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Scientific Errors in the Quran: Difference between revisions
Scientific Errors in the Quran (view source)
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{{page_title|Scientific Errors in the Qur'an}} | {{page_title|Scientific Errors in the Qur'an}} | ||
A common criticism of the Quran is that it contains numerous [[Islam and Science|scientific]] and historical errors, with no obvious attempts to differentiate its understanding of the natural world and historical events from the common folklore and misconceptions of the people living in 7<sup>th</sup> century Arabia. | A common criticism of the Quran is that it contains numerous [[Islam and Science|scientific]] and historical errors, with no obvious attempts to differentiate its understanding of the natural world and historical events from the common folklore and misconceptions of the people living in 7<sup>th</sup> century Arabia. Modern responses typically appeal to metaphor, alternative meanings, or [[w:Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenological]] interpretations of such verses. They also argue that the wording needed to be acceptable to people of its time. Critics typically argue that an all-knowing, perfect communicator would nevertheless have been able to avoid statements in the Quran that reinforced misconceptions of the time, caused future generations to have doubts about its perfection, and on a scale that critics contend is an overwhelming weakness. | ||
==Astronomy== | ==Astronomy== | ||
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{{Quote|{{Quran|21|33}}|And He it is Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. They float, each in an orbit.}} | {{Quote|{{Quran|21|33}}|And He it is Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. They float, each in an orbit.}} | ||
Modern perspectives explain the above Qur'anic description of the sun moving in an orbit as a reference to our sun orbiting the black hole at the center of the milky way galaxy every 225 million years. Critics argue that this is of no relevance to human time scales, and nothing from the text implies that the sun is orbiting anything other than the Earth. The Quran never in any way differentiates the sun's orbit from that of the moon. | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran|31|29}}|'''Hast thou not seen''' how Allah causeth the night to pass into the day and causeth the day to pass into the night, and hath subdued the sun and the moon (to do their work), each running unto an appointed term; and that Allah is Informed of what ye do?}} | {{Quote|{{Quran|31|29}}|'''Hast thou not seen''' how Allah causeth the night to pass into the day and causeth the day to pass into the night, and hath subdued the sun and the moon (to do their work), each running unto an appointed term; and that Allah is Informed of what ye do?}} | ||
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Till, when he reached the rising-place of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We had appointed no shelter therefrom. }} | Till, when he reached the rising-place of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We had appointed no shelter therefrom. }} | ||
Centuries after Muhammad lived, people with better astronomical knowledge | Centuries after Muhammad lived, people with better astronomical knowledge introduced interpretations of these verses such that Dhu'l-Qarnayn only traveled until he reached "the west" or to a spot "at the time" when the sun set and not the "place" where the sun set. However, these alternative interpretations are severely undermined by the [[Dhul-Qarnayn_and_the_Sun_Setting_in_a_Muddy_Spring_-_Part_One#First_interpretation:_He_reached_the_west_and_east|context and Arabic words used in these verses]], which instead point to physical locations where the sun did its setting and rising. Plenty of evidence shows that the early Muslims understood the verse in this straightforward way. Critics typically ask why an all-knowing being would use such misleading verses that mimic the misconceptions and legends prevalent at the time if one of the alternative explanations is correct. | ||
===Earth and Heavens Created in Six Days=== | ===Earth and Heavens Created in Six Days=== | ||
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The Earth first formed around 9 billion years after the Big Bang. The Qur'an, however, repeats the prevailing Middle-Eastern myth that the Earth and heavens were formed in six days. | The Earth first formed around 9 billion years after the Big Bang. The Qur'an, however, repeats the prevailing Middle-Eastern myth that the Earth and heavens were formed in six days. | ||
Unlike the hundreds of other verses where the Arabic word yawm or its plural ayyam (أَيَّامٍ) is understood to mean day or days, when the Quran describes the creation of the world some modern | Unlike the hundreds of other verses where the Arabic word yawm or its plural ayyam (أَيَّامٍ) is understood to mean day or days, when the Quran describes the creation of the world some modern perspectives appeal to its alternative meaning, 'time period'. The author makes no attempt to convey long time periods or to distingish his description from the prevailing Middle-Eastern creation myths in this regard, which feature six literal days of creation (for example in the Bible we have, "Evening came and morning came: The first day." - Genesis 1:5). | ||
Neither the universe nor Earth were formed in six distinct long periods of time. There is no attempt to poetically indicate the vast duration in which the universe has developed, which has taken place over the past [[w:Age of the universe|13.8 billion years]]. | Neither the universe nor Earth were formed in six distinct long periods of time. There is no attempt to poetically indicate the vast duration in which the universe has developed, which has taken place over the past [[w:Age of the universe|13.8 billion years]]. | ||
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====Earth and Heavens were Torn Apart==== | ====Earth and Heavens were Torn Apart==== | ||
Modern perspectives typically claim that the following verse is compatible with the [[w:Big Bang|Big Bang]] theory. According to this theory, the Universe was formed about 13.8 billion years ago due to a [[w:Chronology of the universe|rapid expansion]] from singularity. The earth was formed 4.54 billion years ago from [[w:History of the Earth|accretion]] of debris that surrounded the precursor of the Sun. There was no "separation" of the "joined" earth and heavens. In [[w:World egg|cosmic egg]] myths, an egg-like structure was split into two halves, the lower half forming the earth and the upper half forming the heaven. The verse itself assumes that the listeners are familiar with the concept. | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran|21|30}}| | {{Quote|{{Quran|21|30}}| | ||
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There is no scientific theory in which the Earth and heavens were torn apart from each other. The verse says that "We clove them" (dual pronoun 'huma'), not "We clove it", thereby indicating that the Earth and heavens are distinct after the cloving. To imagine that verse 21:30 describes the big bang, the atomic particles that would later form the Earth would at the beginning have to be separated from those that would go on to form everything else in the universe. This bears no resemblance to scientific cosmology, wherein the material that forms the Earth passed through at least one earlier generation of star, and more recently was part of various asteroids, comets and planetesimals orbiting the sun (which could all be described as being in the 'heavens') that sometimes collided and merged with each other, sometimes split apart, and gradually coalesced under gravity to form the Earth and other planets. | There is no scientific theory in which the Earth and heavens were torn apart from each other. The verse says that "We clove them" (dual pronoun 'huma'), not "We clove it", thereby indicating that the Earth and heavens are distinct after the cloving. To imagine that verse 21:30 describes the big bang, the atomic particles that would later form the Earth would at the beginning have to be separated from those that would go on to form everything else in the universe. This bears no resemblance to scientific cosmology, wherein the material that forms the Earth passed through at least one earlier generation of star, and more recently was part of various asteroids, comets and planetesimals orbiting the sun (which could all be described as being in the 'heavens') that sometimes collided and merged with each other, sometimes split apart, and gradually coalesced under gravity to form the Earth and other planets. | ||
The very next verse {{Quran|21|31}} speaks of mountains being placed on the Earth. Here 'the Earth' must mean an actual world, | The very next verse {{Quran|21|31}} speaks of mountains being placed on the Earth. Here 'the Earth' must mean an actual world, yet in the modern interpretation of the previous verse 'the Earth' refers merely to atomic particles at the time of the big bang. | ||
====Universe was Made from Smoke==== | ====Universe was Made from Smoke==== | ||
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Then turned He to the heaven when it was smoke, and said unto it and unto the earth: Come both of you, willingly or loth. They said: We come, obedient. Then He ordained them seven heavens in two Days and inspired in each heaven its mandate; and We decked the nether heaven with lamps, and rendered it inviolable. That is the measuring of the Mighty, the Knower. }} | Then turned He to the heaven when it was smoke, and said unto it and unto the earth: Come both of you, willingly or loth. They said: We come, obedient. Then He ordained them seven heavens in two Days and inspired in each heaven its mandate; and We decked the nether heaven with lamps, and rendered it inviolable. That is the measuring of the Mighty, the Knower. }} | ||
Modern perspectives nevertheless typically interpret 'smoke' as the primordial state of the universe after the big bang. However, the verse indicates a time when just the heaven, but not the Earth was smoke. Furthermore, the Earth and its mountains are clearly mentioned as already existing in the previous two verses ({{Quran-range|41|9|10}} discussed above). | |||
===Seven Earths=== | ===Seven Earths=== | ||
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{{Main|Embryology in the Quran|l1=Embryology in the Qur'an}} | {{Main|Embryology in the Quran|l1=Embryology in the Qur'an}} | ||
The Qur'an and Hadith depict that humans are formed from a clot of blood after an initial semen stage. There is no stage in embryonic development where humans are formed from a clot of blood. This description is likely influenced by an unscientific and primitive understanding of human reproduction based on observations from an early-term miscarriage and a woman's menstrual cycle. While in modern times some | The Qur'an and Hadith depict that humans are formed from a clot of blood after an initial semen stage. There is no stage in embryonic development where humans are formed from a clot of blood. This description is likely influenced by an unscientific and primitive understanding of human reproduction based on observations from an early-term miscarriage and a woman's menstrual cycle. While in modern times some perspectives seek to use alternative meanings for the relevant word, the mere fact that it certainly can mean clotted blood (which is the unanimous interpretation in the classical tafsirs), in a passage about a biological process (formation of a baby), is seen by critics as a major weakness in what should be a perfect description. | ||
{{Quote|{{Quran|23|14}}| | {{Quote|{{Quran|23|14}}| | ||
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{{Main|Responses_to_Zakir_Naik#Water_Cycle_in_the_Qur.27an|l1=Water Cycle in the Qur'an}} | {{Main|Responses_to_Zakir_Naik#Water_Cycle_in_the_Qur.27an|l1=Water Cycle in the Qur'an}} | ||
Some | Some modern perspectives claim that the water cycle is described in the Qur'an. Every verse about rain in the Qur'an implies that rain comes either directly from the sky or from Allah. However the crucial step of evaporation of water into the air is never mentioned. The Quran seems to describe a linear process orchestrated by Allah as opposed to a cyclical process. | ||
{{Quote|{{Quran|43|11}}| | {{Quote|{{Quran|43|11}}| | ||
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===Noah's Flood=== | ===Noah's Flood=== | ||
Critics argue that the Qur'an contains an un-historical, world-wide flood story as found in the Bible and ancient near-Eastern mythology. | Critics argue that the Qur'an contains an un-historical, world-wide flood story as found in the Bible and ancient near-Eastern mythology. A modern perspective typically claims instead that the textual evidence supports nothing more than a regional flood in the Qur'anic story of Noah. Critics raise various problems and questions in this claim: | ||
If the flood was not world-wide, why Noah was instructed to spend time building a boat at all when he could have just taken his family out of the flood region with sufficient warning? Animals in the region could have done likewise by the same kind of miracle needed to bring them all to an ark. | If the flood was not world-wide, why Noah was instructed to spend time building a boat at all when he could have just taken his family out of the flood region with sufficient warning? Animals in the region could have done likewise by the same kind of miracle needed to bring them all to an ark. | ||