Scientific evidence in the Quran suggests that the moon shines by reflected light, something scholars claim was not known 1400 years ago.
This fact is obvious from the phases of the moon, and was postulated by multiple earlier Greek astronomers, such as Aristarchus, Anaxagoras, and Ptolemy. Some of these Greeks had heliocentric views, some geocentric views, but the consensus among educated astronomers since about 200 BC has been that the moon shines by light reflected from the sun. It was not new with the Quran.
Secondly, the Quran suggests the earth was round. Contrary to myths about Columbus, all educated men of the ancient world knew it to be round, from the Ionian Greeks of the sixth century BC forward.Eratosthenes of Alexandria proved it rather elegantly in the second century BC. Ship navigators from ancient Phoenicia and Tartessos knew it well. Muhammed was a caravan driver, and probably had contact with the ship-borne traders of his era, who undoubtedly knew that the earth was round. However a mistake is clearly shown;The Quran mentions the actual shape of the earth in the following verse: “And we have made the earth egg shaped”. [Al-Quran 79:30].
The Earth certainly isn't egg shaped. In fact, it is technically the opposite. The Earth is an oblate spheroid and an egg is, roughly, a prolate spheroid.
Thirdly, the Quran says that the universe was once smoke. While one could say that this was a poetic way of describing the cloud of dust and gas that collapsed under gravity to form the solar system, it is far from an obvious allusion to the big bang, and doesn't even well describe the formation of the solar system. Several ancient Greek philosophers tried to identify a first element, a one substance that everything is made from, and a couple of them identified fire, or something halfway between fire and earth, as the likely culprit.
Fourthly, the Quran states that all life came from water. This is also an ancient Greek idea, first put forth by Thales of Miletus around 600 BC. Thales was one of the philosophers mentioned above looking for a first principle or primary element from which the universe was made. His students Anaximander and Anaximenes were among those suggesting fire was a better candidate. Anaximander also was the first to suggest that life evolved, and that humans' ancestors may have been fish with five bones in their fins, which became our five fingers.
These are all ancient Greek ideas, which Muhammed, as a traveler and caravan leader, may have been exposed to in his travels around the ancient middle-east. Learned men all over the ancient known world were familiar with these concepts. It is not surprising that they would end up in a book written around that time.
Muhammed was a smart man for his time, but he didn't appear to know anything which was truly original, and which clearly was revealed to him by an all-knowing God, which he could not have just as easily gotten from some secular, scientific source of his day.
More quotes directly from the Quran can be found here:
Indeed, the Quran is closer to science than the bible as it borrowed heavily from the Greeks and Romans which the bible did not. Now you have to prove all scientific 'facts' as correct for all time to claim that the Quara was divinely inspired or justify the inaccuracies. One wrong fact, and the divine revelation theory begins to crumble; and I've shown you 5 or 6 straight off the top of my head.
Peace
I don't go to mythical places with strange men.
-- Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.
Scientific evidence in the Quran suggests that the moon shines by reflected light, something scholars claim was not known 1400 years ago.
This fact is obvious from the phases of the moon, and was postulated by multiple earlier Greek astronomers, such as Aristarchus, Anaxagoras, and Ptolemy. Some of these Greeks had heliocentric views, some geocentric views, but the consensus among educated astronomers since about 200 BC has been that the moon shines by light reflected from the sun. It was not new with the Quran.
Secondly, the Quran suggests the earth was round. Contrary to myths about Columbus, all educated men of the ancient world knew it to be round, from the Ionian Greeks of the sixth century BC forward.Eratosthenes of Alexandria proved it rather elegantly in the second century BC. Ship navigators from ancient Phoenicia and Tartessos knew it well. Muhammed was a caravan driver, and probably had contact with the ship-borne traders of his era, who undoubtedly knew that the earth was round. However a mistake is clearly shown;The Quran mentions the actual shape of the earth in the following verse: “And we have made the earth egg shaped”. [Al-Quran 79:30].
The Earth certainly isn't egg shaped. In fact, it is technically the opposite. The Earth is an oblate spheroid and an egg is, roughly, a prolate spheroid.
Thirdly, the Quran says that the universe was once smoke. While one could say that this was a poetic way of describing the cloud of dust and gas that collapsed under gravity to form the solar system, it is far from an obvious allusion to the big bang, and doesn't even well describe the formation of the solar system. Several ancient Greek philosophers tried to identify a first element, a one substance that everything is made from, and a couple of them identified fire, or something halfway between fire and earth, as the likely culprit.
Fourthly, the Quran states that all life came from water. This is also an ancient Greek idea, first put forth by Thales of Miletus around 600 BC. Thales was one of the philosophers mentioned above looking for a first principle or primary element from which the universe was made. His students Anaximander and Anaximenes were among those suggesting fire was a better candidate. Anaximander also was the first to suggest that life evolved, and that humans' ancestors may have been fish with five bones in their fins, which became our five fingers.
These are all ancient Greek ideas, which Muhammed, as a traveler and caravan leader, may have been exposed to in his travels around the ancient middle-east. Learned men all over the ancient known world were familiar with these concepts. It is not surprising that they would end up in a book written around that time.
Muhammed was a smart man for his time, but he didn't appear to know anything which was truly original, and which clearly was revealed to him by an all-knowing God, which he could not have just as easily gotten from some secular, scientific source of his day.
More quotes directly from the Quran can be found here:
http://answering-islam.org/BehindVeil/btv6.html#CH6
Indeed, the Quran is closer to science than the bible as it borrowed heavily from the Greeks and Romans which the bible did not. Now you have to prove all scientific 'facts' as correct for all time to claim that the Quara was divinely inspired or justify the inaccuracies. One wrong fact, and the divine revelation theory begins to crumble; and I've shown you 5 or 6 straight off the top of my head.
Peace
I don't go to mythical places with strange men.
-- Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.