MAIN: Darwin's discipline

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GORDON DANIELS

Salman Hameed, an astronomer at Hampshire College, is working to educate people in his native Pakistan about the theory of evolution - a concept accepted by a scant 14 percent of the population in that Muslim country.

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GORDON DANIELS

Salman Hameed, an astronomer at Hampshire College, is working to educate people in his native Pakistan about the theory of evolution - a concept accepted by a scant 14 percent of the population in that Muslim country.

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GAZETTE FILE PHOTO

This portrait of 31-year-old Charles Darwin, who developed the theory of evolution by natural selection, was painted by George Richmond in 1840.

AMHERST - In a crowded cafe in Karachi, Pakistan, a young woman accused Hampshire College astronomer Salman A. Hameed of being a "Godless skeptic."

Hameed shrugged. It's nothing he hasn't heard before.

For the past three years Hameed has taken time away from his annual visits with his Pakistani family to meet with groups of 60 to 70 people in coffee shops and universities to talk about Charles Darwin's theory of evolution - a theory that has less support in the Muslim world than in America.

In the coffee shop confrontation, Hameed skirted the issue of his own beliefs and countered the infidel accusation with proven science. He discussed the evolution of the universe and expounded on the development of single-cell organisms from matter arriving from outer space.

By the end of his talk, he hadn't changed this woman's mind, Hameed recalled, sipping cappuccino in a Northampton cafe shortly after the new year. But she didn't walk out on his lecture.

"The fact that people don't walk out much energizes me," said Hameed, a 38-year-old Pakistani native living in Northampton and teaching integrated science and humanities at Hampshire College.

"It's exciting that people will come to hear and talk about origins," Hameed said. "If they talk, if they start asking questions, then that's what I want."

Hameed, who credits his own fervor to an early, life-changing encounter with Carl Sagan's series, "Cosmos," is a missionary for the order of science. Instead of a Bible, he carries Darwin's "On the Origin of Species." And instead of saving souls, Hameed is trying to salvage young Muslim minds.

Evolution is a passion for Hameed. He blogs about it (sciencereligionnews.blogspot.com). He is in the beginning stages of making a documentary explaining the theory to a Muslim audience.

And he is part of the organizing team celebrating the bicentennial of Darwin's birth Feb. 12 at Hampshire College.

The Muslim population's acceptance of evolution is necessary for the religiously bound nations to excel in science and technology - advancements that can ultimately yield power and prestige on a global scale, Hameed said.

"We simply cannot afford a mass rejection of evolution by one-sixth of the world's population," said Hameed, referring to the 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide.

"Muslims are already behind in contributions to science and technology," Hameed said. "If they reject evolution, there goes the hope that they could catch up. How many geniuses in this large population could we lose because of a culture that rejects evolution?"

Darwin and Islam

Hameed is aware he's fighting an uphill battle. With acceptance of evolution low and misinformation about the theory prevalent in the Muslim Middle East, Hameed is trying to break down misconceptions one lecture at a time.

"Religion is so central to the Islamic world," said Hameed. "If evolution is associated with atheism or appears as a choice, either evolution or religion, then there is no question- people will accept religion."

Only 14 percent of Pakistanis agree with Darwin's theory of evolution, Hameed said.

In Egypt, another Muslim nation, the theory is accepted by 8 percent of people and in Turkey about 22 percent of the population accepts evolution.

By comparison, 40 percent of Americans, down from 45 percent in 1986, embrace Darwin's seminal theory. About 80 percent of the French and 60 percent of the Italian populations agree with Darwin, according to a 2006 report by the National Center for Science Education and Jon D. Miller, a Michigan State University professor.

The debate over evolution versus creationism that has raged in America for more than a century - highlighted by a number of legal challenges - is beginning to take shape in the Muslim world, said Hameed.

Evolution asserts the passage of genetic traits through reproduction can, over time, lead to the development of new species.

This includes the theory's most controversial point, that people descended from another animal. Darwin, however, never made such an assertion about human origins.

A few years after "Origin" was published, Thomas Huxley penned "Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature" which linked human and ape ancestry.

American creationism asserts man, in his modern form, was placed on Earth some 6,000-10,000 years ago by God. In Islam the same assertion is made, although Muslims are not as rigid about the age of the Earth, Hameed said. The Quran does not specify the planet's age.

Among scientists, the generally accepted age of the Earth is 4.5 billion years old.

In some parts of the Muslim world, evolution is taught with little resistance, said Hameed. In Pakistani grade school, for example, Hameed recalled reading a chapter on evolution in his science textbook. The chapter began with a quote from the Quran, explained how plants and animals evolved from various organisms and species, but did not discuss human evolution.

"Why does evolution make people feel so uncomfortable?" Hameed asked. "I think it's related to human uniqueness. If you look at evolution, human uniqueness may appear to be challenged.

"Algae ruled the Earth for 3 billion years, a lot longer than humans," Hameed said with a smile.

Evolution sours for Muslims when it is connected to atheism and the Western world, Hameed said.

"People reject evolution in the Muslim world because it's associated with the West," Hameed said. "They have this general notion that they don't agree with evolution and I say well, 'why not?' You see, they're missing the why not?"

Misconception

In his lectures overseas, Hameed attempts to get his audience thinking about why they do not accept evolution.

He does this through a narrative that draws people in with accepted science, the creation of the universe from the Big Bang and how gravity pulled and chemicals reacted to form stars and planets.

He then explains how this same matter, a chemical soup, eventually spawned single-cell life. With the audience following along, Hameed delves into animal origins and then human origins.

"People don't say I don't believe in gravity," Hameed said. "From there, you can go on to evolution."

At this point Hameed says he confronts misconceptions about evolution.

A common misconception is that humans are at the top of the evolutionary ladder and that all animals will eventually turn into humans.

People also believe that Darwin invented evolution in order to discredit religion.

Another error in evolutionary understanding is that the process is completely random. Many people who reject evolution are not informed about a key factor, natural selection - a process that supports beneficial traits being passed on to the next generation while organisms with inhibitive traits will have fewer opportunities to reproduce - and thus have less chance for survival in the long run. "They think how can something random lead to such an order in nature, but what they miss is the selection part," said Hameed. "You can then ask, 'Who put natural selection here? God or not God'?

"If you look in your heart and find God, then that's OK. If not, that's OK too," Hameed said. "That's an issue you have to address, and it's independent of evolution."

A wide audience

While Hameed enjoys giving his lectures, about three every year, he wants his evolutionary message to reach a wider audience.

To that end, Hameed is in discussions with a Pakistani production company to make a documentary about evolution and origins for a Muslim audience. Hameed said the film will have the same tone as his lectures, inoffensive and engaging. Work on the film is scheduled to begin in 2010.

"We have to find a way to talk that does not offend people, but energizes them," Hameed said.

He hopes his film can do for young Muslims what Carl Sagan's "Cosmos," the 13-part television series on the history of the planet and life, did for him.

"Carl Sagan changed my life through a picture," Hameed said of the late astronomer, who made a host of discoveries including why Venus is so warm (an extreme greenhouse effect) and why there is a reddish haze on Saturn's moon, Titan (complex organic molecules).

Hameed remembers the day he saw the first documentary in Sagan's "Cosmos" series. Watching the TV in his ninth-grade classroom in Pakistan, Hameed said Sagan's film inspired a feeling of awe and wonder.

He knew then he wanted to be an astronomer and explore life's mysteries.

"What he communicated is essentially the wonder and joy and excitement of discovery," Hameed said.

"That's one way of energizing a large audience, and I hope to do that."