Turkey's Science Research Council Stops Publication of Evolution Books

An anonymous reader writes "The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK) has put a stop to the publication and sale of all books in its archives that support the theory of evolution, daily Radikal has reported. The books have long been listed as “out of stock” on TÜBTAK's website, but their further publication is now slated to be stopped permanently. Titles by Richard Dawkins, Alan Moorehead, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Levontin and James Watson are all included in the list of books that will no longer be available to Turkish readers. In early 2009, a huge uproar occurred when the cover story of a publication by TÜBITAK was pulled, reportedly because it focused on Darwin’s theory of evolution."

Re:This is a country that wants in the EU

[Anonymous Coward]

Islam has been growing there, this is not unusual thing for Islamic countries.

Not belief, science is testable hypothesis

[RichMan]

Belief has nothing to do with science. All science is testable, or it is not science.

a) genetic inheritance is observable in a lab if you have a couple of weeks and handful of flies
b) genetic inheritance and mortality leads to evolution
c) we have fossil records to support (b) occured in the past

All testable against the null hypothesis. So it is clear science.

Re:Wow, I thought we (the US) was the only standou

[CohibaVancouver]

Please tell us you were kidding, that you're not *that* provincial, that you believe Western rationalism really is the norm throughout the entire world, including Muslim countries and Africa?

Over the years I've noticed this is a pretty common theme on Slashdot - You could post a story about some backwater, torture-filled nation lead by some despotic religious zealot and 26 replies will immediately say "Yeah, but the USA is TEN TIMES WORSE!"

Re:I don't think they want in anymore

[danlip]

EU != Eurozone. There are 27 countries in the EU, and only 17 in the Eurozone. The mess you are describing is specific to the Eurozone (and the fact that countries in it can't print their own money).

Re:Wow, I thought we (the US) was the only standou

[Conchobair]

Not the mention the fact that they teach evolution in Catholic schools.

Re:Wow

[grasshoppa]

In case anyone missed it, that was loaded with irony.

Re:This is a country that wants in the EU

[gary_7vn]

Did they even try? Well, yeah. "In the years following 1926, Mustafa Kemal introduced a radical departure from previous reformations established by the Ottoman Empire.[73] For the first time in history, Islamic law was separated from secular law, and restricted to matters of religion.[73] Mustafa Kemal said “ We must liberate our concepts of justice, our laws and our legal institutions from the bonds which, even though they are incompatible with the needs of our century, still hold a tight grip on us.[74] ” On 1 March 1926, the Turkish penal code was passed. It was modelled after the Italian Penal Code. On 4 October 1926, Islamic courts were closed. Establishing the civic law needed time, so Mustafa Kemal delayed the inclusion of the principle of laïcité until 5 February 1937. Ottoman practice discouraged social interaction between men and women in keeping with Islamic practice of sex segregation. Mustafa Kemal began developing social reforms very early, as was evident in his personal journal. He and his staff discussed issues like abolishing the veiling of women and the integration of women into the outside world. The clue on how he was planning to tackle the issue was stated in his journal on November 1915; “ The social change can come by (1) educating capable mothers who are knowledgeable about life; (2) giving freedom to women; (3) a man can change his morals, thoughts, and feelings by leading a common life with a woman; as there is an inborn tendency towards the attraction of mutual affection.[75] ” Mustafa Kemal needed a new civil code to establish his second major step of giving freedom to women. The first part was the education of girls and was established with the unification of education. On 4 October 1926, the new Turkish civil code passed. It was modelled after the Swiss Civil Code." Wiki

Have you paid ANY attention to Turkish politics?

[billstewart]

Turkey's government was radically secular for close to a century, since Kemal Ataturk's nationalists kicked out the Allies, Sultanate, and Caliphate after the WW I fall of the Ottoman Empire. They were fairly aggressive about it - requiring western-style clothing, banning fezzes, and suppressing non-Turkish cultures (such as the Kurds), enforcing use of a Latin-based alphabet instead of Arabic alphabet (and too bad for you if your name used not-officially-Turkish letters.) They did strongly push education of women, banned headscarves even for women who wanted to wear them, and let women vote (at least in the years they were paying attention to votes.) They've even had women as Prime Minister. Islam was still permitted as a religion, and was still the most common religion, but the government was not Islamic.

They stayed secular until a few years ago when more Islamists got elected to Parliament, but have loosened up since then.

‘evolution censor' was denied the next day.

[Anonymous Coward]

This news is from Jan 14. Turkish state science council denied this rumor the next day (Jan 15) and provided some evidence that it's not true. The newspaper published it and did not follow the story anymore.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-state-science-council-denies-evolution-censor.aspx?pageID=238&nID=39102&NewsCatID=374

At least, this fact should be in the summary as well.

Re:This is a country that wants in the EU

[nedlohs]

Did they even try?

Yes. Very hard indeed for a nation so closely tied with religion - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atat%C3%BCrk's_Reforms [wikipedia.org]

Re:This is a country that wants in the EU

[pixelpusher220]

Then I grab my religious headgear, I mean colander, and have dinner ;-)

Re:This is a country that wants in the EU

[Anonymous Coward]

Come back when such a religion is wide-spread and pursuing that goal; until then, your argument is hypothetical only and serves only to dilute the issue.

Historically, most religions have embraced, at a fundamental level, certainty in the absence of evidence and not uncertainty in the presence of it.

Re:This is a country that wants in the EU

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I'd say the moon landings.

I don't think you quite realize just how many innovations and improvements to the technological age occured as a direct result of the space race.

Hint: More was created there than a locked cockpit door and the TSA scanner.

Re:Wow, I thought we (the US) was the only standou

[Kjella]

No, it actually is one of the worse but Turkey is an even more extreme example, here's a quote from WP:

A study published in Science compared attitudes about evolution in the United States, 32 European countries (including Turkey) and Japan. The only country where acceptance of evolution was lower than in the United States was Turkey (25%).

Only the Abrahamic world religions in general and Protestant Christianity in particular has a big issue with evolution, this graph [wikipedia.org] shows how in the US Buddhists and Hindus are the most accepting. The national figures for India are also very strong and in line with western Europe. Sure a lot other countries have other vices, but creationism is usually not one of them.

Re:This is a country that wants in the EU

[Anonymous Coward]

Texas is one of the few red states that takes fewer Federal dollars than it gives (in 2010 the ratio is 0.94). Additionally two-thirds of Texas' Representatives are Democrats and that number will increase as proportion of Hispanic (and Northerner) population increases at the expense of native white Texans.