La Vanguardia,one of the dailies with highest circulation published in Spain since 1881, has devoted a place to an item published in The Independent on 28 September 2008. In the news item in question, the challenge to evolutionists by Mr. Adnan Oktar was announced to the readers with the title “A Turkish Creationist Challenges Darwinism With Billion Dollar Prize.” The featured lines of the item are as follows:
Adnan Oktar, a Turkish creationist, has made a challenge to Darwinists by offering 10 trillion Turkish Liras (6.2 billion Euro or 7.3 billion dollars) to the scientist who brings a single transitional fossil that proves evolution.
The Independent, the English newspaper, notified that 52 year-old Adnan Oktar, aka Harun Yahya, is a very loud critic of what he calls “Darwinist Dictatorship” and is a very popular person in his homeland.
The author claims that there is not a single transitional fossil that supports Darwinist theories.
Mr. Oktar earned his reputation when his glamorous, 800-page Atlas of Creation, in which he claimed that living beings did not evolve, spread throughout the world two years ago.
He told that Richard Dawkins was not able to bring any fossils that prove Darwinism.
Mr. Oktar even defended English biologist Prof. Michael Reis, the Education Director of the Crown Academy, who resigned his post after stating that science teachers must take into account creationism as a “world view” in the beginning of this month. Mr. Oktar describes this as “a solid evidence of the panic experienced by Darwinists.”
