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Scientific Errors in the Quran: Difference between revisions
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Scientific Errors in the Quran (view source)
Revision as of 00:37, 19 September 2023
, 19 September 2023no edit summary
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m (→The people of Lot as the first homosexuals: Have added in some context on how long humans would have been around without committing any homosexual actions at a minimum for this story to be true (approx. 290,00 years), and cited an easy to read but credible source.) |
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===Seven Earths=== | ===Seven Earths=== | ||
{{Main|Cosmology of the Quran| | {{Main|Cosmology of the Quran|Science and the Seven Earths}} | ||
{{Quran|65|12}} plainly states that there exist seven earths. | {{Quran|65|12}} plainly states that there exist seven earths. | ||
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Two alternative interpretations popular in modern times are that the Quran is referring to [[w:Coronal mass ejections|coronal mass ejections]] (large eruptions of charged matter from the sun or other stars), or [[w:Cosmic rays|cosmic rays]] (high energy, sub-atomic particles travelling through interstellar space). However, coronal mass ejections move slowly in cosmic terms, disperse over distance and do not come from surprise directions ({{Quran|37|8}} states that the devils are pelted from every side, and pursued by a piercing flame if they escape with anything they overheard). Cosmic rays do not emit light as they travel through space and therefore nor could these be the flaming missiles of fire and smoke in the Quran. | Two alternative interpretations popular in modern times are that the Quran is referring to [[w:Coronal mass ejections|coronal mass ejections]] (large eruptions of charged matter from the sun or other stars), or [[w:Cosmic rays|cosmic rays]] (high energy, sub-atomic particles travelling through interstellar space). However, coronal mass ejections move slowly in cosmic terms, disperse over distance and do not come from surprise directions ({{Quran|37|8}} states that the devils are pelted from every side, and pursued by a piercing flame if they escape with anything they overheard). Cosmic rays do not emit light as they travel through space and therefore nor could these be the flaming missiles of fire and smoke in the Quran. | ||
Stars are an average 5 light years away from each other in our galaxy<ref>[https://public.nrao.edu/ask/what-is-the-average-distance-between-stars-in-our-galaxy/ What is the Average Distance Between Stars in our Galaxy?] - US National Radio Astronomy Observatory website</ref>. For context, a light year is the distance light travels in one year, which is 5.88 trillion miles/9.46 trillion kilometres.<ref>https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/faq/26/what-is-a-light-year/</ref> This again makes them an odd choice for a protection/guard, with trillions of miles/kilometers of mostly empty space between them. | Stars are an average 5 light years away from each other in our galaxy<ref>[https://public.nrao.edu/ask/what-is-the-average-distance-between-stars-in-our-galaxy/ What is the Average Distance Between Stars in our Galaxy?] - US National Radio Astronomy Observatory website</ref>. For context, a light year is the distance light travels in one year, which is 5.88 trillion miles/9.46 trillion kilometres.<ref>[https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/faq/26/what-is-a-light-year/ What is a light-year?] - NASA website</ref> This again makes them an odd choice for a protection/guard, with trillions of miles/kilometers of mostly empty space between them. | ||
On a separate note, though stars are described as an ornament or beauty for the sky in {{Quran|37|6}}, {{Quran|15|16}} and {{Quran|67|5}}, there are an estimated minimum c.100 septillion stars in the known universe<ref>[https://universe.nasa.gov/stars/basics Stars] - NASA website</ref>, but only a few thousand are actually visible to the naked eye.<ref>[https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Herschel/How_many_stars_are_there_in_the_Universe How many stars are there in the Universe?] - ESA website</ref> | On a separate note, though stars are described as an ornament or beauty for the sky in {{Quran|37|6}}, {{Quran|15|16}} and {{Quran|67|5}}, there are an estimated minimum c.100 septillion stars in the known universe<ref>[https://universe.nasa.gov/stars/basics Stars] - NASA website</ref>, but only a few thousand are actually visible to the naked eye.<ref>[https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Herschel/How_many_stars_are_there_in_the_Universe How many stars are there in the Universe?] - ESA website</ref> | ||
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Modern geology has discovered that large plates in the crust of the earth are responsible for the formation of mountains. Called plate tectonics, the slow movement of these massive plates meet and the pressure between them pushes up the crust, forming mountains while also causing earthquakes and faults in the Earth's surface. The formation of mountains and occurance of earthquakes are thus both largely the result of destabilizing tectonic activity. They are part of the same ongoing process and one cannot exist without the other. The Qur'an, by contrast, holds that mountains are like pegs in the ground, stabilizing the Earth which would shift without them (interpreted by modern Islamic scholars as a reference to earthquakes). Moreover, there are various ways in which mountains can form, not all of which involve a thickening of the continental crust beneath them, which some attempt to compare as peg-like (see main article for details). | Modern geology has discovered that large plates in the crust of the earth are responsible for the formation of mountains. Called plate tectonics, the slow movement of these massive plates meet and the pressure between them pushes up the crust, forming mountains while also causing earthquakes and faults in the Earth's surface. The formation of mountains and occurance of earthquakes are thus both largely the result of destabilizing tectonic activity. They are part of the same ongoing process and one cannot exist without the other. The Qur'an, by contrast, holds that mountains are like pegs in the ground, stabilizing the Earth which would shift without them (interpreted by modern Islamic scholars as a reference to earthquakes). Moreover, there are various ways in which mountains can form, not all of which involve a thickening of the continental crust beneath them, which some attempt to compare as peg-like (see main article for details). | ||
In early or pre-Islamic poetry mountains are mentioned in terms of the earth as a whole shifting/convulsing. This seems to support a more straightforward reading of the verses, backed also by a hadith - that Allah's creation of mountains to prevent the earth shifting/convulsing (tamīda<ref>تَمِيدَ tamīda [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume7/00000274.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 2746</ref>) does not refer to earthquakes, which have occured throughout history including in Muhammad's era, but to a movement of the entire earth (see main article for details). | In early or pre-Islamic poetry mountains are mentioned in terms of the earth as a whole shifting/convulsing. This seems to support a more straightforward reading of the verses, backed also by a hadith - that Allah's creation of mountains to prevent the earth shifting/convulsing (tamīda<ref>تَمِيدَ tamīda [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume7/00000274.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 2746</ref>) does not refer to earthquakes, which have occured throughout history including in Muhammad's era, and whose seismic waves are actually amplified on mountainside settlements, but rather to a movement of the entire earth (see main article for details). | ||
{{Quote|{{Quran|16|15}}| | {{Quote|{{Quran|16|15}}| | ||
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Despite the overwhelming evidence (listed in the main article) that homosexuality occurs naturally in all populations, the Quran claims the first people to commit the act were in a town to which the prophet Lut was sent. | Despite the overwhelming evidence (listed in the main article) that homosexuality occurs naturally in all populations, the Quran claims the first people to commit the act were in a town to which the prophet Lut was sent. | ||
This is set long after the first humans (who appeared ~300,000 years ago),<ref>[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/essential-timeline-understanding-evolution-homo-sapiens-180976807/ An Evolutionary Timeline of Homo Sapiens] - Smithsonian Institution magazine - 2 February 2021</ref> with the town described in the story being too advanced for a [[w:Hunter-gatherer|hunter-gatherer]] tribe society, so at the earliest is set after the first [[w:Neolithic_Revolution|Agricultural Revolution]] in the following [[w:Neolithic|Neolithic]] period where these kind of settlements began to occur, beginning ~12,000 years ago | This is set long after the first humans (who appeared ~300,000 years ago),<ref>[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/essential-timeline-understanding-evolution-homo-sapiens-180976807/ An Evolutionary Timeline of Homo Sapiens] - Smithsonian Institution magazine - 2 February 2021</ref> with the town described in the story being too advanced for a [[w:Hunter-gatherer|hunter-gatherer]] tribe society, so at the earliest is set after the first [[w:Neolithic_Revolution|Agricultural Revolution]] in the following [[w:Neolithic|Neolithic]] period where these kind of settlements began to occur, beginning ~12,000 years ago.<ref>[https://www.history.com/topics/pre-history/neolithic-revolution Neolithic Revolution] - History.com</ref> Yet we are told: | ||
{{Quote|{{Quran-range|7|80|81}}|And [We had sent] Lot when he said to his people, "Do you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds? Indeed, you approach men with desire, instead of women. Rather, you are a transgressing people."}} | {{Quote|{{Quran-range|7|80|81}}|And [We had sent] Lot when he said to his people, "Do you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds? Indeed, you approach men with desire, instead of women. Rather, you are a transgressing people."}} | ||