A few weeks ago dozens upon dozens of giant red books started arriving where I work and no one knew why or if anyone had ordered them. Turns out this isn’t the only place where Adnan Oktar, also know as Harun Yahya , has been sending unsolicited copies of his latest publication, “Atlas of Creation;” they have been showing up at libraries, museums and even the USA congress.
Today the NYT had an article about just this phenomenon and it seems that where ever the book arrives it is producing the same reaction, something along the lines of “The book is gorgeously produced, but we aren’t adding it to the collection because it is full of information that just isn’t accurate.” Basically the book is a beautiful book, covered in full color photographs on heavy glossy paper, but it’s point is to argue that evolution has not occurred since there are plenty of creatures today which look just like their ancient relatives.
Apparently the book hasn’t only gotten around the USA; Earlier this year a French translation actually showed up in schools, universities and museums around France, where scientist quickly spoke out against the book, and the centralized school system facilitated the books removal.
It seems that the author’s intent to debunk Darwin has come to little effect, and mainly what he has achieved is to have everyone wondering where the money has come from to produce such a magnificent book, and then mail them all over the country, when each copy weighs about 12 pounds!
You can take a look at Harun Yahya website here.
08.30.07 – Here is some else’s comments on Yahya’s reaction to blog posts on his work. He’s apparently gotten local officials in Turkey to blog WordPress comments on his work.
Image info here.
Pa
Steph:
It seems that one place the money may be coming from for free distribution to institutions is from sales to individuals. The book (Vol 1) is $99 on Amazon.com.
– Pa.
PS: What a bizarre place the “Harun Yahya” Website is.