Islam is the real deal

[The Grand Nudger]

All the knowledge required to build a steam engine was present in a single greek work, the knowledge of one man.  Hero.  Thousands of years ago....... I wouldn't say that this (or the bit that -might- be a misapprehension of clines) isn't impressive, but it's pretty common at the same time.  We would expect islam to have retained a great deal of greek science (the qurans opining upon biology is word for word Galen, wrong where Galen is wrong - right where he's right - for example).  I'm surprised that we don't find steam engines in the quran, to be honest.  The ummah engaged in a -massive- campaign of literary preservation. This is a bloc that held the torch of civilization in the region (assimilating more than just greek thought...assimilating -all- thought) - finding that they knew things shouldn't be any more impressive to us than finding that the greeks or romans did. We should expect it, and it goes to show how little we remember that particular point in history (and how little we credit what was once a great civilization home to great minds) to be particularly impressed by such things. Whatever the regions might have devolved into today doesn't change the fact that they were once a global powerhouse - and not for being dummies.