Monday, July 7, 2008 | Science : Evolution and Biology | print version

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[UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya

by Richard Dawkins

In 2006, I was one of tens of thousands of academic scientists all around the world who received, unsolicited and completely free, a huge and lavishly illustrated book called Atlas of Creation by the Turkish Muslim apologist Harun Yahya. The thesis of the book, which was published in eleven languages, is that evolution is false. The main 'evidence' consists of page after page of beautiful photographs of fossil animals, each one accompanied by a modern counterpart that is said to have changed not at all since the time of the fossil. It is a large-format book, a thick coffee-table book with more than 700 high-gloss colour pages. The cost of production of such a book must have been extremely high, and one is bound to wonder where the money came from to produce it and then distribute it gratis in so many copies and so many languages.

sea snake

Given that the entire message of the book depends upon the alleged resemblance between modern animals and their fossil counterparts, I was amused, when I began flicking through at random, to find page 468 devoted to "eels", one fossil and one modern. The caption says,

There are more than 400 species of eels in the order Anguilliformes. That they have not undergone any change in millions of years once again reveals the invalidity of the theory of evolution.

The fossil eel shown may well be an eel, I cannot tell. But the modern "eel" that Yahya pictures (see left) is undoubtedly not an eel but a sea snake, probably of the highly venomous genus Laticauda (an eel is, of course, not a snake at all but a teleost fish). I have not scanned the book for other inaccuracies of this kind. But given that this was almost the first page I looked at . . . what price the main thesis of the book that modern animals are unchanged since the time of their fossil counterparts?

Incidentally, in May 2008 Harun Yahya, whose real name is Adnan Oktar, was sentenced in a Turkish court to a three-year prison sentence "for creating an illegal organization for personal gain."

Postscript added 8th July

I have now looked at some more pages of this preposterous book. The double page spreads on page 54-55, 368-369, and 414-415 are all labelled 'Crinoid', and all purport to show how similar ancient fossil crinoids are to modern ones. Crinoids are stalked relatives of starfish, members of the phylum Echinodermata. The three spreads have almost identical captions. Here's the one on page 54:

The 345-million-year-old crinoid fossil, identical to its living counterparts, invalidates the theory of evolution. Crinoids that have remained unchanged for 345 million years refute the theory of evolution, manifesting the creation of God as a fact.

And all three spreads show a beautiful colour photograph of modern crinoids to illustrate the point. Except that, in all three cases, the modern animal pictured is not a crinoid. It isn't even an echinoderm. It isn't even a deuterostome (the sub-kingdom to which the echinoderms, and we, belong). Zoologist readers will recognize it as a tube-dwelling annelid worm, a sabellid.

On page 402, there are four fossil pictures, correctly labelled Britttlestar. The brittlestars are one of the major classes of echinoderms, others being starfish, sea urchins and crinoids. Once again, we have the standard-issue creationist caption:

This 180-million—year-old fossil reveals that brittlestars have been the same for 200 million years. These animals, no different to those living today, once again reveal the invalidity of evolution.

Here we have not one but two photographs of living animals to illustrate the lack of change since the fossils. One of these modern animals is indeed a brittlestar. The other is a starfish! Member of a completely different class of echinoderms and obviously very different to even the meanest glance.

Finally, PZ has already called attention to this on Pharyngula, but I include a picture for completeness. On page 244, Yahya wishes to say that caddis flies have not changed since some 25-million-year-old insects preserved in amber. Once again, the caption:

These living things have survived for millions of years without the slightest change in their structures. The fact that these insects never changed is a sign that they never evolved.

By now, we have come to expect something pretty good when we look at the photograph of the modern animal. What will the modern 'caddis fly' be? A minnow, perhaps? A garden slug? A king prawn? No, in a way is better than any of these: A fishing lure, complete with prominent steel hook!

I am at a loss to reconcile the expensive and glossy production values of this book with the "breathtaking inanity" of the content . Is it really inanity, or is it just plain laziness — or perhaps cynical awareness of the ignorance and stupidity of the target audience — mostly Muslim creationists. And where does the money come from?

Written especially for RichardDawkins.net

Also see:
'Forbidden Music' post on Yahya
Fishing lure photos taken from Graham Owen Fly Tying

Posted: Monday, July 7, 2008 | Permalink

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1. Comment #205517 by SteveN on July 7, 2008 at 12:03 pm

Richard said: "I have not scanned the book for other inaccuracies of this kind. But given that this was almost the first page I looked at . . . what price the main thesis of the book that modern animals are unchanged since the time of their fossil counterparts?"

I remember reading somewhere that some of the pictures of insects in the book are actually fishing lures! You can see the hooks! If the authors are that stupid, is it a surprise that they can confuse an eel with a snake?

Cheers

SteveN

Edit: Well of course, it was PZ Myers who brought this to my attention here

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2. Comment #205520 by Kell on July 7, 2008 at 12:08 pm

Shallow, woefully inaccurate, wilfully dishonest, glossy, well-funded. And let's not forget: likely to impress. Yes, it's anti-evolution alright!

Well, even if it doesn't impress everyone, it will certainly attract attention. More so than most pro-evolution publications.

That is why I am extremely pleased to learn that you're next book, Richard, will be devoted to conveying to the general public the evidence for evolution.
I just wish there was more.

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3. Comment #205525 by al-rawandi on July 7, 2008 at 12:13 pm

Richard,

One of Oktar's first books was "The Holocaust Lie" in which he said the Holocaust was actually a few hundred thousand deaths due to Typhoid Fever.

The man is a fraud, and recognized as such even in Turkey.

Other Comments by al-rawandi

4. Comment #205529 by plyons on July 7, 2008 at 12:16 pm

it doesn't matter which religion they come from, the capacity for dishonesty and the lack of respect for other humans is a wonder to behold. I too look forward to Richard's new book, but don't expect it to affect the dull minds of the believers. The lights are on but noone's home.

Other Comments by plyons

5. Comment #205530 by Cartomancer on July 7, 2008 at 12:17 pm

What baffles me is why this guy decided to send his gilded nonsense out to academic scientists, who would have the knowledge and experience to very quickly dismiss it outright, rather than to laypeople who might be drawn in by its claims.

The only answer I can think of, which if true would expose the colossal arrogance of this man, is that he genuinely believes his theory is sound and will convince even specialists in the field. I could be wrong in the further assumption that he has never studied evolution, or indeed any biology, in even cursory detail, and thus his arrogance is even greater still, but I wouldn't like to bet on it.

Other Comments by Cartomancer

6. Comment #205532 by Tweev on July 7, 2008 at 12:25 pm

Does anyone know, which organism didn't change (significantly) for the longest time and how long that would be?

There was bacteria found in the glaciers of Greenland [1] so maybe life can be found in other places where the thermal, geological etc. conditions didn't change for the last I don't know how many years at all so mutation would be counterproductive, thus the organisms stay mostly unchanged (accept for useless genes that eventually mutate but don't affect the organism really).

[1] http://live.psu.edu/story/31052

Other Comments by Tweev

7. Comment #205535 by obscured by clouds on July 7, 2008 at 12:30 pm

Here are two links that are relevant on this

Well, fly fishing is a science - PZ Myers

And we have a thread located, here

The intellectual dishonesty that all creationist show is staggering.

Other Comments by obscured by clouds

8. Comment #205537 by bryantee on July 7, 2008 at 12:33 pm

Better dot your i's and cross your t's before you send a book with animals to a zoologist.

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9. Comment #205538 by David J on July 7, 2008 at 12:34 pm

I'm sure when he wrote the book, his knowledge of biology (taxonomy, too) was simply "long, skinny, and lives in water - EEL!" Oh well.

Did he have any complex examples, perhaps from the upper mammal classifications?

Other Comments by David J

10. Comment #205543 by Mango on July 7, 2008 at 12:38 pm

I've seen copies of this book in used bookstores for about $25. I almost bought one just as a conversation piece.

Other Comments by Mango

11. Comment #205548 by Quine on July 7, 2008 at 12:44 pm

Once again, we see the lack of basic logic. The ToE is all about how new species come into existence. Nothing in the ToE says an existing species has to go extinct. An example of a species that shows very little change over a long time just means that small changes in its genetic makeup were not helpful in its environment, and that that environment must have been relatively constant.

Also, other species can branch off during geographic isolation and evolve into many new species in new places while the ancestral species is not changing very much over in its environment. Thus, finding something that has not changed does not prove that it was not part of evolution you don't know about.

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12. Comment #205552 by BicycleRepairMan on July 7, 2008 at 12:48 pm

Written especially for RichardDawkins.net

This article seems more blog-like than things I've seen here previously, dare I hope this might become a regular feature? I dont expect a PZMyers type 4-updates-a-day theme, but the occasional thoughts of Richard would be really cool, without having to conform to a "complete article" format.

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13. Comment #205556 by YssiBoo on July 7, 2008 at 12:54 pm

I'm reading "the Ancestor's tale" at the moment, and I thoroughly enjoy it. I mention this because i'm approaching the Coelacanths tale which should be a good rebuttal to mr Yeahyeah.

Other Comments by YssiBoo

14. Comment #205565 by Teratornis on July 7, 2008 at 1:05 pm

The cost of production of such a book must have been extremely high, and one is bound to wonder where the money came from to produce it and then distribute it gratis in so many copies and so many languages.

The Wikipedia article says the number of free copies was in the tens of thousands.

One of the references in the Wikipedia article says "A cult-like organization that jealously guards the secrets of its considerable wealth, and whose websites mix creationism with Islamic-tinged nationalism, Ottoman nostalgia and veneration of the Turkish army, BAV has been taken to court repeatedly over the last decade."

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav052407.shtml

When there is money sloshing about the Muslim world, the first suspect that comes to mind is oil. Saudi Arabia, for example, is stacking up money as fast as it can, thanks to the surge in global oil prices.

With oil trading in the $140/bbl range, and 60% of the world's remaining reserves owned by Muslims, it is high time for atheists to stop bowing to the god of petroleum, by drastically reducing (at least 90%) our petroleum-fueled travel.

We cannot defeat an opponent by throwing ever-increasing piles of money at it.

If oil money isn't behind this particular example of Islamic outreach, it will be behind others.

Other Comments by Teratornis

15. Comment #205566 by Shane McKee on July 7, 2008 at 1:05 pm

Minor point: if there are 400 species, and they haven't changed at all, HOW THE FECK CAN WE SAY THERE ARE 400 SPECIES?!?!

Sorry about the shouting, but I was worried that I mightn't be heard above Yahya's stupid. Incidentally, I was talking to a couple of Turkish geneticists last year, and they assured me that this person is regarded in Turkey itself as a consummate fraud.

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16. Comment #205573 by al-rawandi on July 7, 2008 at 1:13 pm

Teratornis,

You are going to have to do better than your guess, in tying Harun Yahya to Saudi oil money. So let's see some evidence.

And can you go one post... just one without quoting the price light sweet crude?

Other Comments by al-rawandi

17. Comment #205577 by Quiddam on July 7, 2008 at 1:16 pm

As I showed in this post
Harun shows a picture of a modern frog and a fossil salamander claiming that there is no difference between them Frog or salamander

There are also pictures of fishing lures compared with fossil insects. The scholarship is appalling as Harun simply trawled the Internet for interesting pictures and stole them arbitrarily

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18. Comment #205580 by al-rawandi on July 7, 2008 at 1:17 pm

Shane,

He has been prosecuted for rape, slander, libel, bribery, and blackmail. Oktar has been sentenced to three years in prison along with other members of his "gang". He is currently appealing the case.

Apparently Oktar and his friends (members of this BAV) would rape women on camera and then threaten to release the tapes to family and the public. In exchange for privacy the women were forced to entice wealthy young men (using sex of course) into the circle of BAV. It was an elaborate scheme to get money for his idiotic publications.

So Richard Dawkins wanted to know where the money comes from? Wealthy Turks enticed into donating through sex offered by raped and blackmailed women.... Some example of Islam this Oktar is.

Other Comments by al-rawandi

19. Comment #205585 by 8teist on July 7, 2008 at 1:28 pm

The poor frog ,it looks quite embarrassed .

Other Comments by 8teist

20. Comment #205586 by Notcrowingbutyawning on July 7, 2008 at 1:30 pm

Comment #205580 by al-rawandi

''He has been prosecuted for rape, slander, libel, bribery, and blackmail. Oktar has been sentenced to three years in prison along with other members of his "gang". He is currently appealing the case.''

Hey! But that's no reason to question the guy's beliefs, is it? ..... No?... Well, I only asked, y'know... beliefs and all that, yeah? [wind howls, tumbleweed blows, bell rings dolorously...]

Other Comments by Notcrowingbutyawning

21. Comment #205588 by al-rawandi on July 7, 2008 at 1:34 pm

Notcrowingbutyawning,

Well in his defense Islam sanctions forms of rape so long as they are slave girls. But I am afraid the voyeurism is simply unaccaptable in Islam. But it isn't easy raising funds for a worthwhile cause... When I was distributing my flat earth book to geographers all over the world I raped a number of girls to secure the funds I needed for my book. It comes with the territory.

Other Comments by al-rawandi

22. Comment #205591 by Notcrowingbutyawning on July 7, 2008 at 1:39 pm

21. Comment #205588 by al-rawandi

Well, if you put it like that...

Other Comments by Notcrowingbutyawning

23. Comment #205593 by D'Arcy on July 7, 2008 at 1:46 pm

The man is a fraud, and recognized as such even in Turkey.

I don't know enough, but I suspect Al is 100% right.If you write a book about evolution, surely you would know the difference between eels and snakes.

Ah here's the rub! Who did pay for the production of this book? If it wasn't the Saudis, then certainly someone or some group who feel threatened by the fact of evolution. Or could it have been the author? Did he make enough on the holocaust book to finance this one? Conspiracy theories abound.

For all I know it could have been the same people who fund the Discovery Institute. It wouldn't surprise me at all.

I don't suppose the book has any references to the rapid evolution of SARs, HIV, Avian Flu or other pathogenic critters out to eat humanity given the chance. All part of Allah's wonderful creation!

Other Comments by D'Arcy

24. Comment #205595 by al-rawandi on July 7, 2008 at 1:47 pm

Notcrowing,

It always seems ridiculous until you find out someone actually did it.

Like if someone said, "hey I have an idea for a movie.... this crazy guy rapes young girls then blackmails them to recruit investors to perpetuate an intellectual fraud." I would have said, "No way, no one would believe that even for a second." Then Harun Yahya comes along and actually fucking does it. Incredible, truth is stranger than fiction.

Other Comments by al-rawandi

25. Comment #205597 by Notcrowingbutyawning on July 7, 2008 at 1:48 pm

Comment #205588 by al-rawandi

Flat-earthers of my acquaintence, being an Anglo-Saxon, have tended to fund their projects via the throat-cutting of parents and selling of their children into slavery. But that's just another, albeit overlooked, quaint English tradition. You know what we are like.

Other Comments by Notcrowingbutyawning

26. Comment #205600 by al-rawandi on July 7, 2008 at 1:49 pm

D'Arcy,

It was paid for by Yahya's rape and black mail scheme, at least in part. That is how he, apparently, helped to fund this whole operation. But like I said, it is almost too good to be true. No way would a creationist so openly outline himself as a depraved hypocrite...

His Holocaust book (Soykirim Yalani) May not have made that much money, and it was strongly criticized even in the Turkish press.

Other Comments by al-rawandi

27. Comment #205604 by Quiddam on July 7, 2008 at 1:56 pm

Here is the link to the original image: http://www.harunyahya.com/books/darwinism/atlas_creation/atlas_creation_02.php

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28. Comment #205607 by riemann on July 7, 2008 at 2:00 pm

al-rawandi: The man is a fraud, and recognized as such even in Turkey.

I have doubts about that. The law certainly recognised him as a fraud, but vast majority of people in Turkey think that evolution is false and Darwinism is yet another Christian plot against Muslims precisely because of this man.

I have in my shelf another one of his books called Evrim Aldatmacasi (Deception of Evolution), which by its rather confident and fluently styled prose (lies, one should say) presumably delayed my personal understanding of natural selection for a good 3 years or so. And i too, following Richard, opened a page at random in this rather nostalgic book, on which the heading reads "Imaginary Intermediate Form Archaepteryx" and devotes the next 5 pages to developing the theme, only to conclude the section without any real punch line, but with all sorts of non-sequiturs. Another page at random, and he argues that the odds for a protein consisting of 500 aminoacids to come into existence "by chance alone" is 10 to the power of 950. He's graphic about it too; a page half full of zeros is bound to make an impact on an uneducated reader. Another page, how second law of thermodynamics is a direct refutation of evolution.

There's even a quotation from Richard, where he talks about Cambrian explosion and the fact that oldest major invertebrate forms are found there, as if not having evolved at all, not having ancestors, and how this fact please Creationists. Yahya somehow sees this as a bashful concession on Richard's part and says with all sincerety "See how Dawkins agrees with us?"

All in all, nothing new under the sun, same old Creationist lies. The effect on people at large, however, is dramatically different than that of Western world. As i said, for many people in Turkey, these books mark the definitive demise of evolutinary theory, not even a version of Intelligent Design theory is proposed or entertained as an alternative, as is the case in US. Why water things down when there is no real opposition? This is directly accounted by the "ignorance and stupidity of the target audience" as Richard suggests. Lay people here, for whatever reasons, are more than eager to take this nonsense at face value. He could, for instance, just as well write about how Lamarck was more to the point regarding evolution, therefore Darwinisim was false and i bet few would see the obviously preposterous slight of hands. No need for a reality check when the overall grip on reality is severely lobotomized. Shame for a country that is constitutionally secular.

Remember that poll conducted in 34 industrial countries to determine the level of support for evolution, where US came 33rd? Well, Turkey was 34th and everytime that chart comes up in an American lecture, the speaker jokes almost universally "Well, at least we beat Turkey!" That could be deemed as an even bigger (rhetorical) victory, were it not for the propoganda of Harun Yahya. Turkey would almost certainly beat any other Muslim country on that poll, but that sure rings like a hollow victory, if there ever was one.

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29. Comment #205609 by Notcrowingbutyawning on July 7, 2008 at 2:01 pm

The world is so much more mad than my imagining of my own madness.

Comfort or fear?

God knows!

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30. Comment #205610 by mordacious1 on July 7, 2008 at 2:02 pm

Crap, I didn't get my copy. I think this book would be great to have laying around for when one wants to make fun of IDers. I've seen PZ's fishing lure post before and found it LOL fun. Of course, one would have to moderate the laughter knowing how the book got published. On what page is the crocoduck fossil, I've seen the frogamander.

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31. Comment #205613 by flobear on July 7, 2008 at 2:04 pm

I raped a number of girls to secure the funds I needed for my book. It comes with the territory.

Nice. By the way, did you scour the internet for flat-earth images? If so, you can rest assured there won't be any that are accidentally fishing hooks.

Other Comments by flobear

32. Comment #205618 by al-rawandi on July 7, 2008 at 2:12 pm

riemann,

I assume you read this in Turkish originally? I first picked up the English version, not because I doubted natural selection, but rather because I thought it was funny. He is such a moron, he doesn't understand what he is writing about, he figures if he simply cuts and pastes enough fancy looking information into a book, that the average dolt will convert.

He doesn't realize, when citing the Second Law of Thermodynamics, that thermodynamics shows the universe is a closed system and rules out an interventionist god. That fucking half wit.

The most obnoxious part of his "body of work" is his scientific miracles of the Qur'an and such. He fails to show us the future discoveries currently predicted in the Qur'an as opposed to twisting the numerical value of the Arabic word Hadid (Iron).

And most educated people in Turkey think he is a slap dick, not just because of the evolution thing, but because of the Holocaust nonsense as well. Not to mention all the other trash he has published.

Other Comments by al-rawandi

33. Comment #205621 by ridelo on July 7, 2008 at 2:18 pm

Here is the link to the original image: http://www.harunyahya.com/books/darwinism/atlas_creation/atlas_creation_02.php

It seems to me the fossil has a rather long tail, while the tail of the frog is quasi non existent. And the hind legs of the fossil are rather small. It looks to this non specialist rather a crawling then a jumping animal.
So, no evolution?

Other Comments by ridelo

34. Comment #205624 by Teratornis on July 7, 2008 at 2:24 pm

Comment #205573 by al-rawandi:

Teratornis,

You are going to have to do better than your guess, in tying Harun Yahya to Saudi oil money. So let's see some evidence.

I voiced a suspicion, that's all. If Harun Yahya doesn't want people to wonder where he gets his money, then it's Harun Yahya's job to document his finances instead of keeping them secret.

That's the cost of keeping secrets - the secret-keeper implicitly allows everyone to imagine what they like.

One of the principles in The Millionaire Next Door is that it's much easier to spend someone else's money. If Harun Yahya had to go to all the trouble of raping, filming, and blackmailing girls to raise money, that sounds like enough work to make a person reluctant to spend the roughly million dollars it would cost to distribute tens of thousands of copies of a large-format, full-color book.

Given that this is but one of the BAV's projects, it seems hard to believe they could finance all of them through some sort of blackmail scheme. But who knows, maybe they did.

And can you go one post... just one without quoting the price light sweet crude?

Check my recent comments. This site records the times I post without mentioning oil.

Why does discussion of oil freak you out? Are you on some sort of personal jihad to get everyone to forget about peak oil? If so, I cannot understand what would motivate you to do that. For starters, you're trying to wish away a tsunami. The price of oil continues to rise, just as I have assured you it would since I first made you aware of peak oil. If this trend continues - and Hubbert peak theory predicts it will - then in a few short years it will be difficult for people to think about much else.

Other Comments by Teratornis

35. Comment #205626 by D'Arcy on July 7, 2008 at 2:27 pm

Turkey's equivalent of Ron Hubbard? Or what's his name (Colliding Worlds) Van Daniken?

Other Comments by D'Arcy

36. Comment #205630 by al-rawandi on July 7, 2008 at 2:37 pm

Tera,

I am on board with the peak oil deal. So no need to win converts. It just permeates everything. It is asperger's like in its ubiquitous presence in your dialogue. Now, I am not saying you are wrong.

The only issue I see is there is a problem getting honest data on supply side and demand side issues. It is hard to look at the Saudis and take their word for "supply problems".

But that would be too far afield even for myself.

Other Comments by al-rawandi

37. Comment #205637 by Edouard Pernod on July 7, 2008 at 2:52 pm

I like the part where he has a picture of a live Tiktalik next to a fossilized one, and a live Archaeopteryx next to a fossilized one... oh wait, he doesn't. Wow, that was easily falsifiable.

All he needs is a picture of himself standing next to a Neanderthal fossil and the circle of fucking moronitude will be complete.

Other Comments by Edouard Pernod

38. Comment #205640 by Border Collie on July 7, 2008 at 3:08 pm

Burn it in the fireplace on a cold night ...

Other Comments by Border Collie

39. Comment #205656 by Fire1974 on July 7, 2008 at 3:36 pm

I'm beginning to doubt evolution...
Its coming on strong...
Still doubting...
I'm still doubting...
Where are all the transitional fos...
Oh wait...

Wheew!
Glad thats over. Damn those vestigial synapses! They flair up every now and then. Sorry.

Other Comments by Fire1974

40. Comment #205669 by Enlightenme.. on July 7, 2008 at 3:53 pm

"Crap, I didn't get my copy"

Free downloadable PDF from the links in post 27 & 33, should you feel the need.
I downloaded it months ago, but only briefly looked - it's certainly colourful.

Other Comments by Enlightenme..

41. Comment #205686 by rod-the-farmer on July 7, 2008 at 4:29 pm

Re Comment #205537 by bryantee

Better dot your i's and cross your t's before you send a book with animals to a zoologist.

Actually, I was thinking he crossed his eyes and dotted his tee's. THAT might explain the goofy mistakes.

Other Comments by rod-the-farmer

42. Comment #205689 by ivellios on July 7, 2008 at 4:47 pm

What a boring read.

This picture of a (insert animal/plant here)next to a vaguely similar fossil shows that there has been no change and is proof that evolution didn't happen.

Good grief, even my 3yo daughter can tell that one is missing skin at least.

Other Comments by ivellios

43. Comment #205691 by maton100 on July 7, 2008 at 4:50 pm

Atlas of Creation. hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaha!
Creotards in high definition.

Other Comments by maton100

44. Comment #205700 by mdowe on July 7, 2008 at 5:15 pm

A creationist ... steeped in religion ... and he isn't honest? I'm shocked.

Other Comments by mdowe

45. Comment #205714 by Wosret on July 7, 2008 at 5:48 pm

Hahaha. Hilarious. What a waste of money. That is the sad part of this story. That money could have gone toward something useful, or helpful.

Other Comments by Wosret

46. Comment #205721 by altopelirrojo on July 7, 2008 at 6:04 pm

Evolution is a crazy delusion, and Harun Yahya has proven it. No one has ever found a fossil of a crockasquirrel, and therefore evolution is false. The proof is close to the bottom of this absolutely true web page:

http://www.harunyahya.com/books/darwinism/atlas_creation/atlas_creation_02.php

All the living creatures in the fossil record appear intact and in their perfect forms. For instance, before crocodiles and squirrels, there exist no fossils belonging to any strange creature partly resembling a crocodile, and in other parts to a squirrel or other living creatures. Squirrels have always remained squirrels, and crocodiles have always remained crocodiles. All these facts reveal that the claim of the theory of evolution, that "Living beings have gradually evolved over millions of years of time" is simply a product of imagination.

Take that, evolution.

Other Comments by altopelirrojo

47. Comment #205722 by AbortGod on July 7, 2008 at 6:07 pm

I am almost tempted to buy this as a teaching aid in critical thinking, but the thought of having it my house makes me feel dirty. Is that too harsh?

C.

Other Comments by AbortGod

48. Comment #205726 by MPhil on July 7, 2008 at 6:21 pm

Wow - now I see the error of my ways... you guys are right. I bet you have read through all the peer-reviewed papers, studied the evidence carefully - probably majored in biology and paleontology as well. You must have the best understanding of the scientific process ever, and of probability evaluation of evidence with respect to coherence, parsimony and explanatory broadness...

...and to think... all these millions of brilliant people who studied this stuff for decades were just deluded fools, where the truth can be seen by anyone.

...

...

Oh wait - that's right. You don't. You aren't. You obviously haven't got a clue - but the arrogance to think you know better than the scientific community in the field these people have devoted their lives and considerable intellect to study.

And the worst part - you don't even know how ridiculous you are.

Other Comments by MPhil

49. Comment #205727 by Fire1974 on July 7, 2008 at 6:22 pm

ertu,

You never did, nor do you now, know anything about Evolution. Your comments make that obvious.

I suggest you stick around this site and learn something; but save the arrogant declarations until you know what your talking about. I'm embarrassed for you.

Other Comments by Fire1974

50. Comment #205735 by Philster61 on July 7, 2008 at 6:41 pm

Richard.This book is up there with other such "credible" publications like the Hitler Diaries and The Real Lochness monster.It might be well placed in the science fiction section of Waterstones alongside Harry Potter and Terry Pratchett.

Other Comments by Philster61

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