Adnan Oktar is fond of challenging people, throwing down the gauntlet to Richard Dawkins and anyone else who thinks they can prove Darwin's theory of evolution. Oktar is the public face of the Atlas of Creation, a book of epic proportions – in size and production costs – that has thudded onto 10,000 doormats since its publication in 2006.

In the ongoing debate about creationism, which has divided academic, scientific and religious communities, the Turk is something of a juggernaut. His book, weighing the same as a three-year-old child, claims to refute the theory of evolution on every one of its 786 pages and has been lapped up by creationist advocates across the religious and political spectrum.

Almost as promiscuous as the book's mailing list is the PR machine surrounding Oktar, which bombards journalists with offers of free flights to Turkey to interview the 52-year-old. The Guardian paid its own way to Istanbul to meet Oktar, en route to discover more about the Gulen movement, to find the high priest of creationism holding court in a plush gated development in Çengelköy, Istanbul.

His people – an array of sharp-suited, slick and shiny-haired Turks – filmed the interview for their own purposes. The experience felt sinister, but not as sinister as his retinue refusing to give directions to the interview location. Instead they insisted that a representative from Global Publishing – publisher of the Atlas – meet us at a gas station and accompany us to the house, a gaudy affair stuffed with figurines and gold-plated fittings.

Oktar, squeezed into a white trouser suit, declines to reveal how the Atlas industry is funded, nor will he say how much he is paid, or indeed whether he is paid at all. Challenged to explain the apparent contradiction between his beliefs and his plush surroundings, he responds: "I want to resemble Prophet Solomon. Prophet Solomon was like this. He used to be well dressed. He liked being well dressed. His palace was beautiful; there were beautiful people around him. Allah is beautiful. Allah loves those who are beautiful, wants everywhere to be beautiful. Paradise is also beautiful. [The] aim of a Muslim should be beauty."

Not everything that surrounds Oktar is aesthetically pleasing. He carries around with him a legacy of court appearances and allegations. In May he was given a three-year prison sentence – which he intends to challenge – following a spate of arrests in 1999. Oktar also claims he was thrown in a mental institution as punishment after the publication of his first book.

This "persecution" is, says Oktar, a burden on those called to God: "I'm a writer but at the same time I am a man of dawah [mission]. I support an idea. Every such person has been put pressure on, defamed, oppressed because of his ideas or assassinated. Anybody with an idea always sticks to his ideas, keeps spreading his ideas no matter how much he is oppressed, and this is what I think."

What he thinks, unashamedly and unapologetically, is that Darwin was lying and that there has been no evolution. He repeats this point throughout the interview.

"Almost 100 million fossils have been unearthed so far. All of these show that plants, animals, humans and insects have never undergone evolution whatsoever and they were all created in the same way by God. We can see this fact in each fossil we come across. There is no fossil proving the contrary. If they can show one, I will reward them 10 trillion Turkish Lira [£4.4 trillion]."

Around a minute later he adds: "There exists no fossil to prove the Darwinian theory. If they can show a few fossils, I will reward them 10 trillion. But there are almost 100 million fossils proving creation. In Turkey, we have exhibited thousands of them."

Another 30 seconds passes before he says: "Also let them coincidentally produce a single protein that maintains life I will again give 10 trillion TL."

He summons one of his men to fetch an Atlas of Creation and, thumbing through the pages, shows me why Darwin was wrong. He explains how the illustrations of fossils prove that no creature has evolved, that all organisms remain the same as they were 100m years ago.

"There is not one single fossil showing that humans evolved. For example, a 100-million-year-old crocodile, it didn't transform into a professor after a while."

How does he reach these conclusions, I wonder, imagining him to have laboratories and researchers at his disposal. Oktar himself, by his own admission, has no scientific experience or background. He is not an academic. He studied interior design.

Richard Dawkins has pointed out several glaring inaccuracies in The Atlas of Creation, but Oktar retains a powerful influence over various communities – especially Muslim ones – around the world. Earlier this year two of his representatives gave a talk at University College London at the invitation of the university's Islamic Society. Oktar's website lists more than a dozen such events in the UK in November and December alone.

On another website "complimentary" letters are featured from individuals and organisations following receipt of a Harun Yahya publication. The content ranges from a polite acknowledgement of the book to wholehearted support for its message. What does Oktar make of his global impact?

"Hundreds of professor, scientists, students and public send e-mails to our internet sites … We receive sincere messages that [the Atlas] has a great effect on them … It made an atomic bomb effect. Afterwards it had a radiation effect and it keeps going on. Those who read the book tell others and those tell others. It has an irresistible power. That is why it has a demolishing effect."

An exhausting 90 minutes later, the interview finishes with Oktar and his people disappearing into the basement to pray. The sun has set and, with no idea where we are, we wait for our escort out of the house.