Scientific Errors in the Quran: Difference between revisions

{{QualityScore|Lead=2|Structure=4|Content=4|Language=3|References=3}}A common criticism of the [[Quran]], [[Scientific Errors in the Hadith|as with the Hadith]], 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^th century Arabia. Modern responses typically appeal to metaphor, alternative meanings, or 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.

The Qur'an mentions a few times that the sun and the moon travel in an orbit or sphere/hemisphere (fee falakin فِى فَلَكٍ<ref>[http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume6/00000227.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 2443 فَلَكٍ] and [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume6/00000228.pdf p. 2444]</ref>), but does not mention once that the Earth does too. This is consistent with an Earth-centered (geocentric) view of the cosmos that places a motionless Earth at the center of the universe and all "heavenly bodies" travel around the Earth. This was the prevailing understanding of the universe prior to the 16^th century when Copernicus helped explain and popularize a sun-centered (heliocentric) view of the universe. Tellingly, the sun's orbit is almost always mentioned in the context of night and day ({{Quran|13|2}} being the only exception) and is always mentioned with that of the moon (which does in fact orbit the Earth each month), and the sun's orbit likewise appears, to the unaided eye, to traverse the sky each night when it is visible.

{{Quran|41|12}} states that lamps (or more specifically, stars in the similar verse {{Quran|37|6}}) were placed in the nearest of the seven heavens. But before there were seven heavens and while heaven was just smoke, the Earth already existed according to {{Quran|41|11}}, and the Earth's creation and completion in the preceding days is described in the immediately preceding verses {{Quran-range|41|9|10}}, discussed in the previous section above. The creation sequence is thus as follows:  

#Seven heavens;

#The nearest heaven adorned with stars.

{{Quran|2|29}} further confirms that heaven was only made into seven heavens when, according to the Quran, everything on Earth had been created.

{{Quote|{{Bukhari|4|56|831}}|Narrated Anas: "That the Meccan people requested Allah's Apostle to show them a miracle, and so he showed them the splitting of the moon."}}

The Qur’an states that man was created instantaneously from clay (''salsalin'' صَلْصَٰلٍ) / ''mud'' (hamain حَمَإٍ). There is no indication that the author is aware of the evolution of human life over millions of years or our common ancestry with apes and primates.  

The Qur'an describes the initial formation of a human embryo out of fluid emanating from the man (and possibly also of the woman), which is then placed in the womb. This reflects the widespread contemporary view that semen is the material from which the embryo is initially formed, as taught by Hippocrates, Galen, and the Jewish Talmud. By contrast, modern science has shown that semen is the vehicle for the sperm cells, one of which fuses with a woman's [[w:ovum|ovum]] in her [[w:fallopian tube|fallopian tube]], and that the resulting cell divides (rather than the seminal medium) and travels back into the womb for implantation.  

{{Quote|{{Quran-wi|76|2}}|Indeed, We created man from a sperm-drop mixture [nutfatin amshajin] that We may try him; and We made him hearing and seeing.}}

===Mountains prevent earthquakes===

Mountains are usually formed through the movement and collision of lithospheric (tectonic) plates. The Quran, by contrast, states that the mountains on Earth's surface were cast upon it by God. The imagery is clear when one considers the above verses which describe the Mountains as 'pegs' which stabilize the Earth (which is itself compared to a carpet and bed roll).

===Noah's global flood===

The Quran contains a version of the global-flood story widespread in ancient near-Eastern mythology and most famously found in the Bible. Since geological evidence suggests such a flood never took place, some modern Muslim scholars have reinterpreted the account in the Quran as referring to a more limited, local flood. Several elements in the tale, however, militate against this rereading. One such detail is the storage of "two of each kind" of animal aboard the ship, since it is not clear what purpose this would serve if the flood were local. Similarly, the purpose of the boat itself appears unclear in this reading - as with the ample warning time that Noah was given, he and his family could have simply evacuated the area that was to be flooded. The the relevant passage also states plainly that nothing, not even a tall mountain, could save an individual from drowning on that day except for Allah - this seems to contradict the idea that individuals and animals could have escaped the flood simply by evacuating the flooded area. Noah is recorded praying to God, "O my Lord! Leave not of the Unbelievers [kuffar], a single one on Earth!" - the flood is an answer to this prayer, which likewise suggests that the flood described is a global flood that drowns all those not chosen by Allah to persist aboard the ark.

{{Quote|{{Quran|11|40}}|At length, behold! there came Our command, and the fountains of the earth gushed forth! '''We said: "Embark therein, of each kind two, male and female''', and your family - except those against whom the word has already gone forth,- and the Believers." but only a few believed with him.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|11|43}}|The son replied: "I will betake myself to some mountain: it will save me from the water." Noah said: '''"This day nothing can save''', from the command of Allah, any but those on whom He hath mercy! "And the waves came between them, and the son was among those overwhelmed in the Flood.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|71|26}}|And Noah, said: "O my Lord! Leave not of the Unbelievers, a single one on earth!}}

Note that in his translation, Yusuf Ali mistranslates the Aramaic loan word for the oven (alttannooru ٱلتَّنُّورُ)<ref>[http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume1/00000355.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 318 تَّنُّورُ]</ref> as "fountains". The Arabic verb translated "gushed forth" (fara فَارَ) means "boiled" in the context of water in a cooking pot<ref>[http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume6/00000241.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 2457 فور]</ref>, as well as in the other verse where it is used, {{Quran|67|5}}.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

==Sociology==