Page 581 - Atlas of Creation Volume 2

Harun Yahya

(ancestor-worship), polytheism (the belief in many gods) and finally ending in monotheism (the belief in
one God).
This theory was put forward in the 19th century by atheist anthropologists and has been kept alive
ever since, presented in various scenarios. But it is nothing more than a deception. As archaeological and

historical evidence shows, contrary to what these scientists have proposed, from earliest times there
was a monotheist religion that God revealed to humanity through His prophets. But at the same
time, deviant, superstitious beliefs have always coexisted with the true religion. Just as today
there are people who believe that God is the One and Only deity and lead their lives according to

the religion He has revealed, so also are those who erroneously worship idols of wood and
stone, or satan, or their ancestors as well as various spirits, animals, the Sun, the Moon or the
stars. And many of these people are not backward, but on the contrary live in very advanced
circumstances.

Throughout history, there have also been those who have not obeyed the precepts of the
true religions revealed by God and tried to eliminate their moral values. In the Qur'an, God
tells us of some people who wanted to include superstitious beliefs and practices in the
true religion revealed to them and ended up altering and destroying it:

Woe to those who write the Book with their own hands and then say "This is from God" to
sell it for a paltry price. Woe to them for what their hands have written! Woe to them for Charles Darwin
what they earn! (Surat al-Baqara: 79)
This is why, over the course of time, some who believed in the existence and unity of God and obeyed

His commands abandoned true religion. In this way, deviant beliefs and practices came into being. In other
words, contrary to what some have proposed, there has never been a process of religious evolution; but true
religion was at certain times distorted, as a result of which deviant ones arose.

Distortion of the True Religion

In the 20th century important research has
been done on the origin of religions, thanks to

which it has become known that there is no
scientific value in claims about religions'
evolution, and that such claims are only

imaginary scenarios. Research into world
religions by such leading anthropolo-
gists as Andrew Lang and Wilhelm
Schmidt has shown that religions did
not evolve; on the contrary, some-

times underwent distortion over the
course of time. The results of
Schmidt's research were published in

detail in the periodical, Anthropos.
Research done especially between
1900-1935 shows that claims about the evo-
lution of religions are totally false, which led
many anthropologists to abandon their evolutionary

There have been people who worshipped ideas. But despite all these scientific and historical facts, some
the Sun in all periods of history. In the pre- radical atheists continued to defend this untenable scenario.
sent day, such false beliefs still persist even
among people living under very modern
conditions. This shows that the people in
question are pagans with perverted beliefs,
not that they are primitive.

Adnan Oktar 579