaneously decide to manage production within the body. If someone imagines that the body’s perfect internal balance belongs to a hormone that emerged by chance and acts in a random manner, that person will spend his or her life in a state of great unease. (In any case, a human body cannot survive long enough for a hormone to emerge, by chance, through random interventions. The random stages proposed by Darwin cannot account for the forma-
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tion even of one protein in a single bacterium cell.) The human body’s systems are far too complex and detailed to permit even one random event. The Creator of all these systems is Allah, the Lord of everything that exists, Who keeps them under His control at all moments: It is Allah Who created the seven heavens and of Earth the same number, the Command descending down through all of them, so that you might know that He has power over all things and encompasses all things in His knowledge. (Surat al-Talaq, 12)
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The Extraordinary Details in Space The larger a star is, the faster it burns. If the Sun, which warms us and provides us with food and life, were ten times larger than it actually is, it would have died 10 million (as opposed to 10 billion) years after its formation and we would not be here now. If our planet’s orbit were closer to the Sun than it actually is, everything would evaporate and vanish; if it were further away, everything would be covered in ice. The Sun is the ideal size and at the ideal distance from Earth to support life on our planet. If Earth were just 1% further away from the Sun or 5% closer to it, our planet would be uninhabitable. The percentages in question are absolutely tiny when one considers the enormous numbers in the universe. For example, let’s consider Venus. The Sun’s warmth reaches Venus, the planet immediately closer to it than Earth, just two minutes before it reaches us. In terms of size and structure, Venus is relatively similar to Earth. However, a small difference in each planet’s orbit distance gives rise to a significant difference: Venus’ surface temperature reaches 470 degrees Celsius, high enough to melt lead. In addition, its surface atmospheric pressure is 90 times that of Earth’s, a fact that makes human life there impossible.1 Allah could have created life on each planet if He willed. However, He willed to do so only on Earth by making count-
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less factors dependent upon the most sensitive balances. If even one of these balances were upset, human life on Earth would be impossible. However, since He created and maintains all of perfect flawless balances, our planet exists in a state of flawless creation: It is He Who splits the sky at dawn, and appoints the night as a time of stillness and the Sun and Moon as a means of reckoning. That is what the Almighty, the All-Knowing has ordained. (Surat alAn‘am, 96)
1. Bill Bryson, A Short History of Just About Everything (USA: Broadway: 2004), 247
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The Human Brain’s Magnificent Neural Network The global telecommunications network that enables hundreds of millions of telephone calls to be made simultaneously is something amazing. Yet in comparison to the network found in a person’s brain, it seems quite ordinary. A human brain contains, on the average, 100 billion neurons. We cite the following example to understand this perfect network better: if the brain’s neurons were laid end to end, they would stretch for several hundred thousand kilometers. This extraordinary network is a main reason why scientists describe the brain as one of the universe’s greatest mysteries. There are around 100 trillion places in the brain, known as synapses, where chemical processes occur. Any bodily cell can establish a connection with 1,000 separate brain cells by utilizing these synapses. The speed of the resulting information processing is truly amazing—one single data byte can reach 100,000 neurons at the same time. As a result, the brain functions hundreds of thousands of times faster than the most advanced computer. Dr Kerry Bernstein, IBM’s director of technology, has said that it does not seem possible to make a similar device with the same speed and characteristics.1 Of course, it is impossible to build such a comprehensive network, squeeze it into a minute space, construct quadrillions of connections, and then ensure that they all work in milliseconds. Creating this perfect system, which has existed in each human being who has ever lived, is beyond human capability. The brain, this comprehensive and detailed miracle, was created so that people could realize this truth. This great gift belongs to Almighty Allah, Who provides all kinds of blessings without demanding any recompense. The existence of this sublime marvel of creation once
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again displays our Lord’s greatness and might: We created humanity from the purest kind of clay, then made him a drop in a secure receptacle, then formed the drop into a clot, formed the clot into a lump, formed the lump into bones, clothed the bones in flesh, and then brought him into being as another creature. Blessed be Allah, the Best of Creators. (Surat al-Mu’minun, 12-14)
1. “Brain Teaches Computers a Lesson,” MSNBC.com, 6 August 2002. (Byte: the name given to the smallest data unit in a computer.)
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Wings That Beat 500 Times a Second The mosquito beats its wings some 500 times a second; human beings can manage to wave their arms to a very limited extent in the same amount of time. If scientists could ever build such a powerful mechanism, it would soon burn up due to the intense friction. And yet a mosquito accomplishes this feat for as long as it lives, flying at a high speed in the direction it chooses and for as long as it desires. In addition, it has been endowed with the most perfect maneuvering and landing abilities. A mosquito requires a high level of oxygen to beat its wings at this speed. Therefore, it has a special respiratory passage that immediately reaches every cell in its body. Since this passage is directly connected to the outside air, its cells engage in oxygen exchange without the need for any
A person can only wave his or her arms a few times every second; a mosquito can beat its wings 500 times a second. This superior ability is a proof of Allah’s creation exhibited in fine detail.
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intermediate substances. As a result, a mosquito never becomes tired. Creating such a wing in a creature that is less than 1 cm (0.4 inch) in size, together with a respiratory system that makes this possible, is a display of Allah’s astonishing artistry. No coincidence can give rise to such a perfect mechanism in such a complex life form and endow it with perfect functioning, or give it a pair of wings that can beat 500 times per second simultaneously. Such a flawless creature and its amazing wings could not have come into being through random stages, as proposed by Darwin: Yes, indeed, everything in the heavens and on Earth belongs to Allah. Those who call on something other than Allah are not really following their partner-deities; they are only following [their own] conjecture. They are only guessing. (Surah Yunus, 66)
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The Perfect System That Perceives Scent When you take a deep breath, you simultaneously perceive various smells, for example, from the coffee you are drinking, the food cooking in the kitchen, the flowers in the vase, and the smoke outside. And yet you perceive them all individually, because your nose can analyze each smell it detects in thirty seconds and thus can distinguish among 3,000 scents. Messages arriving from billions of scents are transmitted within a matter of minutes to tens of thousands of cells. The speed involved here is extraordinary. Several million pieces of data move from one cell to another in as little as one-thousandth of a second, never making a mistake. These processes allow you to identify a smell very quickly. In addition, the identification and organization of the transmitted data further increases scent sensitivity. The distinguishing and recognition of smells further increases scent sensitivity in the nose.1 We can explain the extraordinary nature of the flawless transmission as follows: Let’s assume that a specific piece of data is carried along a million telephone lines and that the number of these lines is suddenly reduced to a thousand. In that event, it is very likely that no matter how advanced the technology being used is, a loss or error in the original data will take place. Yet scent cells carry out the same task without error for as long as we live. The fact that we come into contact with a large number of scents at the same time does not prevent us from telling them apart; no matter how numerous they may be, we can distinguish one from another quite easily. The fact that each person has such an amazing system may never have seemed surprising to us. A person finds nothing odd in recognizing the scent of a rose or of coffee
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and may never have wondered about the different stages involved in recognizing a particular fruit’s smell. Yet the complex systems in the nose’s olfactory area, which exists only because Allah wills it to and controls its flawless operation, make this possible throughout one’s life: … that is the Knower of the Unseen and the Visible, the Almighty, the Most Merciful, He Who has created all things in the best possible way. He commenced the creation of humanity from clay. (Surat al-Sajdah, 6-7)
1. Tim Jacob, “Olfaction,” 2002, www.cf.ac.uk.biosi/staff/jacob/teaching/sensory/olfact1.html.
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The Superior Details in Bacteria Life on Earth could not survive in the absence of bacteria. All of the wastes we throw into the ground, certain that they will be broken down and rot away, disappear because of bacteria. Thus, all of our waste products can be processed and recycled. Bacteria break down each part of a dead substance into small minerals that living things can use as food. They purify our water, make our soil fertile, synthesize vitamins in our intestines, convert what we consume into useful sugars and polysaccharides (a carbohydrate group), and combat the harmful bacteria we ingest with our food. The nitrogen cycle, which is of vital importance to Earth, depends entirely upon bacteria to take nitrogen from the air and convert it into nucleotides and amino acids, our own building blocks. This literally amazing process cannot be carried out by any other living thing, including humanity. Bacteria effortlessly carry out a process that can be achieved only at a temperature of 500 degrees Celsius and at a pressure 300 times greater than normal by using industrial techniques in a matter of seconds. More important, bacteria provide us with the oxygen we breathe. In fact, much of Earth’s breathable oxygen is supplied by micro-organisms through photosynthesis. Cyanobacteria, algae, and other micro-organisms that fill the oceans, release some 150 billion kilos (331 billion lbs.) of oxygen every year.1 Bacteria, just one of the countless reasons why life exists on this planet, completely discredit Darwin’s theory of evolution. Darwin imagined, mistakenly, and therefore based his entire theory on the assumption that these life forms were primitive. However, twenty-first century technology clearly reveals that these life forms are perfect entities with such complex features and abilities that they could never have come into being by chance or spontaneously. In fact, the theory of evolution cannot account for the
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supposed random emergence of bacteria. All of these things are manifestations of Allah’s artistry, for He created and brought together these awesome complexities, perfect structures, and flawless abilities. This example shows just how complex a single cell, described as the simplest form of life, can actually be and what superior characteristics it can actually possess. Allah reminds us that we live in need of a single-celled life form. Those who learn from this will strive to attain His mercy and Paradise and appreciate Him as is His due, for He created everything for a purpose: The keys of the Unseen are in His possession. No one knows them but Him. He knows everything in the land and sea. No leaf falls without His knowing it. There is no seed in the darkness of the ground, and nothing moist or dry that is not in a Clear Book. (Surat al-An‘am, 59) 1. Bryson, A Short History, 264.
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The Beauty in Earth and Sky The universe’s dimensions and distances far surpass human understanding. Numbers that are very large in earthly terms are, in fact, minute when the universe as a whole is considered. For example, the universe is estimated to contain some 300 billion galaxies. Our own Milky Way galaxy, which is just one galaxy, contains about 250 billion stars. The diameter of the Sun, an average-sized star, is 103 times greater than Earth. Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, is some 78,000 km (48,467 miles) distant from it. Space and the billions of galaxies contained within it, the secrets of which are still a mystery, move in their determined courses and influence each other by means of enormous gravitational forces. With the giant scales involved in this magnificent universe, all of its contents act according to a destiny that has been determined for them. Each one’s movement, rotational speed, temperature, and distance has been determined in the Sight of Allah, Who creates a tiny creature, invisible to the naked eye, in the depths of the ground. The One Who appoints its destiny is also the One Who perfectly creates the giant stars and keeps them, as well as all that exists, constantly under His supervision. Allah demonstrates His might and greatness in both instances. No matter what we may study on Earth and in the skies, we will always be confronted by His sublime and impeccable artistry. No entity can acquire any attribute by chance or maintain the existing order and balances by chance, for all of these are under the control of a sublime and boundless intelligence: Almighty Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
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The universe contains an estimated 300 billion galaxies. The Sun, just one of 250 billion stars in the Milky Way, is just one of these galaxies. All of the giant planets and specks of dust in the boundless universe are under His control:
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The Ant’s Glorious Nervous System A tiny ant, which has around 500,000 nerve cells, is a great sign leading to faith. Even in such a creature as this, which has almost no other aim in life than to survive by gathering food, Allah has created a perfect structure, a superior communication system, and a miraculous neural network. Thanks to this extraordinary neural network, ants use various modes of communication to find their prey, follow each other, build their nests, and fight their enemies. Thanks to their superior abilities, they are able to survive in a perfect way without any need for assistance. Yet the ant is completely unaware of its 500,000 nerve cells. Neither scientists nor random events can endow it with this comprehensive equipment so that it can continue to live. The random mutations envisaged by Darwin cannot produce a single cell in this magnificent system; chance cannot know what a liv-
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ing thing needs to sense and from where, and thus cannot give rise to a new bodily system. Given that the evolutionists’ proposed evolutionary mechanisms can only harm the existing complex system in question,
unconscious
chance cannot be the reason behind this special system. Ants have always had this comprehensive neural network, because they, like all other living things, are the work of our Lord, Who reveals His greatness in every detail, gives life to all things, and exhibits His Almighty artistry in the most perfect form even in a single form: Blessed be He Who placed constellations in the sky and put a blazing lamp and shining Moon among them. It is He Who made night and day succeed each other for those who want to pay heed or to give thanks. (Surat al-Furqan, 61-62)
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The Size of the Earth When people stand up and begin walking, they feel no pressure in an upward or downward direction. Sitting, walking, and running are exceedingly mundane activities. Yet each time people engage in such activities, they are completely unaware that they are resisting a very powerful gravitational force. The most important reason for this is the size of Earth. If it were just slightly smaller, gravity would be far weaker, the planet’s atmosphere would fragment and disappear, and we would be unable to remain stable in the world. If the Earth were larger, gravity would increase considerably and various poisonous gases would make our atmosphere lethal. Even if we managed to protect ourselves from these gasses, we would be unable to move. Yet such a problem never arises, because Earth’s size has been determined in a manner that makes human life possible. The conditions that combine are so delicate that there is no way even one of them could have come about by chance. Scientists have calculated the odds of such an event as 1 in 10123.1 Clearly, the accidental formation of an environment suited to life is impossible. Were Allah willed so, He could make each star and planet suitable for life, arrange matters so that human beings had no need to eat or drink, breathe gasses in specific proportions, or gravity or the Sun. But Allah, Who created all that exists, willed to bring together all of the astonishingly detailed conditions necessary for life to remind people that He created and controls everything and to give us the opportunity to appreciate His infinite might and turn to Him:
HARUN YAHYA Human beings constantly exhibit resistance to the force of gravity. The reason for this delicate and accurate force is Earth’s size, which He willed to be specially determined so that life could survive on this planet.
He to Whom the kingdom of the heavens and Earth belongs. He does not have a son, and He has no partner in the Kingdom. He created everything and determined it most exactly. (Surat al-Furqan, 2)
1 Roger Penrose, The Emperor’s New Mind (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1989); Michael Denton, Nature’s Destiny (New York: The Free Press, 1998), 9.
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The Perfect and Astonishing Details in the Human Eye Even when you look at the pen in your hand for just a few seconds, hundreds of billions of processes take place in your eye. Light passes through its cornea and pupil and then the lens, where light-sensitive cells convert it into electrical signals to be transmitted to the nerve endings as impulses. The image reaching the retina is reversed and upside down, and yet the brain can interpret it and provide a normal image by collecting the separate images from both eyes, identifying all of the object’s features, and combining the images from both eyes into a single picture. It also determines the object’s nature, color, and distance. The eyes do all of this in as little as a tenth of a second. The same processes take place in the brain whether you look at a tiny dot or a large ship, and the resulting image forms in a 1 mm (0.0393 in) point. You can never be sure that the pen in your hand is close to you or that a far-off ship is larger than a pencil, for the size of the place where these images form is exactly the same.
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Yet there is a sense of distance in everything you look at, for how else could you so easily stretch out your hand to pick up a glass? Allah, Who created this flawless organ, has equipped it with unimaginably fine detail and enabled the brain see an object where it is and in full detail. The extraordinarily complex human eye is just one of His sublime works. No human technology can duplicate such feats. Constant research is being carried out to unravel how the eye can do such incredible things, and scientists are attempting to understand just how it shows us a brightly colored world. Of course, neither the eye, which is just a few centimeters in size, nor the millimeter-sized region in which the image forms have the power to form a colored world. It is the soul that sees all of the matter existing on the outside and that reinterprets this inside the brain. Allah, the Almighty, enables people to see, perceive, and sense by breathing His own spirit into them at birth and makes these things dependent upon extraordinary conditions. The image created, the astonishing eyes that perceive it, and the countless systems involved in all of this exist only because Allah so wills it.
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The Brain’s Superior Nerve Cells Everything that you do, think, say, or feel takes place inside the brain. Nerves belonging to the brain, known as neurons, make such communication possible. An average neuron is 10 microns in size, and a micron is equivalent to .001 millimeter. They are so small that 50 average-sized ones could fit into the period at the end of this sentence. The brain contains an average of 100 billion neurons. It would take us 3,171 years to count all of them; if we laid them out end to end, they would stretch for 1,000 kms (621.4 miles). The presence of such an extensive communication network in an organ that represents only 2% of a human being’s body weight is certainly a wondrous miracle.1 Even if we were to bring together all man-made communication networks in the world, we could never obtain such a systematic, complex, flawless, and rapid system. This system must function in an incredible state of activity to produce even the smallest movement that we wish to make. Each person was given this flawless communication system while in the womb. No technology in the world can compare with the
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sublime, complex co-ordination displayed in the human brain. If even a small component of this perfect system is damaged or if a single neuron fails to function properly, the brain’s electrical transmission may be damaged, which leads to losses of feeling and sensation. In that event, any random event that occurs in this extraordinarily delicate system could do away with the majority, or even all, of its cerebral functions. Given this fact, how could such an incomparable communication network, the secrets of which have still to be unraveled, come into being by chance? This extraordinary structure belongs to Allah, Lord of Majesty and Greatness, Who creates all the living cells and makes them a means by which life is bestowed: Say: “Travel throughout the land and see how He brought creation out of nothing. Then later Allah will bring about the next existence. Allah has power over all things.’ (Surat al‘Ankabut, 20) 1. http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/what.html.
The human brain’s magnificent communication network contains 100 billion neurons. Damage to even its smallest part can lead to serious losses in our sensory systems. How could such a perfect structure have come about by chance?
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The Miraculous Atom: The Building Block of All Things When a living thing dies, its atoms disperse and become components of something else, such as a tree, a bacterium, or a raindrop. These fundamental building blocks of absolutely everything are so minute that 500,000 of them laid one on top of the other could still be hidden behind a single hair. In other words, it is next to impossible to imagine just how small one atom is. The following comparison may be cited to allow us to understand this: A millimeter is a line this long “- �. Let us imagine that you have divided that line into 1000 equal parts. Each one of these parts is 1 micron long. This is the size of micro-organisms. A typical paramecium is 2 microns in size. In other words, it is really minuscule. If you wanted to see this organism inside a drop of water you would have to magnify the drop so that it was 12 m (39.4 ft) or so in diameter. Yet if you wanted to see the atoms in that same drop of water you would have to make it 24 km (14.91 miles) in diameter. To put it another way, atoms exist on an entirely different size dimension. In order to go down to the atomic level you would have to take each one of these 1-micron slivers and further subdivide them 10,000 times. The size of an atom is this: One 10 millionth of a millimeter. The following comparison will help us understand this better: The size of an atom compared to a line just 1 mm(0.0393 in) in length is equivalent to that of the thickness of a piece of paper compared to the height of the Empire State Building, one of the tallest buildings in the USA.1 By His will, everything that exists is made up of atoms of this incredible size. Even more amazingly, 99.9999% of each atom is actually empty. The only reason why atoms combine to form molecu-
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les is the presence of electrons, which take up only a minute space inside this mass that is 99.9999% empty. That is what lies behind the existence of the universe, suns, lions, rabbits, mountains, skyscrapers, planes, human beings, and everything else. Is there any possibility that a scientist who investigates his own cells and his own atoms in the laboratory could produce a single atom? Of course not, for scientists are still very far away from discovering all of the details of subatomic particles. That being the case, the sublime might and creative artistry of Allah, Who creates galaxies billions of kilometers in size out of components just one 10 millionth of a millimeter in size, is clear for all thinking people to see. Almighty Allah creates entities by telling them to Be! and bestows miraculous details upon them. Everything constituted by atoms, meaning all that exists, is a great proof of this wondrous creation: It is He Who created the heavens and Earth with truth. The day He says ‘Be!’ it is. His speech is Truth. The Kingdom will be His on the Day the Trumpet is blown, the Knower of the Unseen and the Visible. He is the All-Wise, the AllAware. (Surat al-An‘am, 73) 1. Bryson, A Short History, 135.
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The Incredible Seed The way that plants, with all their different beauties, emerge out of the soil is a great miracle. It is astonishing how a plant turns toward the Sun and reaches upward, how its branches thicken, and how it possesses a system capable of carrying water and minerals upward against the force of gravity. There is something quite extraordinary in how fresh green leaves sprout from a plant’s dry branches, how flowers with stunning colors and matchless perfumes appear from among them, and how fruit specially created for humanity in terms of its taste, smell, and benefit then appears. There is sublime artistry in the way that a seed, just 1-2 cm (0.4-0.78 in) in diameter, causes all of these miracles that occur in each plant. Allah hides every piece of information about a plant inside the tiny seed from which it grows: each branch and leaf and their shape and color, the thickness of their outer casing, the width and quantity of the ducts that carry food and water, the plant’s height, whether it will bear fruit or not, and that fruit’s taste, scent, shape, and color. Evolutionists, who invent implausible scenarios to explain such miracles away, cannot appreciate His sublime artistry and might and thus fail to understand that He wills such complexities to exist. They seek to ignore that they are unable to create even a single fruit, leaf, seed, or living cell. Only Almighty Allah, Who
The grape seeds shown below give rise to the delicious grapes hanging down from the vines. Allah makes a tiny seed placed in the ground the direct cause of these fruits and creates delicious and sweet-smelling blessings. This is His art of detail.
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creates the world, exhibits His artistry within it, and constantly carries out this creation can do this. His knowledge and artistry are everywhere. Faced by the matchless works of the Sublime and Mighty Allah, evolutionists are constantly condemned to defeat: Have you thought about what you cultivate? Is it you who make it germinate, or are We the Germinator? If We willed, We could have made it broken stubble. You would then be left devoid of crops, distraught. (Surat alWaqi‘ah, 63-65)
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The Striking Detail in Living Things Capable of Perceiving Electricity Living things emit electricity as well as heat. It may be difficult for you to feel this electricity, because air is an insulator. A conductive environment and special equipment are necessary for this electricity to be felt. Water, a natural conductor, and certain life forms that live in water and use the electrical currents in their bodies are examples of this. A living thing that can detect electricity in water and acts according to that sensation has a very effective sense. For example, sharks can detect all vibrations in water, changes in water temperature and salinity level, and minute changes in the electrical field set up by moving organisms. In addition, their large number of gel-filled cavities (Lorenzini ampules) are perfect electricity detectors. Along with rough rays, they use these detectors to hunt their prey and can perceive currents as small as one 20 billionth of a volt, a truly glorious ability. Imagine the batteries in an average house. Sharks would be able to detect the current emitted by just two 1.5
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volt batteries beneath the sea from a distance of 3,000 km (1,864 miles) away.1 The fact that this animal has been equipped with such an exceptionally special system, one that is ideally suited to its environment and crucial to its survival, is only possible by the will of an Almighty Power Who creates it, knows its needs and habitat, and is Mighty enough to create all these. That infinite Power belongs to Allah , the Almighty and Omniscient: (Hud said:) “I have put my trust in Allah, my Lord and your Lord. There is no creature He does not hold by the forelock. My Lord is on a Straight Path.� (Surah Hud, 56)
1. John Downer, Supernature: The Unseen Powers of Animals (London: BBC Worldwide Ltd., 1999), 17.
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The Pituitary Gland: Regulator of the Human Body The brain contains a pea-sized organ that weighs around 0.5 grams (0.017 ounce) and, amazingly enough, supervises and regulates the entire body. Known as the pituitary gland, this most complex, flawless, and vital administrator distributes jobs to countless hormones and monitors each one, all of which have their own appointed tasks, without interruption. We move our heads and arms, see, hear, smile, speak, and touch all at the same time. We remember what people have said to us and analyze things. All of the sensations that reach us and our movements take place by means of hormones. The pituitary gland enables hundreds of processes to take place simultaneously, flawlessly, and without delay. There is no question of any hormone running late; being unable to transmit the messages that reach them; or, apart from exceptional cases of sickness, of hearing what a person who is talking to us only after several minutes have passed; or of not feeling the sensation of being burned before the burn appears on our hands. This is because the tiny pituitary gland, which consists of protein, water, and fat, flawlessly carries out all of its tasks because Allah, the Lord of the worlds, wills it to do so. Anything that any entity does occurs only because of His will, for nothing is independent of His power and control. When Allah so wills, He manifests His Own might and greatness as He wills through a particular entity that He has created. Everything we see or do not see, but that we know about, is a separate manifestation of His infinite Greatness: That is Allah, your Lord. There is no deity but Him, the Creator of everything. So worship Him. He is responsible
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for everything. Eyesight cannot perceive Him, but He perceives eyesight. He is the All-Penetrating, the All-Aware. “Clear insights have come to you from your Lord. Whoever sees clearly does so to his own benefit. Whoever is blind, it is to his own detriment. I am not here as your keeper.” (Surat al-An‘am, 102-04)
The pea-sized pituitary gland, which weighs 0.5 grams (0.017 ounces), distributes to the body’s countless hormones their tasks and regulates each one without the slightest interruption. It is a blessing that Allah has created and charged this small organ with regulating the human body.
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The Perfect Detail That Protects Ice-Dwelling Polar Bears The human body contains many extraordinary systems. How they work, function uninterruptedly, take precautions in the face of difficulties, and never make a mistake is beyond belief. However, all living things on Earth, from giant whales to ants, from singlecelled algae to tigers, have equally amazing features. It is literally miraculous that anyone witnessing this extraordinary state of affairs should still deny His works: Even if We sent down angels to them, and the dead spoke to them, and We gathered together everything in front of them right before their eyes, they would still not believe unless Allah willed. The truth is that most of them are ignorant. (Surat al-An‘am, 111)
Take the example of polar bears, who live in a cold ice-shrouded environment. By grasping the surface of the ice via a vacuum effect, thanks to the cavities between its toes, a polar bear can travel long distances on ice. This web-like struc-
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ture between its toes also enables it to walk at a speed of 10 km per hour (6.2 mph) and travel 100 km (62 miles) without resting. The apparently white hairs in its special 5 cm (2 in) thick fur are actually transparent and, because of their fiber optic properties, prevent heat loss and transmit the Sun’s warmth to the black hairs beneath. Immediately under the fur is a 10 cm (4 in) thick layer of fat that provides further protection against the cold. When it swims, its hairs form a protective shield by adhering to one another and serving as a waterproof diving suit. Thanks to all of these features, a polar bear can maintain its 37-degree body temperature under water or on the ice. Such highly detailed and flawless structures, all of which are of the greatest importance for continued life on Earth, reveal that they could not have come about by chance. Moreover, scientists cannot produce them. Allah flawlessly creates all things. In the case of the polar bear, He places this animal on the ice enables it to survive its harsh environment. This is a constant reminder of the greatness of Almighty Allah, Who creates the states and behavior of all things by His will: And He has made everything in the heavens and on Earth subservient to you. It is all from Him. There are certainly Signs in that for people who reflect. (Surat al-Jathiyyah, 13)
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The Superior Details in a Pair of Eyes When you look at these lines, an electric current traveling at 500 km per hour (310.7 mph) begins moving from your eyes to your brain by any of its 600,000 nerves. When the current is transmitted, you begin reading the lines before you. The eye is linked to the brain by 600,000 nerves, which simultaneously receive and arrange 1.5 million messages at the same time and send them to the brain at 500 km an hour (310,7 mph). When you look at a single point, you actually see hundreds of different details that the eye distinguishes from all of the massages reaching it and then analyzes and forwards to the brain. While this book you are holding is quite close to you, the scene you see in the background is, at the
same
time,
comparatively far away. And yet
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you see both of them with the same clarity, for not a single point in your line of sight is overlooked or unclear. No matter how detailed the view you are looking at is, even the image of a small ant that happens to be in your line of sight reaches your brain. No camera or television could provide such a high degree of clearness, and so all man-made technology is inferior to the human eye. If people are deprived of this blessing, they will be unable to see anything until this system is restored. And that can only happen by Allah ’s choosing. This special blessing, created for human beings while they are still embryos, is a gift from Allah, Who is always needed and from Whom aid may be hoped for at all times: Say: “It is He Who brought you into being and gave you hearing, sight, and hearts. What little thanks you show!’ (Surat alMulk, 23)
The eye, which is connected to the brain by 600,000 nerves, receives and arranges 1.5 million signals simultaneously and sends them to the brain at 500 km per hour (310.7 mph). The eye is one of the most important manifestations of Allah’s sublime might and power.
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The Superior Detail in Taste Perception Cells We can remember the flavor of a food we enjoyed ten days ago. If we eat it again, we can perceive the same taste once again and experience the same enjoyment, because its taste is now familiar. However, the tongue’s taste cells are not the same as the ones that existed ten days ago. Every day our taste cells come into contact with acidic foods that are hotter or colder than the body’s temperature. Hot tea, an ice-cold fruit juice, thick coffee, or bitter grapefruit juice all damage these cells to some extent. But by His will, new cells mature in the taste buds to replace those that have completed their life’s work. Even if people are unaware of them, these processes occur so quickly that the taste cells we use at dinner are not those we use at breakfast. And yet we do not imagine ourselves to be eating that food for the first time. We never confuse an apple’s flavor, because every new cell contains exactly the same knowledge as the old cell. In fact, all of our cells are constantly being renewed, and yet one’s nose never changes shape and one’s hair never changes color. New cells never install themselves in the wrong place, and thus everything always retains the same shape. If the old taste cells were not renewed, we would be unable to taste anything. A delicious meal or a piece of wood would taste the same. We would forget what sweetness was and be unaware if a piece of food were poisonous or rotten, for only specially created taste cells can initiate this superior process and blessing. In fact, Almighty Allah, the Creator and Lord of all beings, has created these cells with a perfect memory and a sublime renewal system. This and thousands of other similar blessings are His gifts, for He is generous to His servants, forgives unrequitedly, and is all-compassionate:
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Praise be to Allah, to Whom everything in the heavens and on Earth belongs. Praise be to Him in the Hereafter. He is the All-Wise, the All-Aware. (Surah Saba’, 1)
The tongue’s taste cells, which are replaced in a matter of days, are each equipped with their predecessor cell’s knowledge. Thus, the taste of something we ate ten days ago is still familiar to us. Our Almighty Lord creates every cell and the information within it with His infinite might.
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Water: One of His Greatest Blessings Water makes up three-fourths of Earth and around 70% of the human body. It enters each cell and travels through every vein, carries food and gives oxygen and energy to all of our 100 trillion cells. Thus, it is an incomparable blessing for life. If water were more fluid than it actually is, living things’ structures would be confronted by its destructive effect and soon collapse. In such a state, water could not support these delicate molecular structures, and so each cell’s delicate structure would collapse. If water were thicker than it actually is, the controlled actions of small organelles and such macromolecules as proteins and enzymes would cease and cell division would become impossible. All of a cell’s vital functions would freeze, and so the cells would begin to die one by one, making the organism’s death just a matter of time. From the tiniest molecule to the whales in the oceans, everything on Earth needs water, and therefore water has been created with a specific level of viscosity specially designed to benefit all of them: Earth, living things, a living entity’s body, and even that particular body’s smallest molecule. Even with present-day technology, scientists cannot produce another fluid with the same properties and capable of reaching every cell. Allah has made the glorious details that human beings lack the power to produce essential for all people and has bestowed them in abundance. Doing so reminds people who can think and reflect on His might, and dwelling on just one of these lifegiving elements enables them to thank Him for His blessings and appreciate His greatness:
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Water has been specially created to keep the human body alive. It reaches every point in the body, carries nutrients to all of its 100 trillion cells, and supplies them with oxygen and energy. Its viscosity level has been specially determined so that it can do all of these things. Water is yet another example of His sublime art of detail.
Allah sends down water from the sky and by it brings the dead ground back to life. There is certainly a Sign in that for people who hear. (Surat al-Nahl, 65)
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The Human Brain’s Great Energy The brain consists of approximately 80% water, 10% fat, 8% proteins, and small amounts of carbohydrates, salt, and other minerals. Each one of its nerves functions by receiving electrochemical signals. Neural networks store memories by weakening or strengthening their many connections, and the result is memory. Encountering unfamiliar situations or looking
The brain uses enough energy to power a dim lamp. Every memory is the result of the 1,000500,000 connections made by 100 billion cells at a speed of 400 km per hour (248.5 mph).
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at a portrait for the first time, for example, causes the cells to make new arrangements among themselves. The relevant nerves immediately strengthen their connections and attempt to define the situation. The data recorded enable the process to be carried out faster when the same situation is repeated, for what was new before will now appear familiar. The brain stores processes repeated throughout one’s life as a general image. Every recorded moment comes about by means of the 1,000 to 500,000 connections that the brain’s 100 billion nerves establish at a speed of 400 km per hour (248.5 mph). With this superb capacity, the brain uses enough energy to run a dim lamp. Although it constitutes only one-fiftieth of the body’s weight, it consumes one-fifth of the body’s entire oxygen and glucose supplies. So important is the brain that it receives the first blood emerging from the heart; if only a small amount of blood is left, it still seeks to keep the brain alive. The heart, blood vessels, and all other organs are literally aware of this fact. The slightest brain damage can leave a person handicapped or even dead. In fact, this organ is so delicate that the failure of electrical signals to reach a single cell can cause the loss of one of the senses that enable us to perceive the outside world. No single point in it can come into being by chance, and its perfect organization and equipment cannot be altered in a random manner. This perfection, a very great blessing, reflects the creative artistry of Allah, Who treats His servants well, the Beneficent Who creates to perfection, The Maker and He Who Reveals His Greatness in All: It is He Who shows you His Signs and sends down provision to you out of heaven. But none pay heed save those who repent. (Surah Ghafir, 13) ADNAN OKTAR
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The Atom’s Astonishing Detail Each atom consists of protons and neutrons bonded together in the nucleus, around which electrons revolve rapidly. Since the neutron carries no electrical charge and the proton has a positive charge, the nucleus is positively charged. The electron, on the other hand, has a negative charge proportional to the proton’s positive charge. If the proton and the electron’s electrical charges were unequal, the proton’s greater electricity would cause all atoms to be positively charged and thus repel each other. As a result, everything on Earth, including human beings, the seas and mountains, and all the planets in the Solar System and all the heavenly bodies in the universe would suddenly break apart into countless minute particles and cease to exist. Throughout their lives, human beings are unaware of the subatomic particles that attract each other, the electrons spinning rapidly around the nucleus, and their delicate internal balances and forces. Even its minutest components contains such breathtaking details that clearly only Allah, the Lord of absolute will
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and a force far greater than all known worldly forces, could have brought them into existence. Despite living in such an exceedingly delicate and sensitive system, human beings never feel any difficulty or concern, because the system’s creation is flawless. And yet the majority of people are unaware of these blessings. If one of them were removed, they would see how helpless they actually are and would become aware of the great compassion that had formerly surrounded them. The important thing in this worldly life, which is no more than a test, is for people to be grateful as they enjoy His blessings and mercy and turn toward Him. One reason for our existence is to see who will appreciate these bestowed blessings and who will be heedless and ungrateful. Sincere believers need to know that only Almighty Allah can bestow these blessings; thus, they should be constantly grateful to Him for them. Do the unbelievers not see that the heavens and Earth were sewn together and then We unstitched them, and that We made from water every living thing? So will they not believe? (Surat al-Anbiya’, 30)
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A Mosquito’s Impressive Heat Receptors A mosquito can detect the presence of any living thing due to its highly sensitive heat receptors that perceive the heat given off by a living entity in different colors, according to the heat the entity emits. Since this perception does not depend upon light, a mosquito easily finds blood vessels even if the entity is in a dark room. In fact, its heat detectors are so sensitive that they can determine temperature differences of just 0.05 degrees Celsius.1 Human beings have no such ability; Allah has bestowed it on this tiny creature—it is no larger than 1 cm (0.4 in)—so that it can find food and protect itself. Only Allah can create such a small and flawless heat-dependent mechanism in so tiny a creature and then bring it to life. Clearly, no one can claim that such a remarkable creature could have come into existence spontaneously as the result of chance. Any thoughtful person knows that a random phenomenon will only damage and destroy a perfect complex system; it cannot bring any system into being. Only Almighty Allah, Lord of the worlds, Who creates the mosquito’s sublime heat perception system, shapes and forms all things, and controls everything at all moments can do this: What is in the heavens and in the ground belongs to Allah. We have instructed those given the Book before you, and you yourselves, to fear [and respect] Allah. But if you do not be-
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lieve, what is in the heavens and in the ground [stills] belongs to Allah. Allah is Rich Beyond Need, Praiseworthy. (Surat al-Nisa’, 131)
1. www.colostate.edu/Depts/Entomology/courses/ en507/papers_1997/roachell.html.
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The Nutcracker’s Superior Memory The nutcracker has the most powerful avian memory so far identified. Native to the large Rocky Mountains in North America and the Grand Canyon, it lives on pine nuts that are edible for only a few weeks in September. Therefore, it stores them for later consumption. The distance between the pine trees and the storage site may sometimes be as much as 20 km (12.4 miles). It buries the nuts by placing them in the hard soil in a single movement; sometimes it leaves a stone on top as a marker. Over the course of three hectic weeks, the nutcracker collects nuts constantly. As it flies, it remembers the land’s contours, the trees it has visited, and the rock faces, all of which it adds to its mental map. The nutcracker has to remember where it has buried 100,000 nuts along a portion of the Grand Canyon that measures hundreds of kilometers throughout this short but productive period. This is how it survives for the rest of the year. During winter, it has to remember the markers like a photograph, because the snow changes the landscape and renders the markers invisible. Nevertheless, it manages to locate 90% of the buried 100,000 pine nuts.1 It is impossible for a bird to know that the food it needs will not be available after a certain period of time and that it has to collect and hide enough to survive. How did it learn how much food to collect at which time, where to store it, and how to find all of the 100,000 pine nuts again under the snow? Yet it does all of these things flawlessly, for like all other living entities, it acts according to Allah’s inspiration. Only the supervision and assistance of its Creator and the One Who inspires it to do certain things enables it
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to find its stored food, which has become invisible, without difficulty. This amazing creation of Allah, Who observes all created entities and showers unlimited, boundless, and unknowable mercy upon them at all times, is plain for all to see. The details exhibited in such a tiny bird once again reveals His Might and greatness in the finest manner possible. How many creatures do not carry their provision with them? Allah provides for them, and He will for you. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. (Surat al-‘Ankabut, 60)
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Clark’s_Nutcracker.
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The Skin: An Amazing Detail and Blessing The skin is a flawless casing that gives us a regular appearance; conceals the extraordinary activity going on inside our bodies; and makes touch, one of our most important senses, possible. Countless receptor nerves, circulatory channels, ventilation systems, heat and moisture detectors, and other manifestations of His artistry operate within it. The skin itself is both strong and elastic, two characteristics that are practically mutually exclusive. Skin covers an area of 2m2 (21.5 ft2) and weights 3 kgs (6.6 lbs). Its cells live for about one week, after which they die and are replaced. During a person’s life, 20 kgs (44 lbs) of skin cells are manufactured. Every square centimeter of skin contains sense cells that permit touch perceptions and assume various tasks, depending on their location. For example, when your hand comes into contact with boiling water, the receptors cause you to feel a sensation of heat and then one of pain. Some 30,000 receptors perceive heat; 3.5 million feel pain. This perfect casing and special organ,
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which is unaffected by external factors and has enormous elasticity, can transmit messages from every square millimeter to the nerves and thence to the brain. In fact, it consists of a network of nerves and blood vessels that is constantly being renewed. Allah bestowed this miracle upon each person and endowed even its smallest part with sensation. So perfect is this miracle that modern technology cannot produce a similar structure. This flawless casing protects us, enables us to touch other things, and gives us a pleasing appearance. A perfect blessing and flawless detail, Allah, in His boundless knowledge, created it and then bestowed it upon us: It is Allah Who made Earth a stable home for you and the sky a dome, and formed you, giving you the best of forms, and provided you with good and wholesome things. That is Allah, your Lord. Blessed be Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. (Surah Ghafir, 64)
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Protein: The Cell’s Most Basic Detail Proteins, the building blocks of all cells, emerge as the result of sequences of amino acids. Many basic conditions need to be met for a protein to form, among them the following: The amino acids have to be attached by a peptide bond, be left-handed, and be combined in a special sequence. These three conditions cannot form as the result of chance. Scientists who realized this fact performed calculations and determined that the odds were 1 in 10190 against such a series of events happening by chance. Even if a period of time as long as the age of our planet were allowed for this to take place, it would still be impossible for this protein to form by chance. Bearing in mind that, mathematically speaking, a probability of 1 in 1050 is regarded as zero, the fact of the matter emerges very clearly, because the number 10190 represents the number 1050x1050x1050x1040=10190. Proteins, the basis of your body and of all life, represent both the cells’ building material and highly complex machinery.
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Although a single protein cannot come into being by chance or spontaneously, this perfect structure still represents the basis of the cell. Thus, many proteins combine together and are constantly being reproduced—an important proof that fundamentally invalidates the theory of evolution. By introducing this perfect raw material, Allah shows the sublime nature of His creation. By reflecting for just a few seconds on the existence of the countless proteins that comprise our body, we can see that He creates miracles at every moment. Thus, we should always be grateful to Him: (It is) so that He may know that they have indeed transmitted the Messages of their Lord. He (Allah) encompasses what is in their hands and has counted the exact number of everything. (Surat al-Jinn, 28)
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The Kidneys’ Flawless Purification System It is no easy task to invent a machine just 10 cm (4 in) in size and then establish a system to purify the blood, water, and other fluids inside it. A whole factory would be needed to accomplish these tasks. Even if one managed to do this in such a small space, the performance and results would still be inadequate. One might manage to purify water or other fluids, but doing so for blood, which is essential for human beings, has not yet been achieved in such a small device. However, all human beings are actually perfect examples of this special purification system, thanks to the kidneys, each one of which is about 10 cm (4 in) in size and weighs 100 grams (3.5 ounce). This small space harbors around 1 million micropurifiers that constantly clean the blood, which carries everything that makes continued life possible, and regulate the density of the water that reaches all of your cells and tissues. The kidneys, which know how much fluid is in your tissues as well as its level of concentration, carry out the necessary adjustments by His will so that we can go on living without difficulty. Everybody more or less knows what happens when the kidneys fail to function: the person is hooked up to a dialysis machine several times a week until a new kidney can be transplanted. When the machine can no longer fulfill its purpose,
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the person dies. This example puts into stark relief the importance and miraculous aspect of this extraordinary purification plant. How can any logical person suggest, even though no scientist has ever been able to replicate this perfect organ, that it emerged by chance? This extraordinarily detailed and flawless system represents the artistry of Allah, Who created humanity with a flawless perfection. This organ alone is enough for a person to see His greatness and turn to faith: He has given you everything for which you have asked Him. If you tried to number Allah’s blessings, you could never count them. Humanity is indeed wrongdoing, ungrateful. (Surah Ibrahim, 34)
Giant dialysis machines can carry out the processes that are constantly being performed in the kidneys, just 10 cm (3.937 in) in size, only with great difficulty.
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The Superior Detail That Permits Life under the Ice People seldom wonder why water is transparent, how sand can become transparent glass and play an important role in our lives, or how a giant ship can sail without sinking. So familiar to us are all these things that perhaps no one has ever wondered what would happen if sand did not turn into glass at a sufficiently high temperature. A little consideration of such things will show that they have all been equipped with similar and sometimes vital details.
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One such detail is water. At sub-zero temperatures, water turns into ice. This is just one of many natural phenomenon in our lives, and yet this transformation violates the known laws of physics. The special details in water, created by Allah for a specific purpose, are one of the reasons why life on Earth exists. All known substances contract as their temperatures fall. As liquids contract and lose volume, their densities increase and their cold parts become heavier. This is why matter’s solid state is always heavier than its
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liquid state. We can cite the liquid and solid states of steel as an example of this. Contrary to all other known liquids, however, water contracts until it reaches a specific temperature (+4°C), after which it begins to expand until it freezes. Thus, water’s solid state is lighter than its liquid state. As a result, according to normal physical laws, ice should sink instead of floating. This is why the lower parts of frozen seas and lakes are covered in water at 4 degrees, which makes it possible for life to survive. If ice did not float, then most of the water on Earth would freeze entirely, no life would be left in any body of water, and the planet’s ecological equilibrium would be irreparably damaged. In other words, life as we know it would come to an end. This important detail, an amazing blessing for human beings, makes those who are aware of it more sensitive to the blessings created by Allah, the Creator of each physical law. However, He can
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create without physical causes, if He wills to do so, and is not bound by any law or rule. His sublime, detailed artistry prevails throughout all of creation: Is He Who creates like him who does not create? So will you not pay heed? If you tried to number Allah’s blessings, you could never count them. Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat al-Nahl, 17-18)
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The Body’s Special Cleaning Unit Cells are constantly nourished, multiply, and die in a miraculous manner, because each one has been created in such a way that it can copy, feed, and destroy itself. Dead cells need to be gathered and removed from the body. A series of proteins eliminate themselves when cells need to be eliminated. While the cell is useful to the body and fully functioning, these proteins are dormant. When it ages, however, or becomes sick, non-functioning, or malignant, these killer proteins are sent to kill it. The cell takes the right precautions at the right time, with the result that healthy cells remain alive while sick and elderly ones are constantly eliminated. The body always remains healthy, and dead cells are quickly replaced. A very large number of elements have to combine in order for human beings to remain alive. Yet the individual remains unaware of these elements and the perfect system of regulation. Just when particular cells need to be manufactured and eliminated is decided with perfect timing and order, beyond human will and knowledge, because Allah, Who created them, supervises and controls them.
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Each blessing bestowed upon humanity has a special purpose. When people realize that everything has been created with a direct cause and within a flawless system, and then bestowed upon them as a blessing, they will better comprehend His infinite Might and see the surrounding truth and beauty more clearly. The all-important truth is that Almighty Allah has created everything they possess and maintains these by His will. Allah’s mercy on humanity is very great: Were it not for Allah’s favor to you and His mercy ... and that Allah is All-Gentle, Most Merciful. (Surat al-Nur, 20)
Dead cells are eliminated by a series of proteins that go into action only when a cell dies or is sick. This magnificent control system, which people cannot control, is under the control of Allah, the Creator and Lord of all things.
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The Brain’s Impeccable Communication Network Each glance, thought, or detection of a smell begins in our brain. The relevant nerves interpret the transmitted message via an electrical current. When we look at a glass, we recognize it as a glass only because the brain’s nerves interpret it as such. When we think about something, these nerves establish coordination with and pass electrical currents through each other. We imagine that the image of the glass forms in our brain; however, this image reaches the brain solely as an electrical signal. Moreover, the brain does not contain the slightest trace of this image. In other words, we perceive the outside world only through the processes taking place among these nerve cells. This being the case, the facts that 10 billion nerve cells have been carefully placed within the brain, are means by which everything related to us is controlled, and that they allow us to perceive a vivid world are great miracles. Such miracles are simple things for Almighty Allah, Who created humanity as well as the causes in question from nothing.
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This system is a great secret that we are still striving to unravel. At a time when no scientist can claim to fully understand the brain and when the whole system points to a sublime creation, how can anyone seriously assert that blind chance is a creative force? With His mercy, Allah continually reminds us of His might and sublime creative artistry by means of the entities He creates. Believers who see and understand all of this will attain salvation in this world and in the Hereafter. Everyone in the heavens and Earth requests His aid. Every day He is engaged in some affair. So which of your Lord’s blessings do you both then deny? (Surat al-Rahman, 29-30)
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The Superior Detail in the White Shark’s Eyes White sharks, which catch their prey by following it with their eyes, easily move around hot coral reefs. However, cold water causes them great trouble, for it usually retards chemical processes. But its eyes somehow manage to follow its fast-moving prey in cold ocean waters. As we have seen many times before, Allah created an incomparable and amazing solution to this supposed problem: unlike the white shark itself, its eyes are not cold-blooded. As a result, the heat of its bodily muscles is transmitted directly to the eyes, thereby allowing it to catch fast-moving fish and even seals with great ease. There are many thought-provoking details related to how a cold-blooded animal that cannot store heat in its body can transmit heat to its eyes. Such an incredible system shows once again that the works and power of Almighty Allah, Who created the animal’s habitat and its special equipment, prevail everywhere. This example of sublime creation is a great blessing for humanity, because all of the proofs in and around people enable them to see and comprehend His sublime existence. The presence in a white shark of such a complex and detailed system, of which the animal itself is unaware, reminds us of His existence. Every proof of creation is a reason for people to draw closer to Allah and praise Him. The more they reflect upon these clear beauties and blessings, the more they will comprehend His Greatness. Any rational and conscious person can see the blessings that surround them;
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thus, they should constantly reflect on the fact that these are all reminders from Allah: It is He Who is Allah in heaven and on Earth. He is the AllWise, the All-Knowing. Blessed be Him to Whom belongs the sovereignty of the heavens and Earth and everything in between them. The knowledge of the Hour is with Him. You will be returned to Him. (Surat al-Zukhruf, 84-85)
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The Flawless System in a Single Cell Our bodies contain an estimated 30,000 different proteins. Amazingly, the functions of only 2% of them have been fully unraveled; the remaining 98% carry out very important but still unknown tasks. Just a single cell possesses more than 1 billion different kinds of proteins. At a rate of 1 per second, it would take 32 years to count, non-stop and without making any mistakes, all of the proteins contained in just one cell. If we add in such physical needs as sleeping and eating, we would certainly die before we could count all the cell’s proteins.
This complex creation is as it is solely because Allah wills it to be so. Everyone needs to know and see from these examples that Allah is powerful enough to create everything, and that no person has any real power over even a single cell. Every created entity and
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every flawless detail they possess, and even humanity itself, are great miracles. People need to activate and then use their conscience to see and evaluate Allah’s blessings and understand the message they impart. However, sincere individuals can see and appreciate the sublimity in creation by looking at the countless details surrounding them: It is He Who has created hearing, sight, and hearts for you. What little thanks you show! It is He Who dispersed you about Earth, and you will be gathered to Him. It is He Who gives life and causes to die, and His is the alternation of the night and day. So will you not use your intellect? (Surat alMu’minun, 78-80)
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The Perfect Detail in Message-Transmitting Cells The brain’s flawless system is, by itself, sufficient for us to realize His sublimity. As we stated above, it contains more than 100 billion nerve cells.1 In order for us to perceive, see, and feel our surroundings, communication has to be established among these 100 billion nerve cells. This is done by somehow making a total of 100 trillion connections. The means by which this astonishing level of communication is established are exceedingly effective. A special fluid located between the nerve cells contains certain highly specialized chemical enzymes that make electron transport possible. When the electrical signal reaches a nerve ending, electrons are loaded onto these enzymes and then transmitted to other nerves by floating through the fluid between the nerves. The electrical current thus continues to flow by passing on to the next cell. This process takes place in microseconds and with no interruption in the electrical current. If one of these enzymes fails to perform its function, the transmitted message cannot reach the brain. In other words, although you were looking at your hand, its image would fail to reach your brain. The brain’s 100 billion cells communicate via 100 trillion connections. By His will, these connections take place by means of various electron-bearing enzymes.
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Moreover, if the enzymes stopped functioning for any reason, the brain’s 100 billion nerve cells would also cease functioning. If these enzymes decided to distribute the massage randomly rather than taking it where it needs to go, the resulting chaos would overturn the entire sensory system and paralyze contact with the outside world. According to the evolutionists’ logic, which regards everything as purely coincidental, such constant chaos should be unavoidable because conscious entities do not direct this special system. If, as they maintain, everything happens randomly, then countless consecutive chaotic events should occur during any random communication taking place in the cells. However, apart from the most exceptional circumstances, no such mental chaos ever arises and the whole system functions without error. These completely undermine the evolutionists’ logic. Enzymes are always on duty and do not make mistakes. Such a matchless task carried out by unconscious entities made up of proteins can only be inspired by Allah. Every nerve in the brain and every enzyme, protein, and electron is the work of Allah. The example described here is just one of the countless details created by the One Who controls all entities at every moment and enfolds them with His mercy at all times: It is Allah Who created the heavens with no support–you can see them–and cast firmly embedded mountains on Earth so that it would not move under you, and scattered about in it creatures of every kind. And We send down water from the sky and make every generous species grow in it. This is Allah’s creation. Show me, then, what those besides Him have created! The wrongdoers are clearly misguided. (Surah Luqman, 10-11) 1. www.tesolgreece.com/nl/73/7305.html.
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Snowflakes: An Incomparable Miracle The molecules and atoms that make up a substance assume their most regular forms when in a solid state. The shapes to which they give rise by bonding with each other are three-dimensional geometrical forms, the angles of which have specific rations in the successive prisms they produce. There is never any error, deviation, or alteration in this. If the atoms in a substance as small as 1 in 1 millionth of 3 cm (1.2 in) possess the perfect and flawless geometrical regularity in question, then that substance must be a crystal. A snowflake is a crystal that begins forming around a minute dust particle that is just a few microns in size. This microscopic shape is hexagonal, and the crystal that forms grows by extending tiny arms from its corners. The crystal grows as the air chills and the environment changes, and capillary structures soon appear on the emerging structure. A snowflake’s atoms are attached to each other by loose bonds that cause crystals to bind to each other in different shapes. This difference is so great that it is difficult even to imagine the odds of two identical snowflakes falling to Earth. Let’s consider the number of snowflakes that fall during just one year. We can barely estimate the number of snowflakes that fall during a single snow storm in just one area. Literally trillions of snowflakes falls every year, and all of them have different shapes. How is such an amazing miracle possible? Clearly, Allah creates every detail to display an ex-
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traordinary property. Who but Allah, the Creator of the universe, has the power to create such an immense diversity and then display His perfectly delicate artistry in microscopic details? Allah exhibits His might and the beauties He creates by displaying His artistic detail in all snowflakes, which fall as a blessing and source of beauty: In the alternation of night and day, and in what Allah has created in the heavens and Earth, there are Signs for people who guard against evil. (Surah Yunus, 6)
There are countless proofs of Allah on display. In order to see these, people must turn to Him sincerely so that He may strengthen their sight, understanding, and appreciation. Otherwise, they will become blind and remain unaware of the beauty of the blessings bestowed. If this is the case, they will suffer disappointment in the Hereafter. Such a fate can be avoided only by turning to Allah, the true Lord of all exquisite blessings, with full sincerity of heart.
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ll living entities possess countless perfect details and miracles of creation. There are details in the structure of a microorganism and an atom, the building block of all things. The sky has been created with extraordinary balances and organization. The universe, the human body, plants, the Sun, flowers, mountains, and the seas contain countless details and properties, all of which are full of His artistry. This is Allah’s art of detail. However, we must never forget that Allah has no need of design or direct causes when He creates. There is no need for a living thing to have a complex visual system in order to see, for all of our personal information
to be recorded in our DNA, for DNA to exist, for hydrogen and oxygen to collide to produce water, for plants to make photosynthesis, for an ant to have a neural network made up of 500,000 cells, for seeds to enable plants to emerge from beneath the ground and for those seeds to store information, or for living things in the depths of the ocean to produce light. Allah creates all of these without being dependent on direct causes, because He, the Creator of the heavens and Earth, is unfettered by such causes. Whenever Allah wills something to exist, He merely tells it to Be. Whenever He wills something to come into being with all of its perfections, it is enough for Him to command it to do so: Does He Who created the heavens and Earth not have the power to create the same again? Yes indeed! He is the Creator, the All-Knowing. His command when He wills a thing is just to say to it “Be!” and it is. (Surah Ya Sin, 81-82)
One of the wise aspects of Allah’s creation of details is that they cause us to think, to see and understand that He has created everything out of nothing and displays the proofs of His own existence. They are made for us to grasp the complexities in the building blocks that comprise us and to realize that we cannot understand the skills and abilities of even a bacterium, which are sometimes superior to our own … for us to see how much we are in need of Allah; to understand that we live on Earth by His will and permission, and that by His leave we will have an infinite life in the Hereafter; and to remind us
that we will inevitably return to Him and be asked about what we saw and experienced in this world and about the proofs given to us. Allah created all of these various details for a variety of purposes. Of course, He could eliminate all of them and recreate them in even more perfect states in the Hereafter. Allah is great, Almighty, and Sublime. All things bow to Him. Everyone living today or who has ever lived, including you, the reader of these lines, will one day be raised to His Sight. Before that day comes, everyone must appreciate the proofs of His existence. Allah’s art of detail is displayed in a way designed to remind us of this fact: Yes, everything in the heavens and Earth belongs to Allah. Yes, Allah’s promise is true, but most of them do not know it. He gives life and causes to die, and you will be returned to Him. (Surah Yunus, 55-56) Glory be to You. We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. (Surat al-Baqarah, 32)
arwinism, in other words the theory of evolution, was put forward with the aim of denying the fact of creation, but is in truth nothing but failed, unscientific nonsense. This theory, which claims that life emerged by chance from inanimate matter, was invalidated by the scientific evidence of miraculous order in the universe and in living things. In this way, science confirmed the fact that Allah created the universe and the living things in it. The propaganda carried out today in order to keep the theory of evolution alive is based solely on the distortion of the scientific facts, biased interpretation, and lies and falsehoods disguised as science.
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Yet this propaganda cannot conceal the truth. The fact that the theory of evolution is the greatest deception in the history of science has been expressed more and more in the scientific world over the last 20-30 years. Research carried out after the 1980s in particular has revealed that the claims of Darwinism are totally unfounded, something that has been stated by a large number of scientists. In the United States in particular, many scientists from such different fields as biology, biochemistry and paleontology recognize the invalidity of Darwinism and employ the fact of creation to account for the origin of life. We have examined the collapse of the theory of evolution and the proofs of creation in great scientific detail in many of our works, and are still continuing to do so. Given the enormous importance of this subject, it will be of great benefit to summarize it here.
The Scientific Collapse of Darwinism Although this doctrine goes back as far as ancient Greece, the theory of evolution was advanced extensively in the nineteenth century. The most important development that made it the top topic of the world of science was Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, published in 1859. In this book, he denied that Allah created different living species on Earth separately, for he claimed that all living beings had a common ancestor and had diversified over time through small changes. Darwin's theory was not based on any concrete scientific finding; as he also accepted, it was just an "assumption." Moreover, as Darwin confessed in the long chapter of his book titled "Difficulties on Theory," the theory failed in the face of many critical questions. Darwin invested all of his hopes in new scientific discoveries, which he expected to solve these difficulties. However, contrary to
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his expectations, scientific findings expanded the dimensions of these difficulties.
The
defeat
of
Darwinism in the face of science can be reviewed under three basic topics: 1) The theory cannot explain how life originated on Earth. 2) No scientific finding shows that the "evolutionary mechanisms" proposed by the theory have any evolutionary power at all. 3) The fossil record proves the exact opposite of what the theory suggests.
Charles Darwin
In this section, we will examine these three basic points in general outlines:
The First Insurmountable Step: The Origin of Life The theory of evolution posits that all living species evolved from a single living cell that emerged on the primitive Earth 3.8 billion years ago. How a single cell could generate millions of complex living species and, if such an evolution really occurred, why traces of it cannot be observed in the fossil record are some of the questions that the theory cannot answer. However, first and foremost, we need to ask: How did this "first cell" originate? Since the theory of evolution denies creation and any kind of supernatural intervention, it maintains that the "first cell" originated ADNAN OKTAR
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coincidentally within the laws of nature, without any design, plan or arrangement. According to the theory, inanimate matter must have produced a living cell as a result of coincidences. Such a claim, however, is inconsistent with the most unassailable rules of biology.
Life Comes From Life In his book, Darwin never referred to the origin of life. The primitive understanding of science in his time rested on the assumption that living beings had a very simple structure. Since medieval times, spontaneous generation, which asserts that non-living materials came together to form living organisms, had been widely accepted. It was commonly believed that insects came into being from food leftovers, and mice from wheat. Interesting experiments were conducted to prove this theory. Some wheat was placed on a dirty piece of cloth, and it was believed that mice would originate from it after a while. Similarly, maggots developing in rotting meat was assumed to be evidence of spontaneous generation. However, it was later understood that worms did not appear on meat spontaneously, but were carried there by flies in the form of larvae, invisible to the naked eye. Even when Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, the belief that bacteria could come into existence from non-living matter was widely accepted in the world of science. However, five years after the publication of Darwin's book, Louis Pasteur announced his results after long studies and Louis Pasteur
experiments, that disproved spontaneous
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generation, a cornerstone of Darwin's theory. In his triumphal lecture at the Sorbonne in 1864, Pasteur said: "Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experiment."1 For a long time, advocates of the theory of evolution resisted these findings. However, as the development of science unraveled the complex structure of the cell of a living being, the idea that life could come into being coincidentally faced an even greater impasse.
Inconclusive Efforts of the Twentieth Century The first evolutionist who took up the subject of the origin of life in the twentieth century was the renowned Russian biologist Alexander Oparin. With various theses he advanced in the 1930s, he tried to prove that a living cell could originate by coincidence. These studies, however, were doomed to failure, and Oparin had to make the following confession: Unfortunately, however, the problem of the origin of the cell is perhaps the most obscure point in the whole study of the evolution of organisms.2
Evolutionist followers of Oparin tried to carry out experiments to solve this problem. The best known experiment was carried out by the American chemist Stanley Miller in 1953. Combining the gases he alleged to have existed in the primordial Earth's atmosphere in an experiment set-up, and adding energy to the mixture, Miller synthesized several organic molecules (amino acids) present in the Alexander Oparin
structure of proteins. Barely a few years had passed before it ADNAN OKTAR
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was revealed that this experiment, which was then presented as an important step in the name of evolution, was invalid, for the atmosphere used in the experiment was very different from the real Earth conditions.3 After a long silence, Miller confessed that the atmosphere medium he used was unrealistic.4 All the evolutionists' efforts throughout the twentieth century to explain the origin of life ended in failure. The geochemist Jeffrey Bada, from the San Diego Scripps Institute accepts this fact in an article published in Earth magazine in 1998: Today as we leave the twentieth century, we still face the biggest unsolved problem that we had when we entered the twentieth century: How did life originate on Earth?5
The Complex Structure of Life The primary reason why the theory of evolution ended up in such a great impasse regarding the origin of life is that even those living organisms deemed to be the simplest have incredibly complex structures. The cell of a living thing is more complex than all of our man-made technological products. Today, even in the most developed laboratories of the world, a living cell cannot be produced by bringing organic chemicals together. The conditions required for the formation of a cell are too great in quantity to be explained away by coincidences. The probability of proteins, the building blocks of a cell, being synthesized coincidentally, is 1 in 10950 for an average protein made up of 500 amino acids. In mathematics, a probability smaller than 1 over 1050 is considered to be impossible in practical terms. The DNA molecule, which is located in the nucleus of a cell and which stores genetic information, is an incredible databank. If the in-
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formation coded in DNA were written down, it would make a giant library consisting of an estimated 900 volumes of encyclopedias consisting of 500 pages each. A very interesting dilemma emerges at this point: DNA can replicate itself only with the help of some specialized proteins (enzymes). However, the synthesis of these enzymes can be realized on-
One of the evolutionists’ gravest deceptions is the way they imagine that life could have emerged spontaneously on what they refer to as the primitive earth, represented in the picture above. They tried to prove these claims with such studies as the Miller experiment. Yet they again suffered defeat in the face of the scientific facts: The results obtained in the 1970s proved that the atmosphere on what they describe as the primitive earth was totally unsuited to life.
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ly by the information coded in DNA. As they both depend on each other, they have to exist at the same time for replication. This brings the scenario that life originated by itself to a deadlock. Prof. Leslie Orgel, an evolutionist of repute from the University of San Diego, California, confesses this fact in the September 1994 issue of the Scientific American magazine: It is extremely improbable that proteins and nucleic acids, both of which are structurally complex, arose spontaneously in the same place at the same time. Yet it also seems impossible to have one without the other. And so, at first glance, one might have to conclude that life could never, in fact, have originated by chemical means.6 No doubt, if it is impossible for life to have originated from natural causes, then it has to be accepted that life was "created" in a supernatural way. This fact explicitly invalidates the theory of evolution, whose main purpose is to deny creation.
One of the facts nullifying the theory of evolution is the incredibly complex structure of life. The DNA molecule located in the nucleus of cells of living beings is an example of this. The DNA is a sort of databank formed of the arrangement of four different molecules in different sequences. This databank contains the codes of all the physical traits of that living being. When the human DNA is put into writing, it is calculated that this would result in an encyclopedia made up of 900 volumes. Unquestionably, such extraordinary information definitively refutes the concept of coincidence.
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Imaginary Mechanism of Evolution The second important point that negates Darwin's theory is that both concepts put forward by the theory as "evolutionary mechanisms" were understood to have, in reality, no evolutionary power. Darwin based his evolution allegation entirely on the mechanism of "natural selection." The importance he placed on this mechanism was evident in the name of his book: The Origin of Species, By Means of Natural Selection‌ Natural selection holds that those living things that are stronger and more suited to the natural conditions of their habitats will survive in the struggle for life. For example, in a deer herd under the threat of attack by wild animals, those that can run faster will surAccording to natural selection, the strong and those able to adapt to their surroundings survive, while the rest disappear. Evolutionists propose that natural selection causes living things to evolve and results in new species. However, natural selection has no such effect and there is not a single evidence supporting the claim that it does.
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vive. Therefore, the deer herd will be comprised of faster and stronger individuals. However, unquestionably, this mechanism will not cause deer to evolve and transform themselves into another living species, for instance, horses. Therefore, the mechanism of natural selection has no evolutionary power. Darwin was also aware of this fact and had to state this in his book The Origin of Species: Natural selection can do nothing until favourable individual differences or variations occur.7
Lamarck’s Impact So, how could these "favorable variations" occur? Darwin tried to answer this question from the standpoint of the primitive understanding of science at that time. According to the French biologist Chevalier de Lamarck (1744-1829), who lived before Darwin, living creatures passed on the traits they acquired during their lifetime to the next generation. He asserted that these traits, which accumulated from
Lamarck believed that giraffes evolved from such animals as antelopes. In his view, the necks of these grass-eating animals gradually grew longer, and they eventually turned into giraffes. The laws of inheritance discovered by Mendel in 1865 proved that it was impossible for properties acquired during life to be handed on to subsequent generations. Lamarck’s giraffe fairy tale was thus consigned to the wastebin of history.
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one generation to another, caused new species to be formed. For instance, he claimed that giraffes evolved from antelopes; as they struggled to eat the leaves of high trees, their necks were extended from generation to generation. Darwin also gave similar examples. In his book The Origin of Species, for instance, he said that some bears going into water to find food transformed themselves into whales over time.8 However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Gregor Mendel (1822-84) and verified by the science of genetics, which flourished in the twentieth century, utterly demolished the legend that acquired traits were passed on to subsequent generations. Thus, natural selection fell out of favor as an evolutionary mechanism.
Neo-Darwinism and Mutations In order to find a solution, Darwinists advanced the "Modern Synthetic Theory," or as it is more commonly known, NeoDarwinism, at the end of the 1930s. Neo-Darwinism added mutations, which are distortions formed in the genes of living beings due to such external factors as radiation or replication errors, as the "cause of favorable variations" in addition to natural mutation. Today, the model that stands for evolution in the world is NeoDarwinism. The theory maintains that millions of living beings formed as a result of a process whereby numerous complex organs of these organisms (e.g., ears, eyes, lungs, and wings) underwent "mutations," that is, genetic disorders. Yet, there is an outright scientific fact that totally undermines this theory: Mutations do not cause living beings to develop; on the contrary, they are always harmful. The reason for this is very simple: DNA has a very complex structure, and random effects can only harm it. The American geneticist B. G. Ranganathan explains this as follows: ADNAN OKTAR
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First, genuine mutations are very rare in nature. Secondly, most mutations are harmful since they are random, rather than orderly changes in the structure of genes; any random change in a highly ordered system will be for the worse, not for the better. For example, if an earthquake were to shake a highly ordered structure such as a building, there would be a random change in the framework of the building which, in all probability, would not be an improvement.9
Not surprisingly, no mutation example, which is useful, that is, which is observed to develop the genetic code, has been observed so far. All mutations have proved to be harmful. It was understood
Genes, in which are coded all forms of information about the structures and features of living things, are damaged as a result of mutations—destructive effects that you can clearly see in these pictures. It is therefore impossible for mutations to make any contribution to the origin of a new species.
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that mutation, which is presented as an "evolutionary mechanism," is actually a genetic occurrence that harms living things, and leaves them disabled. (The most common effect of mutation on human beings is cancer.) Of course, a destructive mechanism cannot be an "evolutionary mechanism." Natural selection, on the other hand, "can do nothing by itself," as Darwin also accepted. This fact shows us that there is no "evolutionary mechanism" in nature. Since no evolutionary mechanism exists, no such any imaginary process called "evolution" could have taken place.
The Fossil Record: No Sign of Intermediate Forms The clearest evidence that the scenario suggested by the theory of evolution did not take place is the fossil record. According to this theory, every living species has sprung from a predecessor. A previously existing species turned into something else over time and all species have come into being in this way. In other words, this transformation proceeds gradually over millions of years. Had this been the case, numerous intermediary species should have existed and lived within this long transformation period. For instance, some half-fish/half-reptiles should have lived in the past which had acquired some reptilian traits in addition to the fish traits they already had. Or there should have existed some reptile-birds, which acquired some bird traits in addition to the reptilian traits they already had. Since these would be in a transitional phase, they should be disabled, defective, crippled living beings. Evolutionists refer to these imaginary creatures, which they believe to have lived in the past, as "transitional forms." If such animals ever really existed, there should be millions and even billions of them in number and variety. More importantly, the ADNAN OKTAR
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This fossil shark from the Carboniferous period (354 to 292 million years ago) indicates that the shark existed in its present-day form millions of years ago.
This fossilized ginkgo tree leaf from the Triassic period (251 to 205 million years ago) is identical to present-day ginkgo leaves. This and many other similar fossil specimens totally undermine the claim that living things evolved from one another.
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The dragonfly, a subject of modern research by scientists into flight techniques, reveals its perfect appearance and characteristics in this 140-millionyear-old specimen.
A maple leaf of the Miocene epoch (23.8 to 5.32 million years ago) and a present-day specimen
A Miocene epoch fossil flower A winged maple seed fossil from the Oligocene epoch (33.7 to 23.8 million years ago)
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remains of these strange creatures should be present in the fossil record. In The Origin of Species, Darwin explained: If my theory be true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking most closely all of the species of the same group together must assuredly have existed... Consequently, evidence of their former existence could be found only amongst fossil remains.10
Darwin’s Hopes Shattered However, although evolutionists have been making strenuous efforts to find fossils since the middle of the nineteenth century all over the world, no transitional forms have yet been uncovered. All of the fossils, contrary to the evolutionists' expectations, show that life appeared on Earth all of a sudden and fully-formed. One famous British paleontologist, Derek V. Ager, admits this fact, even though he is an evolutionist: The point emerges that if we examine the fossil record in detail, whether at the level of orders or of species, we find – over and over again – not gradual evolution, but the sudden explosion of one group at the expense of another.11
This means that in the fossil record, all living species suddenly emerge as fully formed, without any intermediate forms in between. This is just the opposite of Darwin's assumptions. Also, this is very strong evidence that all living things are created. The only explanation of a living species emerging suddenly and complete in every detail without any evolutionary ancestor is that it was created. This fact is admitted also by the widely known evolutionist biologist Douglas Futuyma: Creation and evolution, between them, exhaust the possible explanations for the origin of living things. Organisms either appeared on the earth fully developed or they did not. If they did not, they
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must have developed from pre-existing species by some process of modification. If they did appear in a fully developed state, they must indeed have been created by some omnipotent intelligence.12
Fossils show that living beings emerged fully developed and in a perfect state on the Earth. That means that "the origin of species," contrary to Darwin's supposition, is not evolution, but creation.
The Tale of Human Evolution The subject most often brought up by advocates of the theory of evolution is the subject of the origin of man. The Darwinist claim holds that modern man evolved from ape-like creatures. During this alleged evolutionary process, which is supposed to have started 4-5 million years ago, some "transitional forms" between modern man and his ancestors are supposed to have existed. According to this completely imaginary scenario, four basic "categories" are listed: 1. Australopithecus 2. Homo habilis 3. Homo erectus 4. Homo sapiens Evolutionists call man's so-called first ape-like ancestors Australopithecus, which means "South African ape." These living beings are actually nothing but an old ape species that has become extinct. Extensive research done on various Australopithecus specimens by two world famous anatomists from England and the USA, namely, Lord Solly Zuckerman and Prof. Charles Oxnard, shows that these apes belonged to an ordinary ape species that became extinct and bore no resemblance to humans.13 Evolutionists classify the next stage of human evolution as "homo," that is "man." According to their claim, the living beings in the Homo series are more developed than Australopithecus. Evolutionists ADNAN OKTAR
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devise a fanciful evolution scheme by arranging different fossils of these creatures in a particular order. This scheme is imaginary because it has never been proved that there is an evolutionary relation between these different classes. Ernst Mayr, one of the twentieth century's most important evolutionists, contends in his book One Long Argument that "particularly historical [puzzles] such as the origin of life or of Homo sapiens, are extremely difficult and may even resist a final, satisfying explanation."14 By outlining the link chain as Australopithecus > Homo habilis > Homo erectus > Homo sapiens, evolutionists imply that each of these species is one another's ancestor. However, recent findings of paleoanthropologists have revealed that Australopithecus, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus lived at different parts of the world at the same time.15 Moreover, a certain segment of humans classified as Homo erectus have lived up until very modern times. Homo sapiens neandarthalensis and Homo sapiens sapiens (modern man) co-existed in the same region.16 This situation apparently indicates the invalidity of the claim that they are ancestors of one another. Stephen Jay Gould explained this deadlock of the theory of evolution, although he was himself one of the leading advocates of evolution in the twentieth century: What has become of our ladder if there are three coexisting lineages of hominids (A. africanus, the robust australopithecines, and H. habilis), none clearly derived from another? Moreover, none of the three display any evolutionary trends during their tenure on earth.17
Put briefly, the scenario of human evolution, which is "upheld" with the help of various drawings of some "half ape, half human" creatures appearing in the media and course books, that is, frankly, by means of propaganda, is nothing but a tale with no scientific foundation.
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Lord Solly Zuckerman, one of the most famous and respected scientists in the U.K., who carried out research on this subject for years and studied Australopithecus fossils for 15 years, finally concluded, despite being an evolutionist himself, that there is, in fact, no such family tree branching out from ape-like creatures to man. Zuckerman also made an interesting "spectrum of science" ranging from those he considered scientific to those he considered unscientific. According to Zuckerman's spectrum, the most "scientific" – that is, depending on concrete data – fields of science are chemistry and physics. After them come the biological sciences and then the social sciences. At the far end of the spectrum, which is the part con-
Evolutionist newspapers and magazines often print pictures of primitive man. The only available source for these pictures is the imagination of the artist. Evolutionary theory has been so dented by scientific data that today we see less and less of it in the serious press.
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sidered to be most "unscientific," are "extra-sensory perception" – concepts such as telepathy and sixth sense – and finally "human evolution." Zuckerman explains his reasoning: We then move right off the register of objective truth into those fields of presumed biological science, like extrasensory perception or the interpretation of man's fossil history, where to the faithful [evolutionist] anything is possible – and where the ardent believer [in evolution] is sometimes able to believe several contradictory things at the same time.18
The tale of human evolution boils down to nothing but the prejudiced interpretations of some fossils unearthed by certain people, who blindly adhere to their theory.
Darwinian Formula! Besides all the technical evidence we have dealt with so far, let us now for once, examine what kind of a superstition the evolutionists have with an example so simple as to be understood even by children: The theory of evolution asserts that life is formed by chance. According to this claim, lifeless and unconscious atoms came together to form the cell and then they somehow formed other living things, including man. Let us think about that. When we bring together the elements that are the building-blocks of life such as carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium, only a heap is formed. No matter what treatments it undergoes, this atomic heap cannot form even a single living being. If you like, let us formulate an "experiment" on this subject and let us examine on the behalf of evolutionists what they really claim without pronouncing loudly under the name "Darwinian formula": Let evolutionists put plenty of materials present in the compo-
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sition of living things such as phosphorus, nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, iron, and magnesium into big barrels. Moreover, let them add in these barrels any material that does not exist under normal conditions, but they think as necessary. Let them add in this mixture as many amino acids and as many proteins – a single one of which has a formation probability of 10-950 – as they like. Let them expose these mixtures to as much heat and moisture as they like. Let them stir these with whatever technologically developed device they like. Let them put the foremost scientists beside these barrels. Let these experts wait in turn beside these barrels for billions, and even trillions of years. Let them be free to use all kinds of conditions they believe to be necessary for a human's formation. No matter what they do, they cannot produce from these barrels a human, say a professor that examines his cell structure under the electron microscope. They cannot produce giraffes, lions, bees, canaries, horses, dolphins, roses, orchids, lilies, carnations, bananas, oranges, apples, dates, tomatoes, melons, watermelons, figs, olives, grapes, peaches, peafowls, pheasants, multicoloured butterflies, or millions of other living beings such as these. Indeed, they could not obtain even a single cell of any one of them. Briefly, unconscious atoms cannot form the cell by coming together. They cannot take a new decision and divide this cell into two, then take other decisions and create the professors who first invent the electron microscope and then examine their own cell structure under that microscope. Matter is an unconscious, lifeless heap, and it comes to life with Allah's superior creation. The theory of evolution, which claims the opposite, is a total fallacy completely contrary to reason. Thinking even a little bit on the claims of evolutionists discloses this reality, just as in the above example. ADNAN OKTAR
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Technology in the Eye and the Ear Another subject that remains unanswered by evolutionary theory is the excellent quality of perception in the eye and the ear. Before passing on to the subject of the eye, let us briefly answer the question of how we see. Light rays coming from an object fall oppositely on the eye's retina. Here, these light rays are transmitted into electric signals by cells and reach a tiny spot at the back of the brain, the "center of vision." These electric signals are perceived in this center as an image after a series of processes. With this technical background, let us do some thinking. The brain is insulated from light. That means that its inside is completely dark, and that no light reaches the place where it is located. Thus, the "center of vision" is never touched by light and may even be the darkest place you have ever known. However, you observe a luminous, bright world in this pitch darkness. The image formed in the eye is so sharp and distinct that even the technology of the twentieth century has not been able to attain it. For instance, look at the book you are reading, your hands with which you are holding it, and then lift your head and look around you. Have you ever seen such a sharp and distinct image as this one at any other place? Even the most developed television screen produced by the greatest television producer in the world cannot provide such a sharp image for you. This is a three-dimensional, colored, and extremely sharp image. For more than 100 years, thousands of engineers have been trying to achieve this sharpness. Factories, huge premises were established, much research has been done, plans and designs have been made for this purpose. Again, look at a TV screen and the book you hold in your hands. You will see that there is a big difference in sharpness and distinction. Moreover, the TV screen shows you a two-dimensional image,
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whereas with your eyes, you watch a three-dimensional perspective with depth. For many years, tens of thousands of engineers have tried to make a three-dimensional TV and achieve the vision quality of the eye. Yes, they have made a three-dimensional television system, but it is not possible to watch it without putting on special 3-D glasses; moreover, it is only an artificial three-dimension. The background is more blurred, the foreground appears like a paper setting. Never has it been possible to produce a sharp and distinct vision like that of the eye. In both the camera and the television, there is a loss of image quality. The brain is closed to sound, as well as light. Yet we hear the clearest sounds and see the most perfect images in our brains. No technology has achieved the like of the flawless perceptory systems provided by the eye and ear. The eye and ear are manifestations of Allah's great compassion and creative artistry.
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Evolutionists claim that the mechanism producing this sharp and distinct image has been formed by chance. Now, if somebody told you that the television in your room was formed as a result of chance, that all of its atoms just happened to come together and make up this device that produces an image, what would you think? How can atoms do what thousands of people cannot? If a device producing a more primitive image than the eye could not have been formed by chance, then it is very evident that the eye and the image seen by the eye could not have been formed by chance. The same situation applies to the ear. The outer ear picks up the available sounds by the auricle and directs them to the middle ear, the middle ear transmits the sound vibrations by intensifying them, and the inner ear sends these vibrations to the brain by translating them into electric signals. Just as with the eye, the act of hearing finalizes in the center of hearing in the brain. The situation in the eye is also true for the ear. That is, the brain is insulated from sound just as it is from light. It does not let any sound in. Therefore, no matter how noisy is the outside, the inside of the brain is completely silent. Nevertheless, the sharpest sounds are perceived in the brain. In your completely silent brain, you listen to symphonies, and hear all of the noises in a crowded place. However, were the sound level in your brain measured by a precise device at that moment, complete silence would be found to be prevailing there. As is the case with imagery, decades of effort have been spent in trying to generate and reproduce sound that is faithful to the original. The results of these efforts are sound recorders, high-fidelity systems, and systems for sensing sound. Despite all of this technology and the thousands of engineers and experts who have been working on this endeavor, no sound has yet been obtained that has the same sharpness and clarity as the sound perceived by the ear. Think of the
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highest-quality hi-fi systems produced by the largest company in the music industry. Even in these devices, when sound is recorded some of it is lost; or when you turn on a hi-fi you always hear a hissing sound before the music starts. However, the sounds that are the products of the human body's technology are extremely sharp and clear. A human ear never perceives a sound accompanied by a hissing sound or with atmospherics as does a hi-fi; rather, it perceives sound exactly as it is, sharp and clear. This is the way it has been since the creation of man. So far, no man-made visual or recording apparatus has been as sensitive and successful in perceiving sensory data as are the eye and the ear. However, as far as seeing and hearing are concerned, a far greater truth lies beyond all this.
To Whom Does the Consciousness that Sees and Hears within the Brain Belong? Who watches an alluring world in the brain, listens to symphonies and the twittering of birds, and smells the rose? The stimulations coming from a person's eyes, ears, and nose travel to the brain as electro-chemical nerve impulses. In biology, physiology, and biochemistry books, you can find many details about how this image forms in the brain. However, you will never come across the most important fact: Who perceives these electrochemical nerve impulses as images, sounds, odors, and sensory events in the brain? There is a consciousness in the brain that perceives all this without feeling any need for an eye, an ear, and a nose. To whom does this consciousness belong? Of course it does not belong to the nerves, the fat layer, and neurons comprising the brain. This is why Darwinist-materialists, who believe that everything is ADNAN OKTAR
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comprised of matter, cannot answer these questions. For this consciousness is the spirit created by Allah, which needs neither the eye to watch the images nor the ear to hear the sounds. Furthermore, it does not need the brain to think. Everyone who reads this explicit and scientific fact should ponder on Almighty Allah, and fear and seek refuge in Him, for He squeezes the entire universe in a pitch-dark place of a few cubic centimeters in a three-dimensional, colored, shadowy, and luminous form.
A Materialist Faith The information we have presented so far shows us that the theory of evolution is incompatible with scientific findings. The theory's claim regarding the origin of life is inconsistent with science, the evolutionary mechanisms it proposes have no evolutionary power, and fossils demonstrate that the required intermediate forms have never existed. So, it certainly follows that the theory of evolution should be pushed aside as an unscientific idea. This is how many ideas, such as the Earth-centered universe model, have been taken out of the agen-
It is the soul created by Allah that perceives the taste, appearance and smell of the food we eat. The soul has no need of eyes to see images or ears to hear sounds. Neither does it need a brain with which to think. Almighty Allah fits the entire universe, in a three-dimensional, brightly colored form, into a pitch-black space no larger than a few cubic centimeters in size within the human brain.
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da of science throughout history. However, the theory of evolution is kept on the agenda of science. Some people even try to represent criticisms directed against it as an "attack on science." Why? The reason is that this theory is an indispensable dogmatic belief for some circles. These circles are blindly devoted to materialist philosophy and adopt Darwinism because it is the only materialist explanation that can be put forward to explain the workings of nature. Interestingly enough, they also confess this fact from time to time. A well-known geneticist and an outspoken evolutionist, Richard C. Lewontin from Harvard University, confesses that he is "first and foremost a materialist and then a scientist": It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, so we cannot allow a Divine [intervention]...19
These are explicit statements that Darwinism is a dogma kept alive just for the sake of adherence to materialism. This dogma maintains that there is no being save matter. Therefore, it argues that inanimate, unconscious matter created life. It insists that millions of different living species (e.g., birds, fish, giraffes, tigers, insects, trees, flowers, whales, and human beings) originated as a result of the interactions between matter such as pouring rain, lightning flashes, and so on, out of inanimate matter. This is a precept contrary both to reason and science. Yet Darwinists continue to defend it just so as "not to allow a Divine intervention." ADNAN OKTAR
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Anyone who does not look at the origin of living beings with a materialist prejudice will see this evident truth: All living beings are works of a Creator, Who is All-Powerful, All-Wise, and All-Knowing. This Creator is Allah, Who created the whole universe from non-existence, designed it in the most perfect form, and fashioned all living beings.
The Theory of Evolution: The Most Potent Spell in the World Anyone free of prejudice and the influence of any particular ideology, who uses only his or her reason and logic, will clearly understand that belief in the theory of evolution, which brings to mind the superstitions of societies with no knowledge of science or civilization, is quite impossible. As explained above, those who believe in the theory of evolution think that a few atoms and molecules thrown into a huge vat could produce thinking, reasoning professors and university students; such scientists as Einstein and Galileo; such artists as Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra and Luciano Pavarotti; as well as antelopes, lemon trees, and carnations. Moreover, as the scientists and professors who believe in this nonsense are educated people, it is quite justifiable to speak of this theory as "the most potent spell in history." Never before has any other belief or idea so taken away peoples' powers of reason, refused to allow them to think intelligently and logically, and hidden the truth from them as if they had been blindfolded. This is an even worse and unbelievable blindness than the totem worship in some parts of Africa, the people of Saba worshipping the Sun, the tribe of Abraham (pbuh) worshipping idols they had made with their own hands, or the people of Moses (pbuh) worshipping the Golden Calf.
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In fact, Allah has pointed to this lack of reason in the Qur'an. In many verses, He reveals that some peoples' minds will be closed and that they will be powerless to see the truth. Some of these verses are as follows: As for those who do not believe, it makes no difference to them whether you warn them or do not warn them, they will not believe. Allah has sealed up their hearts and hearing and over their eyes is a blindfold. They will have a terrible punishment. (Surat al-Baqara: 6-7) ‌ They have hearts with which they do not understand. They have eyes with which they do not see. They have ears with which they do not hear. Such people are like cattle. No, they are even further astray! They are the unaware. (Surat alA‘raf: 179) Even if We opened up to them a door into heaven, and they spent the day ascending through it, they would only say: "Our eyesight is befuddled! Or rather we have been put under a spell!" (Surat al-Hijr: 14-15) Words cannot express just how astonishing it is that this spell should hold such a wide community in thrall, keep people from the truth, and not be broken for 150 years. It is understandable that one or a few people might believe in impossible scenarios and claims full of stupidity and illogicality. However, "magic" is the only possible explanation for people from all over the world believing that unconscious and lifeless atoms suddenly decided to come together and form a universe that functions with a flawless system of organization, discipline, reason, and consciousness; a planet named Earth with all of its features so perfectly suited to life; and living things full of countless complex systems. In fact, the Qur'an relates the incident of Moses (pbuh) and ADNAN OKTAR
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Pharaoh to show that some people who support atheistic philosophies actually influence others by magic. When Pharaoh was told about the true religion, he told Prophet Moses (pbuh) to meet with his own magicians. When Moses (pbuh) did so, he told them to demonstrate their abilities first. The verses continue: He said: "You throw." And when they threw, they cast a spell on the people's eyes and caused them to feel great fear of them. They produced an extremely powerful magic. (Surat al-A‘raf: 116) As we have seen, Pharaoh's magicians were able to deceive everyone, apart from Moses (pbuh) and those who believed in him. However, his evidence broke the spell, or "swallowed up what they had forged," as the verse puts it: We revealed to Moses: "Throw down your staff." And it immediately swallowed up what they had forged. So the Truth In the same way that the beliefs of people who worshipped crocodiles now seem odd and unbelievable, so the beliefs of Darwinists are just as incredible. Darwinists regard chance and lifeless, unconscious atoms as a creative force, and are as devoted to that belief as if to a religion.
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took place and what they did was shown to be false. (Surat al-A‘raf: 117-118) As we can see, when people realized that a spell had been cast upon them and that what they saw was just an illusion, Pharaoh's magicians lost all credibility. In the present day too, unless those who, under the influence of a similar spell, believe in these ridiculous claims under their scientific disguise and spend their lives defending them, abandon their superstitious beliefs, they also will be humiliated when the full truth emerges and the spell is broken. In fact, world-renowned British writer and philosopher Malcolm Muggeridge, who was an atheist defending evolution for some 60 years, but who subsequently realized the truth, reveals the position in which the theory of evolution would find itself in the near future in these terms: I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially the extent to which it's been applied, will be one of the great jokes in the history books in the future. Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible credulity that it has.20
That future is not far off: On the contrary, people will soon see that "chance" is not a deity, and will look back on the theory of evolution as the worst deceit and the most terrible spell in the world. That spell is already rapidly beginning to be lifted from the shoulders of people all over the world. Many people who see its true face are wondering with amazement how they could ever have been taken in by it.
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1- Sidney Fox, Klaus Dose, Molecular Evolution and The Origin of Life, New York: Marcel Dekker, 1977, s. 2 2- Alexander I. Oparin, Origin of Life, (1936) New York, Dover Publications, 1953 (Reprint), s.196 3- "New Evidence on Evolution of Early Atmosphere and Life", Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, c. 63, Kas›m 1982, s. 1328-1330 4- Stanley Miller, Molecular Evolution of Life: Current Status of the Prebiotic Synthesis of Small Molecules, 1986, s. 7 5- Jeffrey Bada, Earth, fiubat 1998, s. 40 6- Leslie E. Orgel, The Origin of Life on Earth, Scientific American, c. 271, Ekim 1994, s. 78 7- Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard University Press, 1964, s. 189 8- Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard University Press, 1964, s. 184 9-B. G. Ranganathan, Origins?, Pennsylvania: The Banner Of Truth Trust, 1988. 10- Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard University Press, 1964, s. 179 11- Derek A. Ager, "The Nature of the Fossil Re-
cord", Proceedings of the British Geological Association, c. 87, 1976, s. 133 12- Douglas J. Futuyma, Science on Trial, New York: Pantheon Books, 1983. s. 197 13- Solly Zuckerman, Beyond The Ivory Tower, New York: Toplinger Publications, 1970, s. 75-94; Charles E. Oxnard, "The Place of Australopithecines in Human Evolution: Grounds for Doubt", Nature, c. 258, s. 389 14- J. Rennie, "Darwin's Current Bulldog: Ernst Mayr", Scientific American, Aral›k 1992 15- Alan Walker, Science, c. 207, 1980, s. 1103; A. J. Kelso, Physical Antropology, 1. bask›, New York: J. B. Lipincott Co., 1970, s. 221; M. D. Leakey, Olduvai Gorge, c. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971, s. 272 16- Time, Kas›m 1996 17- S. J. Gould, Natural History, c. 85, 1976, s. 30 18- Solly Zuckerman, Beyond The Ivory Tower, New York: Toplinger Publications, 1970, s. 19 19- Richard Lewontin, "The Demon-Haunted World", The New York Review of Books, 9 Ocak 1997, s. 28 20- Malcolm Muggeridge, The End of Christendom, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980, s.43