Religions teach backward ideas - Yes & No

[Giff]

(31st May 2009 20:35)Darwinian Wrote:  1) Before man use to think that the earth was flat, but in 1597 Sir Francis Drake was the first person who proved that the earth is spherical when he sailed around. However, the concept of the world being Spherical shaped is mentioned in the Quran over 1400 years ago. Who could have known this back than?

This I'm afraid is a myth. Scholars have been well aware that the Earth is spherical long, long before the Qur'an was even thought about.

I'm nothing special to comment on this. I just wonder if it wasn't it people during the 19th who believed that people during 16th century, and backwards, thought that the world was flat?

[Matt85]

(1st June 2009 03:32)EvidenceVsFaith Wrote:  Hey....even God's gotta urinate!

EvF

and that is how we get rain.

[Kyuuketsuki]

(1st June 2009 12:41)Dotard Wrote:  Because, just like us, he needed something to play with when bored.

Nah, he's got pricks like us to play with don't you know?

Kyu

[Jayp]

(31st May 2009 19:49)peace2u Wrote:  Sorry, but I disagree. Why? because if this was the case, then it mean that religion does not stand the test of time, Correct? For any religion to say that they are truth and that they are Holy Scriptures are from God, then it must be a way for it to be authenticated. Right? I mean for me (a Muslim) to say that the Quran is up-to-date with the current world and with it's ideas (say scientific facts) then I must show a way for it to authenticated.

Well let me give you some examples of why Islam does not teach backward ideas.

1) Before man use to think that the earth was flat, but in 1597 Sir Francis Drake was the first person who proved that the earth is spherical when he sailed around. However, the concept of the world being Spherical shaped is mentioned in the Quran over 1400 years ago. Who could have known this back than?

2) Before people use to believe that the light of the Moon was its own light, but about 200 years ago, science proved that it was in fact a reflected light from the sun. But, this is mentioned in the Quran over 1400 years ago. Who could have known this back than?

3) For a long time man use to believe that the planets (including the sun) stood still. Just just recently it is proven that the planet rotate its own axis. However, this is mentioned in the Quran over 1400 years ago. Who could have known this back than?

I'm not sure for what other religions say, but Islam does not teach backward ideas but in fact it is up-to-date for many ideas which man did not know.

The same reason that they say Columbus "discovered" America. Apparantly only the white man found everything, we know that is an old-fashioned idea. Just because the Koran holds some truths does not mean that God exists. In fact according to Hinduism, the age of the earth is 10 billion years old, that figure is close to what scientists say. Brahma is a metaphor for the universe, there have been many Brahmas, living and dying, just exactly what scientists say about our universe.

But that just means that ancient people knew a lot more than we understand. And that is the point of my post - that these books were not backward. But there are quite a lot of backward ideas in these books, to blindly follow these books is backward and IMHO Idolatry.

When Science and Religion disagree, Science should prevail, period.

[peace2u]

Reply to Darwinian
"This I'm afraid is a myth. Scholars have been well aware that the Earth is spherical long, long before the Qur'an was even thought about.
Anaxagoras, a Greek philosopher was one of the first to state that the moon reflected the light of the Sun way back in about 500 B.C. So, no, I'm afraid that we can't credit the Qur'an with that one either.
Pythagorean philosopher, Philolaus 480 B.C. was the first to suggest that there is some central fire around which the Earth, sun, moon and all planets rotate."

So according to your argument these ideas where introduced way before the Quran. But they were not established scientific facts. I mean they were just proposed ideas but could not be proven at the time. Therefore, what is the probablity that man could have inserted this proposed ideas into the Quran knowing that they were not proven before but would to be proven in the future?

peace2u

[Darwinian]

I can't remeber who, someone will enlighten me, but a greek scientist PROVED the Earth was a sphere by doing experiments with rods and shadows and even predicted the size of the planet to a stagering degree of accuracy.

The fact that they were mentioned in the Qur'an 1000 years or so after they were well documented simply shows that the Qur'an, Bible etc. did not contain any mystical facts that were not known about at the time.

[leo-rcc]

Pretty much all the big names, Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, all deduced and measured, and taught their students that the Earth was round.

From Nasa:

Quote:The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) argued in his writings that the Earth was spherical, because of the circular shadow it cast on the Moon, during a lunar eclipse. Another reason was that some stars visible from Egypt are not seen further north The full quotation can be found here.

The Alexandria philosopher Eratosthenes went one step further and actually estimated how large the Earth was.
Tidbit: Eratosthenes also headed the royal library in Alexandria, the greatest and most famous library in classical antiquity. Officially it was called "temple of the muses" or "museion," from which our modern "museum" is derived.

[Jayp]

So according to your argument these ideas where introduced way before the Quran. But they were not established scientific facts. I mean they were just proposed ideas but could not be proven at the time. Therefore, what is the probablity that man could have inserted this proposed ideas into the Quran knowing that they were not proven before but would to be proven in the future?

peace2u
[/quote]

One of the facts that gave man a clue about the shape of the earth was when watching for a ship at sea. First he would see the mast, then the sails and then the ship would come into view. People have had ideas throughout time and they work on them, sometimes they get proven, sometimes not, it takes time and technology. Einstein predicted the existence of black holes but during his time we did not have the technology to prove it. Now we do and now we know he was right. Nothing to do with God, everything to do with using some common sense.

[peace2u]

Not to just focus on the issue of the world being round, if your interested, I can list over 50 established scientific facts that are mentioned in the Quran before these ideas were proven to be true

peace2u

[Darwinian]

I would be interested, and with the actual passage the fact relates to as well. You don't have to do all 50 at once though