Diseases and Cures in the Wings of Houseflies: Difference between revisions

This article analyzes the apologetic claim that the sahih hadiths concerning the wings of the housefly are somehow scientifically accurate.

Muslim Claim

Apologists sometimes make absurd claims - like the fly wing hadith.

The thesis put by Islamists is that it has recently been proven by modern science that flies carry not only pathogens but also the agents that limit these pathogens, thus proving the fly wing hadiths. They principally identify these agents to be bacteriophages, though they also sometimes refer to fungi.

To bring the layperson up to date, bacteriophages (“phages”) are viruses that infect bacteria. It is a generality that all natural bacterial populations are limited by phages and environmental conditions, but it is a leap to suggest that these elements are antidotes. Mammals, too, are limited by pathogens, but it is foolish to suggest these pathogens are antidotal to mammals.

Analysis

Dissection of the fly wing hadiths is as follows:

Which wing contains the venom and which the antidote?

This is ludicrous, but also what must be the starting point in debating Islamists on this subject. For if they say that the presence of phages proves that the hadith is correct, then pointing out that phages are not limited to any one wing, right or left, immediately proves the falsehood in the hadiths.

They make erroneous assumptions

A. They assume that bacteriophages are antidotal to bacteria. Bacteriophages cause lysis of their bacterial hosts in the final stage of infection – thereby releasing new phage particles to infect other bacterial cells in the population. However, in the natural environment, this state is equilibrial – meaning that only a small proportion of bacterial cells is infected at any one time. Just like only a small proportion of humans is ever infected with the flu virus at any one time (except in a pandemic).

B. They assume that flies must carry the antidote to the pathogens they carry.

As far as we know, flies do not succumb to human pathogens – they are merely carriers. This shows that the Islamists do not understand pathogenesis. Flies do not succumb to human diseases.

The way it works is like this: fly lands on feces or rotting carcass – gets traces of feces or rotting carcass on itself. Fly lands on human food – drops traces of feces or rotting carcass on human food – fly flies away – human consumes contaminated food and gets sick. Fly lives happily ever after.

C. They falsely assume relations that do not exist.

The ability to design antibiotics that might utilize bacteriophage infection pathways does not prove that phages are antidotal to bacteria. Antibiotics are not phages. Further, these antibiotics are likely to be ‘artificial’ and do not reflect the natural state of fly-human disease interactions.

They make patently erroneous statements

There are two errors here:

A. The common fly doesn’t carry malaria – that is carried by mosquitoes.

B. There is no such thing as bacteriophagic fungi. This term may sound impressive to non-scientists, but bacteriophages are viruses and fungi are, surprise, fungi.

They quote scientific articles that contain errors

A. Bacteriophages do not attack other viruses.

B. Not all bacteriophages encode cell-wall destroying proteins to lyse host cells.

They misinterpret scientific facts

This basically says that the microbiota of insects protect them from their (i.e. insect) pathogens. It doesn’t say anything about human pathogens carried by insects.

This has just proven the existence of bacteriophages. What it has not proven is whether these bacteriophages protect humans against human pathogens carried by flies.

They make extension of claims

Now it’s not only phages on the right wing, but the yeast cells inside fly stomachs and respiratory tubules. We assume it’s the yeast antibiotics they’re referring to. The presence of tiny amounts of antibiotics (produced by fungi) do not protect humans from enteric diseases. Islamists are confused about antibiotics – they do not understand how antibiotics work. Dosage is important. Modern antibiotics are artificial and highly purified. Treatment of bacterial infections involves ‘massive’ doses of purified antibiotics that are not found in the natural environment.

They confuse the use of bacteriophage

A. The O1-phage is used for typing (i.e. diagnosing) Salmonella infections, not treating it.

B. Bacteriophage therapy was subsumed by antibiotic therapy in the 1940’s because it was largely ineffective. Before antibiotics, physicians were desperate for cures – they’d try anything, even bacteriophage therapy – but that doesn’t prove bacteriophage therapy works. In any event, one would need massive doses of phages to treat each case – which doesn’t occur in the natural environment. A fly dipping its right wing, left wing, or its entire body, will not be sufficient.

They do not understand what they purport to be proof

A. This article highlights one of the main limitations of bacteriophages in therapeutics, i.e. it is rapidly taken up by the human body and destroyed in human spleen cells. Therefore, even when a fly should carry bacteriophages, normal human physiology precludes these phages from acting as antidotes.

B. Even if some biotechnology companies want to develop bacteriophage-based treatments, it doesn’t prove the hadith to be correct. These bacteriophage-based treatments involve the use of genetic engineering and other advanced scientific techniques to utilize bacteriophage pathogenesis for the treatment of human diseases. Naturally-occurring bacteriophages are useless for this purpose.

They ignore non-bacterial enteric diseases

Flies also spread pinworm, tapeworm, viral gastroenteritis, amebic dysentery, giardia enteritis, and enteric hepatitis. Bacteriophages and fungi are totally ineffective against these diseases.

Conclusion

The scientific facts do not support the fly wing hadith. Islamists continuing to make this claim open themselves to ridicule.

See Also

• Health - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Health

External Links

• Teachings of the Hadith: The wings of the fly - Answering Islam (archived), http://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Science/flies.html