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Scientific Errors in the Quran (view source)

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Olivier Mongellaz recently explained the oven story. Syriac source (attributed in Syriac Targum to Hippolytus, though undateable) has Ham's wife warned by water gushing up through bread oven. Makes sense. Tafsirs similar. The word translated boiled can just mean welled up in the context of water according to Lane. Gabriel Said-Reynolds was persuaded and seems likely correct. Added details to the cosmology, historical errors, and (in more detail) parallels pages.
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(Olivier Mongellaz recently explained the oven story. Syriac source (attributed in Syriac Targum to Hippolytus, though undateable) has Ham's wife warned by water gushing up through bread oven. Makes sense. Tafsirs similar. The word translated boiled can just mean welled up in the context of water according to Lane. Gabriel Said-Reynolds was persuaded and seems likely correct. Added details to the cosmology, historical errors, and (in more detail) parallels pages.)
 
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''Main Article: [[Historical Errors in the Quran#Noah's%20worldwide%20flood|Historical errors in the Qur'an - Noah's worldwide flood]]''
''Main Article: [[Historical Errors in the Quran#Noah's%20worldwide%20flood|Historical errors in the Qur'an - Noah's worldwide flood]]''


The Qur'an contains the Biblical worldwide flood story, common to many ancient Near-East and Mesopotamian cultures, whereby Noah escapes on an ark with his family (bar a disbelieving son who attempts to hide up a mountain to avoid the flood),<ref>Reynolds, G. S. (2017). ''[https://eurasia.org.uk/docs/academic/biblical-character/Noahs_Lost_Son_in_the_Quran.pdf Noah’s Lost Son in the Qurʾān]. Arabica, 64 (2), 129-148.'' <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-12341452</nowiki></ref> and a pair of all living things. Though not mentioned in the Qur'an, some traditions put eighty people with him,<ref>E.g. Tafsir Ibn Kathir on [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Kathir/11.40 Q11:40] who mentions this report comes from Ibn Abbas</ref> including forty men and women.<ref>E.g. Tafsir Al-Jalalyan on [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Jalal/11.40 Q11:40]</ref> The majority of prominent tafsirs say founders of all contemporary different nations such as the Byzantines, Turks and Persians etc. are descended from a different one of Noah's surviving sons.<ref>E.g. see many English translated classical commentaries/tafsirs on [https://quranx.com/tafsirs/37.77 Q37:33].</ref>{{Quote|{{Quran|11|40}}|Until, when Our command came, and the Oven boiled, We said, <b>'Embark in it two of every kind, and thy household</b> -- except for him against whom the word has already been spoken and whosoever believes.' And there believed not with him except a few.}}There is no genetic evidence for a population bottleneck that could match this event whatsoever, of which we would expect.<ref>''David Reich. 2018. Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past.'' Covers the history of modern humans from a genetic POV including notable population bottlenecks - of which none match this story.
The Qur'an contains the Biblical worldwide flood story, common to many ancient Near-East and Mesopotamian cultures, whereby Noah escapes on an ark with his family (bar a disbelieving son who attempts to hide up a mountain to avoid the flood),<ref>Reynolds, G. S. (2017). ''[https://eurasia.org.uk/docs/academic/biblical-character/Noahs_Lost_Son_in_the_Quran.pdf Noah’s Lost Son in the Qurʾān]. Arabica, 64 (2), 129-148.'' <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-12341452</nowiki></ref> and a pair of all living things. Though not mentioned in the Qur'an, some traditions put eighty people with him,<ref>E.g. Tafsir Ibn Kathir on [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Kathir/11.40 Q11:40] who mentions this report comes from Ibn Abbas</ref> including forty men and women.<ref>E.g. Tafsir Al-Jalalyan on [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Jalal/11.40 Q11:40]</ref> The majority of prominent tafsirs say founders of all contemporary different nations such as the Byzantines, Turks and Persians etc. are descended from a different one of Noah's surviving sons.<ref>E.g. see many English translated classical commentaries/tafsirs on [https://quranx.com/tafsirs/37.77 Q37:33].</ref>{{Quote|{{Quran|11|40}}|[So it was], until when Our command came and the oven overflowed, '''We said, "Load upon the ship of each [creature] two mates and your family''', except those about whom the word has preceded, and [include] whoever has believed." But none had believed with him, except a few.}}There is no genetic evidence for a population bottleneck that could match this event whatsoever, of which we would expect.<ref>''David Reich. 2018. Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past.'' Covers the history of modern humans from a genetic POV including notable population bottlenecks - of which none match this story.


[''Chapters 1 to 4'' covers the origins of ancient humanoids into modern humans, effectively debunking Adam and Eve too.]</ref>Including (but not limited to): Genetic diversity analysis (inc. reduced heterozygosity and the loss of rare alleles), runs of homozygosity (ROH) in the genome, the allele frequency spectrum (AFS) showing a skewed distribution: favoring common alleles and reducing the prevalence of rare ones, and with statistical modelling, researchers can compare observed allele frequencies with theoretical expectations under different demographic scenarios. As well as analyzing Mitochondrial and Y-Chromosome DNA with Lineage Tracing, reconstructing genealogies with coalescent models to trace genetic lineages back to common ancestors, the presence of genetic signatures showing; Reduced effective population size (Ne) and/or Linkage disequilibrium (LD) (alleles at different loci may show higher correlations (association of genes) than expected due to the reduced population size and limited recombination events), plus analyzing and directly comparing ancient DNA with modern Ancient DNA (aDNA), and further simulation and modelling, such as using Bayesian Inference Computational methods simulate genetic data under various demographic scenarios to identify the most likely historical events - software such as BEAST and msprime have been made specifically for this.<ref name=":0">Some academic papers discussing these methods for both humans (and ancient pre-human hominins as in the first article) and animals include for example:
[''Chapters 1 to 4'' covers the origins of ancient humanoids into modern humans, effectively debunking Adam and Eve too.]</ref>Including (but not limited to): Genetic diversity analysis (inc. reduced heterozygosity and the loss of rare alleles), runs of homozygosity (ROH) in the genome, the allele frequency spectrum (AFS) showing a skewed distribution: favoring common alleles and reducing the prevalence of rare ones, and with statistical modelling, researchers can compare observed allele frequencies with theoretical expectations under different demographic scenarios. As well as analyzing Mitochondrial and Y-Chromosome DNA with Lineage Tracing, reconstructing genealogies with coalescent models to trace genetic lineages back to common ancestors, the presence of genetic signatures showing; Reduced effective population size (Ne) and/or Linkage disequilibrium (LD) (alleles at different loci may show higher correlations (association of genes) than expected due to the reduced population size and limited recombination events), plus analyzing and directly comparing ancient DNA with modern Ancient DNA (aDNA), and further simulation and modelling, such as using Bayesian Inference Computational methods simulate genetic data under various demographic scenarios to identify the most likely historical events - software such as BEAST and msprime have been made specifically for this.<ref name=":0">Some academic papers discussing these methods for both humans (and ancient pre-human hominins as in the first article) and animals include for example:
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The Quran contains a version of the worldwide-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. Elsewhere in the Quran whenever the heavens and earth are mentioned together, it means in their entirety. In this story waters are released from both of them. Another 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 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.
The Quran contains a version of the worldwide-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. Elsewhere in the Quran whenever the heavens and earth are mentioned together, it means in their entirety. In this story waters are released from both of them. Another 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 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-range|54|11|12}}|Then opened We the gates of heaven with pouring water And caused the earth to gush forth springs, so that the waters met for a predestined purpose.}}{{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!}}
{{Quote|{{Quran-range|54|11|12}}|Then opened We the gates of heaven with pouring water And caused the earth to gush forth springs, so that the waters met for a predestined purpose.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|11|40}}|[So it was], until when Our command came and the oven overflowed, We said, "Load upon the ship of each [creature] two mates and your family, except those about whom the word has preceded, and [include] whoever has believed." But none had believed with him, except a few.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|71|26}}|And Noah, said: "O my Lord! Leave not of the Unbelievers, a single one on earth!}}{{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.}}
 
===Flood waters boiled from an oven===
 
Aside from waters pouring from gates in the heaven, the Qur'an further describes the flood waters as boiling from an oven. There is no scientific nor historical evidence for a large flood of this nature. This element is not found even in more ancient versions of the story (Epic of Gilgamesh, Atra hasis, and Ziusudra). Its ultimate origin appears to be a highly tenuous rabbinical exergisis in the Babylonian Talmud, based on a word in an unrelated verse that means heat or wrath.<ref>[https://biblehub.com/lexicon/esther/7-10.htm biblehub.com]</ref>
 
{{Quote|1=[https://www.sefaria.org/Rosh_Hashanah.12a.4?lang=bi Tracate Rosh Hashanah]|2=The Gemara answers: Even according to Rabbi Eliezer a change was made, in accordance with the statement of Rav Ḥisda, as Rav Ḥisda said: They sinned with boiling heat, and they were punished with boiling heat; they sinned with the boiling heat of the sin of forbidden sexual relations, and they were punished with the boiling heat of scalding waters. This is derived from a verbal analogy. It is written here, with regard to the flood: “And the waters abated” (Genesis 8:1), and it is written elsewhere, with regard to King Ahasuerus: “And the heated anger of the king abated” (Esther 7:10), which implies that the word “abated” means cooled. This indicates that at first the waters of the flood had been scalding hot.}}
 
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|7}}.
 
{{Quote|{{Quran|11|40}}|
(Thus it was) till, when Our commandment came to pass '''and the oven gushed forth water''', We said: Load therein two of every kind, a pair (the male and female), and thy household, save him against whom the word hath gone forth already, and those who believe. And but a few were they who believed with him.}}
 
{{Quote|{{Quran|23|27}}|
Then We inspired in him, saying: Make the ship under Our eyes and Our inspiration. Then, when Our command cometh '''and the oven gusheth water''', introduce therein of every (kind) two spouses, and thy household save him thereof against whom the Word hath already gone forth. And plead not with Me on behalf of those who have done wrong. Lo! they will be drowned.}}


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