he underlying idea of Darwinism – that every living thing evolved from matter – is first encountered in the conception of the Great Chain of Being by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. This is an evolutionary belief still popular with those philosophers who deny the existence of Allah. The originally Greek idea that the first living thing spontaneously produced itself from water in the course of time became the doctrine of the Great Chain of Being. According to the Scala Naturae which had been accepted for 2000 years, living things formed by themselves evolving from minerals to organic matter, from living organisms to plants, animals, human beings and finally to "gods." According to this belief, new organs formed by themselves conforming to the needs of nature. Originally, the idea was proposed only as a philosophical view. According to this specious reasoning, small living things became larger living things stage by stage; every living thing has its place in the chain. It asserts also that stone, metal, water and air became living organisms, living organisms became animals, and animals became human beings without any interruption in the process. The reason this belief (which has no scientific foundation, contradicts all scientific facts, and stands only on abstract logic) has won acceptance for so long is not a scientific but an ideological one. What allows this false belief to endure is a dogmatic approach that denies the existence of Allah. This belief periodically changed its name, was elaborated, and finally became known as the "theory of evolution." But it must be repeated: the alleged serial arrangement takes no account of science. There is no consideration of the physical characteristics of living things or about how life could come into being from lifeless materials or how water-dwelling creatures could adapt to life on land. Transitional forms, which are supposed to represent links of development between species constitute one of the most serious impasses in the theory of evolution today because they are not found in the fossil record. How creatures change into others remains a great mystery because the chain is merely the product of a superficial abstract logic invented by ancient philosophers around a table. A picture illustrating the evolutionist story of the supposed transition from water to land. Aristotle rejected the existence of a Creator who created all things from nothing and instead presented the view of gods having evolved from human beings. With this unsound deduction Aristotle greatly influenced Greek materialist philosophers. The period in which the Scala Naturae came into western thought coincides with advent of humanism and the Renaissance. At the beginning of the 15th century Greek and Latin works were brought into Europe and entered the current of western thought and philosophy. Foremost in these texts was the concept of materialism and denial of the existence of a Creator. According to the idea of the Great Chain of Being, which goes back to Aristotle, living things evolved from the smallest creatures to larger ones. However, modern science has shown that this claim is invalid; that the similarities among living things is not proof of evolution; that the creatures illustrated in the picture did not evolve from other creatures but every one was created in its present form. In the godless way of thinking, human beings have full capacity to control themselves and the world they live in, and it denies that there is another life after death. So the Great Chain of Being formed the basis of this belief by stating that human beings had come into being by chance as a result of an evolutionary process and were essentially nothing more than a lump of matter. Thus, moral values and human feelings have no importance; a person should simply enjoy each day he lives and feel responsible to no one. In time, Aristotle's concept of divinity at the top of the Scala Naturae was replaced by the humanist idea of man as the highest being. The Great Chain of Being was quite popular from the Renaissance until the 18th century and exerted much influence on the materialist scientists of that era. French scientists Benoit de Maillet, Pierre de Maupertuis, Comte de Buffon and Jean Baptiste Lamarck, among others, who had a strong influence on Charles Darwin, were men who had appropriated the Greek notion of the Great Chain of Being. They based their scientific research on this evolutionist view. The common tenet of these men was that the various living species were not created individually but came into existence spontaneously through a process of evolution dependent on natural conditions a model similar to Darwin's. For this reason it can be said that modern evolutionary thought was born in France. Maupertuis The French evolutionist Comte de Buffon was one of the most well-known scientists of the 18th century. For more than fifty years he was the director of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Paris. Darwin based much of his theory on his works. In his 44-volume work Histoire Naturelle, it is possible to find most of the elements that Darwin was to use. The Great Chain of Being was the base of the evolutionist systems of both de Buffon and Lamarck. The American historian of science, D.R. Oldroyd, defines their relationship in these words: In his Histoire Naturelle, Buffon reveals himself as an exponent of the doctrine of the Great Chain of Being, with man being placed at the top of the Chain... Lamarck held a version of the ancient doctrine of the Great Chain of Being. Yet, ...it was not conceived as a rigid, static structure. By their struggle to meet the requirements of the environment, and with the help of the principle of the inheritance of acquired characteristics, organisms could supposedly work their way up the Chain – from microbe to man, so to speak... Moreover, new creatures were constantly appearing at the bottom of the Chain, arising from inorganic matter through spontaneous generation... Ascent of the Chain involved a continuous process of complexification, due to the so-called "power of life." 33 Buffon As one can clearly see, what is called the "theory of evolution" is really a transferal to modern times of the ancient Greek myth of the Great Chain of Being. There were evolutionists before Darwin, and most of their ideas and so-called proofs were already found in the concept of the Great Chain of Being. With de Buffon and Lamarck, the Great Chain was offered to the scientific world in a new form which influenced Darwin. Indeed, Darwin was influenced by this idea to the extent that he based his whole theory on its basic logic. In the book Darwin's Century, Loren Eiseley points out that Darwin made use of the 18th century concept of the scale of existence in his book The Origin of Species and that the idea that whole organic matter tended inevitably to "progress toward perfection" finds its origin there.34 Therefore, Darwin did not propose a new theory. What he did was nothing more than to give it new expression in contemporary scientific language. Based on a few deceptive observations, a religion going back to the pagan myths of the Sumerians and ancient Greeks was sustained. It was enhanced in the 17th and 18th centuries with new additions by many scientists. Later, through Darwin's book The Origin of Species, the theory gained a scientific veneer to become the greatest falsehood in the history of science. Lamarck Modern evolutionists still blindly believe that an illusory god called Mother Nature created them, showing the same ignorance as the ancient Greeks and Sumerians who worshipped imaginary gods created in their own minds. In order to understand just how inept false religions are, it is only necessary to look around, for everything in its smallest detail displays beauty, sublime artistry and design. It takes only common sense to perceive that this flawless precision could not have come into being by blind chance through powerless deities or a natural chain beginning with primeval soup and a stroke of lightening. The godless mind-bent of those who do not believe is described in the Qur’An: "And even if We had sent down to them the angels and the dead spoke to them and We gathered together every [created] thing in front of them, they would not believe unless Allah should will. most of them, [of that], are ignorant." 36 "And even if We opened to them a gate from the heaven and they continued therein to ascend, they would say, Our eyes have only been dazzled; rather, we are a people affected by magic."37 As described in these verses, people who continue to deny the existence of Allah live in complete ignorance. They will accept every kind of falsehood but remain stubborn when it comes to the truth. They prefer not to believe in logical scientific facts but in illusions which their lower selves have made pleasing to them. Belief in evolution from earliest times has been the result of a godless mind-set. Moreover, this mentality will always exist, for it is part of Allah's decree. The Qur’An confirms this fact: "And We have certainly created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind. They have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. Those are like livestock; rather, they are more astray. It is those who are the heedless."38