Darwinism, creationism and Muslim nations

I was reading a random article on an advocate for Islamic creationism (don’t ask) and came across this little gem from a Turkish biology professor, Aykut Kence:

Prof. Kence has worked with like-minded scholars on a series of conferences and other events marking Darwin's birth 200 years ago and the publication, in 1859, of "On the Origin of Species." He last week joined a chorus of secular outrage over a decision by the official journal of Turkey's state scientific-research council to pull a planned cover story on Darwin.

"If people can't accept Darwin, they can't accept science. They can't think," says Prof. Kence. (emphasis added)

That screeching sound you hear should be your mind slamming on the brakes. If you can’t accept Darwin, you can’t accept science and therefore you can’t think? So the only way, according to the good professor, to be accepted as a “thinker” is to unquestioningly accept Darwin’s theory? See, that doesn’t sound like something that would qualify you as a “thinker”. In fact it sounds like just the opposite. Yet again we see that the acolytes of Darwinian fundamentalism are as dogmatic as any other fundamentalists. The difference is that people who base their fundamentalism in faith, not in the goddess “science”, admit they are fundamentalists. More from Professor Kence:

A recent survey found that only a quarter of students entering Turkish universities accept Darwin's theory of evolution and that the proportion is much the same when they graduate. The findings, says Prof. Kence, are "very depressing."

I just found that really funny. We told these people that Darwinian evolution was the only thing they could believe and when they left the university, they still weren’t buying it! Maybe when people get a college education and further develop their critical thinking skills, they realize that the Darwinian theory of evolution is just a theory and one that has a lot of holes in it and that it is based on a lot of presuppositions without direct evidence. I think it is disingenuous to get mad when people apply critical thinking to something and don’t agree with you. Universities and other organs of higher education should be at their core about education and thinking, not about dogma. I would daresay that the average seminary encourages greater open discussion on many topics than the closed minded schools of learning that pride themselves on being open-minded.

I also didn’t realize that creationism versus evolution was an issue in Islam but it makes sense. The article points out that creationism as dogma is a fairly new issue in Muslim countries, a “Christian import”. Hopefully as recognition of God’s creation of the universe by decree spreads in Muslim nations, it will provide an opportunity to proclaim the Gospel alongside. The God who created is also the God who judges and He is also the God who saves.