Scientific Errors in the Quran: Difference between revisions

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{{QualityScore|Lead=4|Structure=4|Content=4|Language=4|References=4}}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 in the Qur'an|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.

{{Main|Geocentrism and the Quran|l1=Geocentrism and the Qur'an}}

{{Quote|{{cite quran|36|37|end=40|style=ref}}|

A token unto them is night. We strip it of the day, and lo! they are in darkness. And the sun runneth on unto a resting-place for him. That is the measuring of the Mighty, the Wise. And for the moon We have appointed mansions till she return like an old shrivelled palm-leaf. It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor doth the night outstrip the day. They float each in an orbit.}}

{{Quote|{{Quran|2|258}}|Abraham said, ‘Indeed Allah brings the sun from the east; now you bring it from the west.’ So the disbeliever was overwhelmed [by astonishment], and Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.}}

===Setting and rising place of the sun===

{{Main|Dhul-Qarnayn and the Sun Setting in a Muddy Spring - Part One|Dhul-Qarnayn and the Sun Setting in a Muddy Spring - Part Two}}

{{Quote|{{Quran|18|86}}|

Till, when he reached the rising-place of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We had appointed no shelter therefrom. }}

===Earth and heavens created in six days===

The Qur'an presents the prevailing Middle-Eastern myth that the Earth and heavens were formed in six days. This is in sharp contrast with the findings of modern cosmology which show the Earth to have formed some 9 billion years after the beginning of the universe.  

{{Quote|{{Quran|50|38}}|

The [[w:Abundance of elements in Earth's crust|elements in the Earth's crust]] and core were first formed in stars by [[w:Nucleosynthesis|nucleosynthesis]]. When those stars exploded as [[w:Supernova|supernovas]], they expelled the elements that were used in future solar systems such as Earth's own. Modern radiometric dating of meteorites and rocks from the Earth and Moon show that these bodies were formed at the same time as the sun and its other planets, [[w:Age_of_the_Earth|4.5 billion years ago]]. The Qur'an, on the other hand, describes the Earth as being fully formed before the stars.

#Heaven and completed Earth;

He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth. Then turned He to the heaven, and fashioned it as seven heavens. And He is knower of all things.}}

In another passage, {{Quran-range|79|27|33}}, the heaven (singular) has already been raised and proportioned as a ceiling before the earth is spread, pastures produced and mountains fixed. Ibn Kathir notes in his tafsir that Ibn 'Abbas said the Earth was created first before each of these events and that scholars interpreted the Arabic word dahaha (دَحَىٰهَآ) in verse 79:30 to refer to a specific kind of spreading that occurred after everything on Earth had been created.<ref>[https://quranx.com/tafsirs/2.29 Tafsir ibn Kathir 2:29]</ref> However, the passage nevertheless appears to contradict the sequence of {{Quran-range|41|9|12}}, in which the heaven is still "smoke" after Earth's sustenance and mountains have been placed.

If the flaming missiles mentioned by the Quran are to be identified with meteors burning up in the Earth's atmosphere, this would locate the eavesdropping devils (or jinn) in the upper atmosphere too, which leaves no way for the (extremely distant) stars to serve as guards in this process as outlined in the verses. However, these verses would of course fit a relatively small universe as imagined by 7th century Arabs, in which a heavenly firmament is adorned with stars able to pelt shooting stars at any devils or jinn in their vicinity, seeming to cover interstellar distances in a flaming streak across the sky. This is further supported by {{Quran|21|32}} which describes the heaven as a guarded ceiling.

===Implied similar size and distance of the sun and moon===

{{Main|Geocentrism and the Quran|l1=Geocentrism and the Qur'an}}

{{Quote|{{Quran|24|35}}|

===The entire heaven has a night and day===

{{Quote|{{Quran|39|67}}|No just estimate have they made of Allah, such as is due to Him: On the Day of Judgment the whole of the earth will be but His handful, and the heavens will be rolled up in His right hand: Glory to Him! High is He above the Partners they attribute to Him!}}

The Quran states in many verses that there are gates in the sky/heavens (see: {{Quran|7|40}}, {{Quran|15|14}},  {{Quran|78|19}}, {{Quran|54|11}}), of which Allāh alone holds the keys to {{Quran|42|12}}, and are at least close enough for water to fall to the Earth from, and flood it after Noah's preaching.

{{Quote|{{Quran|54|11}}|Then We opened the gates of the sky with pouring waters}}

{{Main|Cosmology of the Quran}}

Similar to other ancient Near-East and West Asian cosmologies, the sky/heavens are equipped with pathways or conduits, called sabab (singular) asbāb (plural),<ref>van Bladel, Kevin, ''"[https://islamspring2012.voices.wooster.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/192/2018/09/van-Bladel_heavenly-cords.pdf Heavenly cords and prophetic authority in the Qur’an and its Late Antique context]", pp. 223-224.'' Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 70 (2): 223-246, 2007. <nowiki>https://www.jstor.org/stable/40379198</nowiki></ref> that are some kind of ropes or cords (as per their literal meaning)<ref>Sinai, Nicolai. ''Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 412).'' Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition. </ref> that support or run along the high edifice of the heaven, which can be traversed physically by people who arrive at them. Al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas (d. 756), to whom is attributed an early Quran commentary on verse Q38:10 notes: "The asbāb are finer than hair and stronger than iron; it [sic] is in every place although it is invisible.<ref>van Bladel, Kevin, ''"[https://islamspring2012.voices.wooster.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/192/2018/09/van-Bladel_heavenly-cords.pdf Heavenly cords and prophetic authority in the Qur’an and its Late Antique context]",  pp. 237.'' Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 70 (2): 223-246, 2007. <nowiki>https://www.jstor.org/stable/40379198</nowiki></ref>

Some modern Muslim scholars argue that the notion of two ancestral “parents” is consistent with recent scientific findings that show a common female and male ancestor of all modern humans. This results, however, from a confusion with the nicknames (Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam) by which scientists have referred to human's earliest genetic ancestors. These two individuals, however, are distinct from the Quranic characters as they are simply the last common male and female ancestors of everyone alive today and not of all humans in history. More importantly, whereas the Qur'an describes Eve as Adam's wife (who, notably, was created ''after'' him), Mitochondrial Eve lived some 50,000 to 80,000 years earlier than Y-chromosomal Adam.<ref>[http://biologos.org/blog/does-genetics-point-to-a-single-primal-couple Adam, Eve, and Human Population Genetics: Responses to Popular Arguments] - Biologos website</ref> Genetic evidence also overwhelmingly indicates that humans diverged from earlier species as a population rather than as a single couple.<ref>[http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/09/18/how-big-was-the-human-population-bottleneck-not-anything-close-to-2/ How big was the human population bottleneck? Another staple of theology refuted.] - Why Evolution is True website by Professor Jerry Coyne</ref>

''Main Article: [[Historical Errors in the Quran#Noah's%20worldwide%20flood|Historical errors in the Qur'an - Noah's worldwide flood]]''

Lucena-Perez M, Kleinman-Ruiz    D, Marmesat E, Saveljev AP, Schmidt K, Godoy JA. [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eva.13302 ''Bottleneck-associated    changes in the genomic landscape of genetic diversity in wild lynx    populations.''] Evol Appl. 2021 Oct 8;14(11):2664-2679. doi:    10.1111/eva.13302. PMID: 34815746; PMCID: PMC8591332.</ref>

Part of the legend of Noah's Ark is that a pair of every living species was stored on board. Similarly none of this even more extreme bottleneck of two living pairs has been found in animal genetics either (and at the same time across all species and the human bottleneck),<ref name=":0" /> (nor plants, which most traditional Islamic scholars such as Ibn Kathir agree are considered part of these pairs)<ref>Tafsir Ibn Kathir on [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Kathir/11.40 ''verse 11:40'']</ref> of which we would expect to see a notable sudden and extreme bottleneck of two animals, also causing inbreeding being far below the safe level needed for long-term species survival.<ref>Pérez-Pereira, N., Wang, J., Quesada, H. et al. ''[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-022-02456-z Prediction of the minimum effective size of a population viable in the long term]. Biodivers Conserv 31, 2763–2780 (2022).'' <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-022-02456-z</nowiki></ref>

{{Quote|{{Quran-range|29|28|29}}|And [mention] Lot, when he said to his people, "Indeed, you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds. Indeed, you approach men and obstruct the road and commit in your meetings [every] evil." And the answer of his people was not but they said, "Bring us the punishment of Allah, if you should be of the truthful."}}

''Main Articles: [[Islam and Women|Islam and Women - WikiIslam]] and [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Women]]''

And he took a muster of the Birds; and he said: "Why is it I see not the Hoopoe? Or is he among the absentees? I will certainly punish him with a severe Penalty, or execute him, unless he bring me a clear reason (for absence). But the Hoopoe tarried not far: he (came up and) said: "I have compassed (territory) which thou hast not compassed, and I have come to thee from Saba with tidings true. I found (there) a woman ruling over them and provided with every requisite; and she has a magnificent throne.}}

''Main article: [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Witchcraft and the Occult]]''