2,743
edits
Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth: Difference between revisions
Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth (view source)
Revision as of 19:25, 2 March 2016
, 2 March 2016→Further Proof: Added 55:17
| [checked revision] | [checked revision] |
Prekladator (talk | contribs) |
Lightyears (talk | contribs) (→Further Proof: Added 55:17) |
||
| Line 282: | Line 282: | ||
The closer we get to the poles, the longer our days or nights become. They can eventually extend for up to several months each, making this verse, the fourth [[Five Pillars of Islam|Pillar of Islam]], impossible to practice without starving yourself to death. Again, this problem would not exist on a flat earth model. | The closer we get to the poles, the longer our days or nights become. They can eventually extend for up to several months each, making this verse, the fourth [[Five Pillars of Islam|Pillar of Islam]], impossible to practice without starving yourself to death. Again, this problem would not exist on a flat earth model. | ||
===Qur'an 55:17=== | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran|55|17}}|(He is) Lord of the two Easts and Lord of the two Wests}} | |||
The commentaries (tafsirs) are unanimous that this refers to the two places or points where the sun rises from on the summer and winter solstices (almashriqayni), and where it sets on those solstice days (almaghribayni). Similarly, verse 77:40 was understood to refer to all the different places from which the sun rises and sets between these ranges. This might seem perfectly fitting for an author who believed in a flat Earth and a sun that moves around the world every day, where these locations are objective facts of cosmography. | |||
The problem is that in reality, the Earth is a spinning sphere, so that even if we consider these locations to be points on the horizon, they are <i>entirely</i> a matter of perspective. Any two viewpoints on Earth will have different points on the horizon where the extremities of rising and setting appear during the year, and if they are at different latitudes, then even the angular range between these perceived extremities is different too. Indeed, the entire Earth is covered with places from which the sun can appear to someone, somewhere, to rise, and similarly, to set. | |||
== General Apologetics == | == General Apologetics == | ||