Rethinking Darwin

Like most protracted controversies, the one over Darwin in the Arab-Muslim worlds perhaps tells more about the debaters than the subject of the debate.

A hundred and fifty years later, Darwin remains a source of troubles in the Arab and Muslim worlds. Darwin's On The Origin of Species — published in 1859 and translated in full into Arabic in the mid-1870s — has been at the center of a long-running debate, albeit one with varying intensity.

The Darwin controversy is a unique one — and not just because of the powerful evolution theory and its implications. Like most protracted controversies, the one over Darwin in the Arab-Muslim worlds perhaps tells more about the debaters than the subject of the debate. In other words, the intellectual skirmishes over Darwin spanning one hundred and fifty anxious years of the Arab world's history reflect a cautious evolution of ideas on Darwin's theory itself, on the definition of scientific theory, on the boundaries of science, and on the bounds of interpretation of Islam's sacred text, the Qur'an.

For starters, many Muslim scientists today accept Darwin's theory, often within the understanding that the evolutionary process was preceded by a moment of creation that the divine God had willed and carried out. In addition, evolutionary concepts — whether under the Darwin and evolution labels or not — are now part of the standard biology curricula in most Arab and Muslim countries.

The relatively broad acceptance of Darwin within the science community in the Muslim world is hardly matched by an acceptance in the public discourse. In a widely watched television program last month, a preeminent Muslim scholar of religion scarcely concealed his unease with even acknowledging that evolution was a "scientific theory." He went on to assert that "Darwin's evolution never earned consensus among scientists," and that "it was revealed that Darwin had fabricated some of the evidence." Still, he added that if evolution comes to be agreed upon to be a fact as solid as "the sky above us and the earth under our feet," there should be no contradiction between it and the Qur'an.

Then there is the vastly prolific Harun Yahya (pen-name of author Adnan Oktar) who has published several glossy tomes aimed at discrediting evolution as an unsupportable theory and portraying Darwin as an atheist whose ideas (allied with Communism) were part of a larger project to undermine all religions. Judging by how frequently Yahya's work is cited on Web forums by Arabs and Muslims, the Turkish author is indeed popular.

The abiding unease among many Muslim religious scholars toward Darwin may be understandable; after all, a proven scientific theory or not, evolution taken to its ultimate conclusion paints a picture of a random, godless universe. But it's the reasons those scholars cite for such a stance that are quite curious. For instance, to say that Darwin has fabricated the evidence is an extremely poorly informed statement. In fact, as years went by, many of Darwin's contentions were corroborated, especially with the rediscovery of Mendel's hereditary "laws" in the early twentieth century, and the uncovering of the structure of life's basic hereditary molecule, the DNA, in 1953 by James Watson and Francis Crick.

Which is not to say that Darwin was always right. He was not. For one, Darwin's explanation of how favorable traits are retained and reinforced in subsequent generations (instead of being diluted down as the hereditary material from the parents mix and combine) proved inadequate. But that is no problem in science. The work of scientists is not considered on an all-or-none basis. Rather, more often than not what proves valid is recognized and built upon, and what does not is discarded.

The Scholars' Dilemma

Reda conceded a separate realm for science that can still operate alongside, or under the umbrella of, religion without undermining it.

That is, Reda (1865-1935) conceded a separate realm for science that can still operate alongside, or under the umbrella of, religion without undermining it.

And that, in fact, proved a prudent stance to take. The one hundred and fifty years that have gone by since the publication of Origin have added more reasons to believe Darwin (at least on the whole) than to discredit him. That leaves scholars of religion (of any religion) who have attacked Darwin, or are attacking him, on shaky grounds.

Another unavoidable impression in the Darwin controversy is the fact that while the science community has all but wholly embraced Darwin's ideas, many scholars of religion have hardly evolved their ideas or discourse on evolution. Some are repeating statements that are 150 years old. Some are talking about Darwin's theory as if it were published yesterday, not one with 150 years of research to back it up (or most of its conclusions). And even the argument that Darwin was an atheist bent on doing away with religions is highly doubtful now in light of Darwin's personal correspondences that have become available to the public over the past years.

This, therefore, is the challenge to today's scholars of religion: to articulate a coherent synthesis on Darwin and evolution that takes into account a hundred and fifty years of research and debates. Clearly this is necessary because such a synthesis could illuminate and inform our decisions as we are confronted with new difficult questions, such as those related to stem cell research and cloning.

It is not that no attempts have been made in that direction. Hassan Hamid Attiya and Abdel Sabour Shaheen, to mention just two scholars, have contributed valuable insights into how to view evolution within the Islamic context. Still, what we need is a much broader engagement of Muslim scientists and Muslim scholars of religion to address evolution, not with hostility or suspicion, but as a challenge that should be welcomed. The re-engagement with Darwin and evolution will in its own right be a celebration of science — an enterprise that Islam appreciates and supports.

Disclaimer: The article reflects the opinions of the author.

Waleed Al-Shobakky is a science and technology journalist based in Doha, Qatar. You can reach him at w.shobakky@gmail.com.