Trinity University

Mary Anthony
mary.anthony@trinity.edu
210-999-8441
Jan. 25, 2012

“Creation vs. Evolution: The Muslim Debate” to be Discussed at Trinity University during Darwin Week

Taner Edis, professor of physics at Truman State University, will talk about "Creation vs. Evolution: the Muslim Debate" at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9, in Chapman Auditorium on the Trinity University campus. The lecture is free and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-seated basis; tickets or reservations are not required.

Religious discomfort with biological evolution is not an exclusively Christian phenomenon. The Muslim world has long resisted Darwinian thinking, and Turkey has recently produced one of the world's most successful creationist movements. Some aspects of the Muslim creation/evolution debate will be familiar to Americans, such as the wide range of religious positions taken, from complete denial of common descent to more liberal accommodations of modern science. There are however, also interesting differences, such as the stronger position of conservatism and the absence of "flood geology" from the varieties of creationism favored by most devout Muslims.  

Edis, from Istanbul, Turkey, obtained a Ph.D. in theoretical and computational condensed matter physics from Johns Hopkins University. He received the Morris D. Forkosch award for "Best Humanist Book of 2002" for his first book, The Ghost in the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science. He has also written Science and Nonbelief, An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam, and co-edited Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism.

This lecture is sponsored by the departments of biology, chemistry, communication, computer science, economics, engineering, English, geosciences, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, political science, religion, and sociology and anthropology, plus the Parker Chapel, Coates Library, International Studies, and the Lecturers and Visiting Scholars Committee. For more information, contact the religion department at 210-999-8426.