Biggest Scientific Errors in the Quran

[Zelenius]

Double post.

 

[Belgian thought]

Here's one - http://dev.faithfreedom.org/Articles/SKM/contradictions.htm

Was made recently aware that some 'scientific' beliefs/facts had been attributed to the Koran/Quran, I knew Christians have made the same bogus statements - Genesis starting October X some 4400 BC etc..

Do the Judaic and Hindi religion also make such statements? If so, we could create a Excel based sheet of major scientific fallacies/facts proposed by religions and add it to the JREF database.

Should be fun.

 

[Maddparrot]

Here's one - http://dev.faithfreedom.org/Articles/SKM/contradictions.htm

Was made recently aware that some 'scientific' beliefs/facts had been attributed to the Koran/Quran, I knew Christians have made the same bogus statements - Genesis starting October X some 4400 BC etc..

Do the Judaic and Hindi religion also make such statements? If so, we could create a Excel based sheet of major scientific fallacies/facts proposed by religions and add it to the JREF database.

Should be fun.

Something like that would still be fairly hard.
Especially reading each religious book.
I can help some, thanks to my own translated copy of the Rig Veda, I found an online version (I looked up the translator's name on google.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_T._H._Griffith
At the bottom of this are links to 5 books.

(ETA: fixed some errors)

 

[TimCallahan]

Neither the Qur'an nor the Bible were intended as science texts. However, truth claims for both can be tested by their failure to conform to history. Here's one example from each:

According to 2 Kings 19:35 the angel of the LORD supernaturally slaughtered the entire 185,000 man Assyrian army under Sennacherib that was besieging Jerusalem. This simply did not happen.

According to the Qur'an, Surah Al-Kahf (Q 18) D'uhl Qarnayn ("two horns"), generally accepted as referring to Alexander the Great, built an iron barrier between two mountains to keep out Gog and Magog, barbarians from the north. This barrier, says Surah 18, will stand until the last days. This is a reference to Alexander's Gate, a popular myth about Alexander the Great setting up an iron gate in a pass in the Caucasus Mountains, a reference to which is to be found in Josephus' Wars of the Jews.

Since Alexander's Gate is pure fantasy, Muslim apologists usually take the tactic that D'uhl Qarnayn wasn't actually Alexander the great, and the barrier wasn't in the Caucasus, but in, fact, refers to the Great Wall of China. However, Surah 18 specifically says the barriers was made of metal - not stone - and was set up between two mountains - not stretching for thousands of miles. Further, Alexander's profile on coins shows him bearing ram's horns. This is because of an epiphany he had while in egypt, that he was the incarnation of Zeus - Ammon. Ammon, chief god of the Egyptian pantheon, is depicted as having ram's horns (hence, the fossil shelled cephalopods called Ammonites.

 

[caniswalensis]

I used to just play a "trick" on these Muslims, just to see how gullible and dishonest to the point of retardation they are, and then walk away from the "discussion"(this is due in part to my ignorance of the Quran).

When someone has to lie like this, they demonstrate they have no interest in debating or learning anything new.

Hi Zelenius,

Not to be harsh or mean, but the I do not see a difference between you "tricking" them and them "lying" to you.

Both are deceptive, both sabotage a possibly good discussion, and both betray a lack of interest in learning.

I don't mean to get personal, it's just that I can't see a difference in these two actions. Am I missing something?

You refer to the muslims as ignorant, but you say this about yourself as well. I think that is a clue and a good starting place for getting an answer to your question. I would not advise dimissing the whole of Islam based on conversations with just a few pwople. I am sure that if you do some reading in the Quran, any scientific problems there would be readily apparent. I do agree with you whole-heartedly that these things are a lot like interpreting Nostradomus' quatrains.

I can understand if you do not want to launch into a full fledged study of the Quran, though. If that is the case, I would do this: If the Muslim people you are dealing with make a claim that the Quran is scientific, politely ask them to show you a passage that demonstrates that. Ask them to explain it to you as they see it. Listen carefully and politely, then tell them you need time to consider what they have said. Then go home, read the specific passage they showed you, and prepare a series of questions that when answered, show objectively if the verse is scientific or not.

Be prepared for the answer to go either way. It is possible or even likely that there are some things in there that are truely scientifically correct. After all, the authors lived in and observed our world everyday of their lives. Merely containing some scientific truth does not really prove that the Quran is devinely inspired, anyway. However, If it has descrepancies, that is a pretty good indicator that the men of the time wrote it on their own.

So, talk to your Muslim friends, be polite to them, insist that they are polite to you as well, and listen & talk with them, human to human. If you can acomplish that, someone just might learn something, but most definately you will have a good conversation for your trouble.

That is the best advice I can give you.

Regards, Canis