Scientific Errors in the Quran: Difference between revisions

Scientific Errors in the Quran (view source)

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 {{Quote|{{Quran|75|8}}|And the moon darkens And the sun and the moon are joined,}}
-The Arabic word translated as "are joined" is ''jumi'a'', a verb which means to collect together, gather together, bring together.<ref>[http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume2/00000091.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 455 جُمِعَ]</ref>
+The Arabic word translated as "are joined" is ''jumi'a'', a verb which means to collect together, gather together, bring together.<ref>[http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume2/00000091.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 455 جُمِعَ]</ref> Critics note that this would require the moon to travel 98 million miles away from Earth and into the sun, which is over 400 times wider. To describe them as brought together (jumi'a) in such a scenario would hardly be apt, critics argue, and a very odd apocalyptic event. Rather, the description sits comfortably in the ancient understanding of the cosmos, whereby the sun and moon were assumed to be two roughly equivalent celestial bodies in the sky above the Earth.
-It is worth noting that the darkening of the moon in this verse does not work as a reference to a lunar eclipse (when the earth's shadow is cast upon the moon) since the sun and moon are then on opposite sides of the earth and thus are not in any sense "joined". Nor could it refer to a solar eclipse (when the sun occasionally casts a shadow of the moon on the earth). The moon is invisible during the portion of a month when a solar eclipse can occur since it must be on the daylit side of the earth, and hence the moon does not "darken" as it passes between observers and the sun but rather its silhouette becomes visible.
+It is worth noting that the "darkening" of the moon in verse 8 is an Arabic word which in hadiths refers to a lunar or solar eclipse (in this case lunar). However, for a lunar eclipse to occur (when the earth's shadow is cast upon the moon) the sun and moon are on opposite sides of the earth and thus are not in any sense "joined". Nor does "joined" in verse 9 work as a reference to a solar eclipse (when the sun occasionally casts a shadow of the moon on the earth). The moon is invisible during the portion of a month when it can eclipse the sun since it must be on the daylit side of the earth, and hence the moon does not "darken" or itself become eclipsed (verse 8) as it passes between observers and the sun but rather its silhouette becomes visible.
 ===Moon split in two===