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GUEST ARTICLE
Scientific Errors In The Qur'an
If
the Qur'an is the infallible Word of God, then it stands
to reason that it would not contain factual errors of science.
By "factual errors" we mean errors that can be
physically examined. We are not talking about contradictions
between scientific theories and the Qur'an. We are talking
about hard evidence that can be checked out.
But first, there is a question
we must answer: "Is
it legitimate to judge the Qur'an?" Many Muslims believe
in the Qur'an as a blind leap of faith. They really do not
care if it is filled with mistakes and contradictions. As
far as they are concerned, they were born Muslim and they
will die Muslim. The more closed minded they are, the more
fanatical they become in their religion. When ignorance unites
with arrogance, fanaticism is born.
We pity those whose religion is only the product of an accident
of birth and culture. They blindly follow whatever religion
they were born into. How sad it is to have an unexamined
faith; a faith that cannot stand up to reason and science;
a faith that merely shouts slogans, stamps its feet and beats
its breast in a mindless mob. They do not believe in Islam
because it is true. To them Islam is true because they believe
it.
A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. (Macbeth Act
V, Scene 5)
Thankfully, there are millions of Muslims today who have
received a university education and understand that an unexamined
faith is a worthless faith. They are open minded to scientific
facts and evidence. They want the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth.
The Setting of the Sun
One of the questions which
puzzled the ancient Arabs was, "Where
did the sun go when night time came?" The Qur'an gave
them Allah's answer.
He [i.e. Zul-qarnain] followed, until he reached the setting
of the sun. He found it set in a spring of murky water.
(Surah XVIII ( Kahf) vs. 85-86)
We agree with Muslim scholars that Zul-qarnain refers to
Alexander the Great (see Yusuf Ali's appendix on this subject
in his translation of the Qur'an). According to this surah,
Alexander the Great traveled west until he found out what
happened to the sun. It went down into and under the murky
waters of a pond. When it was completely covered by the water,
darkness fell upon the earth.
To the early Muslims, this surah gave the divine answer
as to why darkness fell when the sun set in the West. They
assumed that the sun, like the moon, was the size perceived
by the human eye, about the size of a basketball. Darkness
came when with a mighty hissing roar it went down under the
dark waters of a pond. They boldly and proudly proclaimed
that this marvelous answer proved that the Qur'an was indeed
the Word of God.
Today, modern Muslims are quite embarrassed by this passage
and try to ignore it or to quickly dismiss it as poetry.
But the passage is not part of a poem. Thus it cannot be
dismissed as figurative language or poetic license. In the
context, it is part of a historical narrative which relates
several historical incidences in the life of Alexander the
Great.
The mistake was based on the erroneous assumption that the
earth was flat. The authors of the Qur'an did not know that
the earth was a sphere which revolved around the sun.
The reader must ask himself if he is prepared to believe
and to defend the Qur'an in this passage. Either the sun
sets in a pond or it doesn't. It is either one way or the
other. There can be no middle ground, no compromise, no evading
the issue. If you agree with us that the sun is shining on
the other side of the earth and thus it does not go down
into murky water, then you must also agree with us that the
Qur'an contains scientific errors.
"So what?" you ask. "Who cares!" you
cry. Only those who are brave enough to seek the truth will
care. Those who are intellectually lazy or dishonest will
close their eyes and pretend to see nothing.
It only takes one error to disprove the Qur'an. That's right.
Just one little error and the whole book goes down in defeat!
You have just discovered one irrefutable error in the Qur'an.
What are you going to do about it?
There is only one place you can turn for the truth about
God. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Accept Him
as your Savior and Lord.
--Robert A. Morey, © 1996 Research and Education Foundation
faithdefenders.com
http://www.chick.com/information/religions/islam/errors.asp
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