Voices: An old Earth for all Muslims but how does evolution fit in? (2024)

by Salman Hameed Friday, January 20, 2012

It’s no secret that many of the protests and rebellions in North Africaand the Middle East this year have been dominated by globally connected,young, educated Muslims. One of the stated goals of many of these youngpeople is improving the science and technology programs in theircountries. They understand that to compete in the global marketplace,strong science and technology programs are necessary. That bodes wellfor these countries' futures. But there are still threats to thescientific futures of these nations — including the quiet but growingpopulation of people who reject the principles of evolution.

When we talk about “evolution” in the Muslim world, it’s important tofirst separate out biological evolution from young-Earth creationism.Young-Earth creationism — the idea that the world and the universe areless than 10,000 years old — is completely absent in the Muslim world.The Qur’an, the Muslim holy book, does contain the six-day creationaccount, just like the Bible’s Book of Genesis. But the length of eachday is explicitly ambiguous in the Qur’an: In one passage, for example,the length of each day is suggested to be 1,000 Earth days, but inanother, it is said to be 50,000.

Most contemporary Muslims (including scholars) have concluded that theanswer to the age of the Earth does not lie in the Qur’an, and they havecome to accept the scientifically accepted age of 4.5 billion years.That’s the good news: At least there won’t be a battle like there is inthe United States and Europe to a somewhat lesser extent about whenEarth was created.

Although the acceptance of an old Earth allows for the possibility ofbiological changes in species over long periods, the not-so-good news isthat many in the Muslim world don’t accept that biological evolutionoccurs. It may in fact be the vast majority of Muslims who reject humanevolution outright. Only a few studies have addressed this question, butthe results suggest that the rejection of human evolution in the Muslimworld is much higher than in the U.S.

Contrary to what we in the U.S. might think, though, there is no singleMuslim position regarding biological evolution. In fact, high schoolbiology textbooks in several Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Iranand Turkey, include evolution as a fact of science. Furthermore, in2007, the science foundations from 14 Muslim majority countries endorseda statement in support of common descent and biological evolution ofspecies, including humans. Of course, as we have seen in the U.S.,endorsem*nt from national science foundations does not necessarilytranslate into widespread acceptance of evolution.

At issue in the Muslim world are the many misconceptions aboutevolution. For some, the word “evolution” and the name “Darwin” are bothassociated with atheism — a notion that Muslims reject vociferously.For others, evolutionary theory accounts for the origin of life — anidea that many reserve for the domain of God. And of course, one of themost common misconceptions is the view that “monkeys directly evolvedinto humans.” None of these misconceptions are specific to Muslims;indeed, most are common among creationists all over the world.

But as the topic of evolution is just beginning to be discussed broadlyin the Muslim world, scientists have a chance to get the rightinformation out there and to resolve the misconceptions before theybecome increasingly ingrained. There already exists high interest inmedicine, as well as fields such as biotechnology and biomedicine inmuch of the Muslim world. Principles of evolution are relevant to all ofthese areas, and educators and scientists can integrate the teaching ofbiological evolution (extending all the way to humans) with thesepractical applications and potential economic benefits. Because religionplays a central role in most Muslim societies, there also needs to be anexplicit emphasis on the fact that an acceptance of evolution does notnecessarily imply atheism.

The next decade will be crucial. The rising educated middle class of theMuslim world will be shaping the discussion of modern science and itsrelation to Islam. If biological developments of the last decade are anyindication, we expect the topic of evolution to be at the center ofscientific and ethical debates in the next century.

Looking at the faces of protests in Egypt and Tunisia, I cannot help butbe optimistic that this generation will not reject one