Embryology in the Quran: Difference between revisions

[checked revision][checked revision]
No edit summary
Line 92: Line 92:
Many apologists claim that 'alaqah in the Quran means a leech (in a metaphorical sense), and that this is similar to an embryo. However, unlike a leech, which simply sucks blood from its host, the embryo circulates and exchanges blood and waste products with its mother.<ref>Barry Mitchell & Ram Sharma 2009. Embryology: An Illustrated Colour Text. Second Edition. Churchill Livingstone ElSevier. Page 10-11</ref> Furthermore, a leech attaches itself directly to the surface of its host. In contrast, the [[w:Blastocyst|blastocyst]] stage embryo implants into the uterine wall ([[w:Endometrium|endometrium]]) by means of an outer cell layer surrounding it, called the [[w:Syncytiotrophoblast|syncytiotrophoblast]]. It is the syncytiotrophoblast which invades the endometrium, burying the entire embryo within the wall (unlike a leech), establishes a circulatory connection, and will later form the outer layer of the [[w:Placenta#Development|placenta]].
Many apologists claim that 'alaqah in the Quran means a leech (in a metaphorical sense), and that this is similar to an embryo. However, unlike a leech, which simply sucks blood from its host, the embryo circulates and exchanges blood and waste products with its mother.<ref>Barry Mitchell & Ram Sharma 2009. Embryology: An Illustrated Colour Text. Second Edition. Churchill Livingstone ElSevier. Page 10-11</ref> Furthermore, a leech attaches itself directly to the surface of its host. In contrast, the [[w:Blastocyst|blastocyst]] stage embryo implants into the uterine wall ([[w:Endometrium|endometrium]]) by means of an outer cell layer surrounding it, called the [[w:Syncytiotrophoblast|syncytiotrophoblast]]. It is the syncytiotrophoblast which invades the endometrium, burying the entire embryo within the wall (unlike a leech), establishes a circulatory connection, and will later form the outer layer of the [[w:Placenta#Development|placenta]].


A leech has many characteristics such as size, behaviour, shape, color, appearance. It makes no sense for the author to have used 'alaqah in a metaphorical sense when his listeners could not be expected to know in what respect the analogy applies. It is no more than a Texan Sharpshooter fallacy<ref>"The Texas sharpshooter fallacy is an informal fallacy in which pieces of information that have no relationship to one another are called out for their similarities, and that similarity is used for claiming the existence of a pattern. This fallacy is the philosophical/rhetorical application of the multiple comparisons problem (in statistics) and apophenia (in cognitive psychology). It is related to the clustering illusion, which refers to the tendency in human cognition to interpret patterns where none actually exist. The name comes from a joke about a Texan who fires some shots at the side of a barn, then paints a target centered on the biggest cluster of hits and claims to be a sharpshooter."{{cite web|url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_sharpshooter_fallacy|title= Texas sharpshooter fallacy|publisher= Wikipedia|author= |date= accessed August 13, 2013|archiveurl= http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FTexas_sharpshooter_fallacy&date=2013-08-13|deadurl=no}}</ref>, typical of Islamic miracle claims, to choose one characteristic - shape - which in their eyes has, to a very and arbitrarily limited degree, a similarity with that of an embryo, and draw any conclusions, particularly as the early embryo passes through a wide range of shapes and they are both biological organisms. Moreover, when depicting the embryo such apologetics have to conveniently ignore the embryo's yolk sac, which gradually becomes incorporated into its developing gut.
A leech has many characteristics such as size, behaviour, shape, color, appearance. It makes no sense for the author to have used 'alaqah in a metaphorical sense when his listeners could not be expected to know in what respect the analogy applies. It is no more than a Texan Sharpshooter fallacy<ref>"The Texas sharpshooter fallacy is an informal fallacy in which pieces of information that have no relationship to one another are called out for their similarities, and that similarity is used for claiming the existence of a pattern. This fallacy is the philosophical/rhetorical application of the multiple comparisons problem (in statistics) and apophenia (in cognitive psychology). It is related to the clustering illusion, which refers to the tendency in human cognition to interpret patterns where none actually exist. The name comes from a joke about a Texan who fires some shots at the side of a barn, then paints a target centered on the biggest cluster of hits and claims to be a sharpshooter."<br>{{cite web|url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_sharpshooter_fallacy|title= Texas sharpshooter fallacy|publisher= Wikipedia|author= |date= accessed August 13, 2013|archiveurl= http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FTexas_sharpshooter_fallacy&date=2013-08-13|deadurl=no}}</ref>, typical of Islamic miracle claims, to choose one characteristic - shape - which to a very and arbitrarily limited degree has similarity with that of an embryo (in their eyes) and to then draw any conclusions. This is particularly so given that the early embryo passes through a wide range of shapes and that both a leech and human embryo are biological organisms. Moreover, when depicting the embryo such apologetics have to conveniently ignore the embryo's yolk sac, which gradually becomes incorporated into its developing gut.


====Congealed Blood====
====Congealed Blood====
Editors, em-bypass-2, Reviewers, rollback, Administrators
2,743

edits