Dear guests, welcome! We are gathered to speak about religion and science today and here.
The specific subject of today is 'Qur'an and Evolution'.
Our guest is Anton van Hoof.
He is a classicist, who retired after working for 30 years in Universiteit Nijmegen.
Currently he is a teacher and author with a website of his own.
First, I will allow Abdulaziz Bayindir for an opening speech,
then we will begin with Prof. Van Hooff's questions.
By the name of Allah,
This is our second meeting with Prof. van Hoof.
Last year in Netherlands we had held a meeting longer than five hours.
There was Qur'an in front of him at that meeting, too and we'd tried to give answers to his question from Qur'an.
It was an extremely nice atmosphere, and it was also useful for me.
Mr. Anton also left as quite pleased.
Then, he invited us for the second time, thanks for that.
This time we said, let's invite him to Istanbul.
He'd like to visit Istanbul and historical sites here, since he is a historian.
This morning they visited the museum with Abdurrahman.
He'll be here until Tuesday.
Today we will talk about evolution and Qur'an.
We believe that Qur'an is the book of Allah.
He claims that it is a book written by Muhammad in the 7th century, and says: "You claim that it is a book from God, but it is a belief only".
And we say: "It would not be convincing if we try to prove that it is a book from God.
If it can prove itself, that it is a book from God, then the problem would be resolved."
At  yesterday evening's meeting, most of the questions that Mr. van Hooff asked were the questions that many Muslims also have on mind today, though they cannot dare ask.
I hope, we'll have a nice and useful conversation again.
Tomorrow, we'll have our Saturday discussion as always, and we'll be with Prof. Adnan Ökten if he also likes to join.
He is our scientist co-worker and we went to polar regions with him thrice, as you know.
Tomorrow we'll discuss soul & life; then religion & science; religion & freedom will be our subjects.
In the last session, Prof. van Hooff will ask about any of his doubts on Islam from any aspect.
We have made a principle agreement with him.
He will ask whatever he wills, and Mrs. Zeynep, the editor of our English website,will translate it for us;
and we will give the answers from Qur'an only.
We'll do it so, because you know in Quran, about the proof of Qur'an being the book of Allah, there exists the verse:
"We will show them Our Signs in the external environment, and in their ownselves, until it becomes manifest to them that this (the Quran) is the truth (from God)." (Fussilat 41:53)
Because Qur'an separates the signs of Allah into two.
The first one is, the signs Allah created, which are all creatures;
and the second one is the signs/verses He revealed, which is Qur'an.
