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The Community on Friday - Evolution or Scientific Dogmatismhttp://www.world-federation.org/Secretariat/TConFri/tconfri_evolutn_or_scientific_dogmatsm.htm

A Social, Cultural, Educational & Religious E-ForumUnder the Facilitation of the World Federation of KSI Muslim CommunitiesIssue No. 23-05, June 24, 2005/ Jamada al Ula 16, 1426 AH

In today's ultramodern hi-tech sophisticated society, everyone acknowledges thepivotal position of science and appreciates its contribution to the betterment ofhuman life. However this has also subconsciously made us trust scientists a bittoo much. To illustrate, try to recall how many times have you heard an argumentthat refers to science as an authority. So common has this practice become thateven Zakireen sometimes explain the Islamic position on something and then qualifyit with a statement such as "Even science has proved this." Thus it would not bean exaggeration to state that the scientists today command an authority akin tothe priests of yester years. Yet in this very field, whose pursuers characterizethemselves as seekers of truth, a growing corruption has largely gone undetected.In this essay I hope to expose a few examples of this corruption in evolutionarybiology, with the hope that we will be more wary of swallowing everything with the

label "scientific' and more aware of the scientific ness of the theory ofevolution.One of the standard arguments that evolutionary biologists advance to supporttheir view, is the story of the peppered moth Biston betularia. This famousexample can be found in almost all introductory biology textbooks as evidence forevolution. However, what evolutionists leave untold is the fact that this oft-repeated story is actually a farce. The study in brief is as follows: In the1970s British scientist Kettlewell carried out an experiment whose resultssuggested that moths in England had over time changed from the lighter to thedarker variety in response to changes in their environment brought about by theIndustrial revolution. For two decades this experiment remained the gold standardfor all evolutionary biology experiments.In the 1990s however, Michael Majerus challenged this study demonstrating it to be

a complete hoax. Majerus showed that the moths neither rest on tree barks aspreviously thought, nor do they have an innate preference for any particular barkcolor. Furthermore modern genomic studies have revealed that the gene system forpeppered coloration is also not as simple as was previously believed. Mostimportantly however, it is now known that the relative preponderance of thesemoths does not correlate with areas of high pollution at all. Hence, Kettlewell'shypothesis has been disproved and ideally his study should be discarded. Howeverthis is not the case. The story of the peppered moth continues to be included inalmost all biology textbooks that get published.This study, however, is not the only fuzzy science that is passed of as truth.Another infamous example is that of Haeckel's embryos. Ernst Haeckel forged andfudged pictures of human embryos claiming that they were of different species inan attempt to show that embryonic development is nearly the same in all these

different species. His study had absolutely no scientific credulity and he was infact charged with fraud in the 1970s. Despite his study being rejected decadesago, the figures he forged continue to decorate major biology textbooks asevidence for evolution. In fact even the current president of the NationalAcademy of Science, the most prestigious scientific body in the United States,Bruce Alberts, has not been spared from this malicious practice. Albert's latesttextbook "Cell Biology", which is widely acknowledged as the best textbook on cellbiology, still contains elaborate references to Haeckels embryos.Although this may seem surprising, it has been standard practice for a long time.What this demonstrates is that scientists like any other people are susceptible tomistakes and prejudices and have in fact been influenced by their preconceived

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notions. This is not to assert that all scientists are bad and willfully misleadpeople, but rather it is to make us aware that everything labeled scientific orsanctioned by the consensus of the scientific community is not necessarilyscientific or truthful. Just like all of us, scientists too are subconsciouslybiased by the views and beliefs that they hold to be true and by socialinfluences. As conscientious Muslims, we have to be aware of this and ensure thatour aqeedah is not shaken by the great variety of wishy-washy theories out there.Inshallah in my next essay I will delve further into the evolution debate and

demonstrate how Darwinism is fatally flawed.By Aunali Khaku (Pennsylvania, USA)For any comments, please write to: secretariat@world-federation.orgClick here for Previous Issues