Why is denying the theory of evolution portrayed as rejecting
development and progress ?

HARUN YAHYA
www.harunyahya.com

The word "evolution" has been used in several senses in recent times. A
social aspect has been added to it, for instance, and the word has come
to mean human progress and technological development. There is nothing
wrong with the concept of "evolution" when it is used in this sense.
There is no doubt that man will use his intelligence, knowledge, and
strength to develop over time. The sum of human knowledge will grow
from generation to generation. In the same way that this is not
evidence for the theory of evolution itself, which seeks to explain the
emergence of life by chance, neither does it conflict in any way with
the fact of creation.

Yet evolutionists engage in a facile word game here, and confuse a true
concept with a false one. For example, it is true to state that "On
account of man's long years of living as a social being, his knowledge,
culture, and technology are in a constant state of development." (We
must remember, however, that there can be regression over time as well
as progress. Sociologically speaking, there have been times of
progress, as well as times of stagnation and regression.) However, the
claim that "In the same way as man has developed and progressed, living
species have also advanced and changed over time" is completely false.
Although it is perfectly logical and scientific to say that, as a
thinking being, man's knowledge has increased and been passed on to
subsequent generations, allowing constant progress, it is utterly
senseless to claim that living species developed and evolved by chance
and coincidence, in accordance with uncontrolled and unconscious
natural conditions.

The greatest names in the advancement of science were all creationists

No matter how much evolutionists try to identify themselves with
concepts such as innovation and progress, history has shown that the
real initiators of innovation and progress have always been faithful
scientists who have believed in divine creation.
We see the mark of such believing scientists at every point of
scientific progress. Leonardo da Vinci, Copernicus, Kepler, and
Galileo, who opened a new era in astronomy, Cuvier, the founder of
paleontology, Linnaeus, the founder of the modern classification system
for plants and animals, Isaac Newton, the discoverer of the law of
gravity, Edwin Hubble, who discovered the existence of the galaxies and
the expansion of the universe, and many others have believed in God and
that life and the universe were created by Him.

One of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century, Albert
Einstein, said:
I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith.
The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is
lame..

The German Max Planck, who laid the foundations of modern physics,
said:
Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind
realises that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science
are written the words: Ye must have faith. It is a quality which the
scientist cannot dispense with.

The history of science reveals that change and progress have been the
work of creationist scientists. On the other hand, of course,
scientific developments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
especially have allowed us to come by countless pieces of evidence of
creation. Modern science and technology have allowed us to discover the
fact that the universe came into being from nothing, in other words
that it was "created." It is a fact accepted by the whole scientific
world that the universe came into being and developed as a result of
the explosion of one single point. In this way, the model of the
infinite universe, with no beginning or end, maintained by materialists
under the primitive scientific conditions of the nineteenth century has
been destroyed. It has been realised that the universe was created, as
it says in the Qur'an, and that it has a beginning and frontiers and
has expanded over time. The Qur'an expresses this fact thus:

Do those who disbelieve not see that the heavens and the Earth were
sewn together and then We unstitched them and that We made from water
every living thing? So will they not believe? (Qur'an, 21: 30)

It is We Who have built the universe with (Our Creative) power, and
verily, it is We Who are steadily expanding it. (Qur'an, 51: 47)

It was again twentieth century scientific progress that allowed us to
discover more evidence of the design in life. The electron microscope
revealed the structure of the cell, the smallest unit of life, as well
as the parts that comprise it. The discovery of DNA demonstrated the
infinite intelligence in the cell. Biochemical and physiological
advances have shown the flawless workings at the molecular level of the
body, and its superior design which cannot be explained by anything
other than creation.

As opposed to all this, it was the primitive state of science 150 years
ago that prepared the ground for the formation of the theory of
evolution.

In conclusion, it is impossible to consider those who believe in
creation, and who constantly provide new evidence of it, as being
opposed to progress, development, and science. On the contrary, such
people are their greatest supporters. Those who actually oppose
progress are those who turn their backs on all the scientific evidence
and defend the theory of evolution, which is nothing but an
unsubstantiated fantasy.