The “Atlas of Creation”

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I first heard about the “Atlas of Creation” when Science reported on it last February (source). I first saw a copy in Pierre-Henri Gouyon's office at the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle when I was there in April. According to Science “Its publisher has sent hundreds if not thousands of copies of the book to researchers in at least four countries in Western Europe.”

Cover of the Atlas of Creation, Volume IICover of the Atlas of Creation, Volume 1
Well, the “Atlas of Creation” has now landed in the United States. That's where the photo comes from. I don't know why, but the publishers saw fit to send me a copy. I have no idea how many copies are being distributed in the United States, but if they saw fit to send me a copy, the number must be in the thousands.

The book is enormous: 38.0cm x 27.5cm x 6.0cm. And it is full of absurdities. Here are two from page 621 in the Appendix chapter entitled “The real ideological root of terrorism: Darwinism and materialism”

  • Darwinism is at the root of various ideologies of violence that have spelled disaster to mankind in the 20th century.

  • No matter what ideology they may espouse, those who perpetrate terror over the world are, in reality, Darwinists. Darwinism is the only philosophy that places a value on – and thus encourages – conflict. (caption below a photo of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001)

Horse chestnut leaf from the Atlas of Creation, Volume 1, pp. 142-143Horse chestnut leaf from the Atlas of Creation, Volume 1, pp. 142-143
I haven't decided yet what to do with my copy. It's too big to fit on any bookshelf, and putting it on a shelf with Darwin, Dobzhansky, Mayr, Stebbins, Wright, Fisher, and Haldane would be as offensive as putting a nude pinup poster on my office wall. I'll probably stick it on the floor in a dark corner of my office, at least for awhile. The fossil photos are gorgeous – as long as you don't look at the ridiculous captions that go with them 1 and as long as you can forget that none of the museums holding the fossils are given credit.

1The caption on the horse chestnut photo, in case you can't read it is: “The horse chestnut leaf that lived 65-54 million years ago is not different from the horse chestnut leaves of today. This is only one of the many pieces of evidence showing that plants have not evolved.”

11 TrackBacks

TrackBack URL: http://darwin.eeb.uconn.edu/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1466

Interesting from Uncommon Ground on July 4, 2007 12:22 PM

Since I made that post about the Atlas of Creation a little over a week ago, Feedburner tells me that the top three cities from which I am getting visitors1 are: Istanbul Turk Kargil If you Google "atlas of creation",... Read More

I mentioned that the “Atlas of Creation” didn't give credit to any of the museums holding the specimens that are illustrated. P.Z. Myers points out that a site sponsored by “Harun Yahya”, the supposed author of the “Atlas&... Read More

That's the headline in today's Christian Science Monitor. The article is about Bilim Arastirma Vakfi (the Foundation for Scientific Research, the publisher of the “Atlas of Creation”). According to the article, the Foundation “says it... Read More

Apparently, Harun Yahya (author of “The Atlas of Creation”) is a very sensitive fellow. A number of blogs hosted by Wordpress were critical of him.1 Unfortunately, he has a lot of money, and money can buy hire lawyers. His lawyers... Read More

Early this year the “Atlas of Creation” started being delivered to schools and colleges in France, the Netherlands, and Great Britain (an article from Science). In June, it started arriving in the U.S. (my copy, an article from the New... Read More

Not only is the Atlas of Creation now showing up in Ireland, it's also showing up in newsrooms. Last Wednesday David Seago (of the Tacoma News Tribune reported receiving a copy (“Weird stuff in the mail”). On Saturday Larry Duthie,... Read More

One of my Google alerts is for the Atlas of Creation. Ever since receiving a copy myself, I've been interested to see where else it shows up and what the reactions are. Well, this morning's Google alert not only alerted... Read More

I felt cheated and duped. What appeared at first glance to be an innocent science exhibit turned out to be a cunning assault on logic, science and the life of the great Charles Darwin. It was manipulative. It was brainwash.... Read More

Cover of the Atlas of Creation, Volume 1 I received a copy of the Atlas of Creation over a year ago, and I wrote about it then. That led to a spike in visits, to this blog, many of them... Read More

Well, that's not quite right. Dawkins himself isn't banned in Turkey, at least not yet, but his website is. A Muslim creationist has succeeded in getting the website of leading atheist Richard Dawkins banned in Turkey after he complained that... Read More

[I]f you can blog at least 20 times a week for half a year without giving up, you'll eventually uncover a good story, and you'll attract tipsters. (source)20 times a week! I'm lucky if I can find time to blog... Read More

1 Comment

If you are not interested in the book, I would gladly pay for the shipping and would use it in some capacity.

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