A Brief History of The Theory of Evolution

First and foremost, it has to be noted that the theory of evolution is not a
scientific argument, but a dogmatic philosophy and a materialistic world view
hiding behind the mask of science. However, it is not faith in this dogmatic
philosophy, which has had a stimulating role in the birth and development of
modern science, but faith in Allah.

Most of the people who have pioneered modern science believed in the
existence of Allah, and while studying science, they sought to discover the
universe Allah has created, to see His laws and the details in His creation.
Scientists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Copernicus, Keppler, Galileo, Cuvier
(the father of paleontology), Linnaeus (the pioneer of botany and zoology)
and Isaac Newton all studied science by faith. They believed in the existence
of Allah and that the whole universe came into existence by His creation.
Considered to be the biggest genius of our age, Einstein was another devout
scientist who believed in Allah.

Nevertheless, the theory of evolution came into view by the re-awakening of
ancient materialistic philosophies and became widespread in the 19th century.
This philosophy supposes that matter is absolute and infinite. This
materialistic philosophy does not hold anything to be real except the matter,
so it tries to explain the universe and nature through purely material
factors. Since it denies creation right from the start, it puts forward that
every being, whether animate or inanimate, appeared without any means of
creation, but by mere coincidence and then acquired an order. However, the
human mind is organised to comprehend the existence of an organising will
wherever it sees an order. Materialistic philosophy, which is contrary to
this very basic characteristic of the human mind, produced "the theory of
evolution" in the middle of the 19th century.

The Theory of Evolution: Darwin's Imagination
The person who put forward the theory of evolution the way it is defended
today, was an amateur English naturalist, Charles Robert Darwin. Darwin had
never taken a formal biology education. He only took an amateur interest in
the subject of nature and living things. His interest drove him to volunteer
for boarding on the fficial discovery ship named H.M.S. Beagle that set out
from England in 1832 and travelled around different regions of the world for
five years. Young Darwin was greatly impressed by various living species, and
particularly by various finches he saw in the Galapagos Islands. He thought
that the variance in their beaks was caused by their adaptation to their
habitat. With this idea in mind, he supposed that the origin of life and
species lay in the concept of "adaptation to the environment". According to
Darwin, living species were not created individually by Allah, but came from
a common ancestor and differentiated from each other as a result of natural conditions.

Although Darwin's hypothesis was not based on any scientific discovery or
experiment, in time, he turned it into a pretentious theory with the support
and encouragement he received from the famous materialist biologists of his
time. The idea was that the individuals who adapted to the habitat in the
best way transferred their qualities to the next generations, and therefore,
these advantageous qualities accumulating in time changed the individual to a
species totally different from its ancestors. (The origin of these
"advantageous qualities" was unknown). According to Darwin, man was the most
developed outcome of this blind mechanism.

Darwin named this process "evolution by natural selection". He thought he had
found the "origin of species"; the origin of one species was another species.
He published these views in his book titled The Origin of Species: By Means
of Natural Selection in 1859.

While developing his theory, Darwin was impressed by many evolutionist
biologists preceding him, and primarily by Lamarck. According to Lamarck,
living creatures were passing the traits they acquired during their lifetime
from one generation to another, and were thus evolving. For instance,
giraffes evolved from antelope-like animals by extending their necks further
and further from generation to generation as they tried to reach higher and
higher branches for food.

But both Darwin and Lamarck were mistaken, because biochemistry did not exist
at that time and genetics was unknown. Therefore, their theories depended
totally on their powers of imagination. While the echoes of Darwin's book
lingered on, an Austrian botanist, Gregor Mendel discovered the laws of
inheritance in 1865.

These laws refuted the idea of passing the acquired traits onto subsequent
generations. Not much heard of until the end of the century, Mendel's
discovery gained great importance at the beginning of the 1900's. This was
the genesis of the science of genetics. Again in the same years, the
structure of the genes and the chromosomes was discovered. And in the 1950's,
the discovery of the DNA molecule that includes the genetic information put
the theory in a great crisis. The reason was the incredible complexity of the
DNA, whose origin could never be explained by any random process.

All these developments should actually have caused Darwin's theory to be
banished to the dusty shelves of history. However certain circles insisted
on revising, renewing, and raising the theory up to a scientific platform. All
these efforts were very meaningful in indicating that behind the theory laid
some ideological intentions rather than scientific concerns.

by: Harun Yahya

[He is a well known writer from Istanbul who has written numerous books and
articles on Islam, which includes the marvels of Allah's creation, the
evolution theory, and politics. His articles have been published, not only in
Turkey, but in other countries as well. His study aims to convey the message
of the Qur'an, and to encourage people to think on issues such as the
existence and the unity of God, and the Hereafter.]