OUTDATED "SCIENCE" IN THE QURAN
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"They ask you about menstruation. Say, 'It is harm, so keep away from wives during menstruation.'"
Quran 2:222
(Sahih International translation)
God is unaware that it's harmless.
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"O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate"
Quran 4:1
(Sahih International translation)
But hid all the evidence of it and even planted evidence of the contrary to make sure scientists have solid reasons to conclude a totally different path of human origins.
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"They... challenged ˹Ṣâliḥ˺, 'Bring us what you threaten us with, if you are ˹truly˺ one of the messengers.' Then an ˹overwhelming˺ earthquake struck them, and they fell lifeless in their homes."
Quran 7:77-78
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
"The disbelieving chiefs of his people threatened, 'If you follow Shu’aib, you will surely be losers!' Then an ˹overwhelming˺ earthquake struck them and they fell lifeless in their homes."
Quran 7:90-91
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Allah chooses killing methods that have natural causes. He can't just show up and punish. Anyway, how does he punish people by earthquakes in areas far from the edges of tectonic plates? The author didn't know about parts of the world with no earthquakes and assumed they can happen anywhere to punish the disbelievers.
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"[We had sent] Lot when he said to his people, 'Do you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds [i.e., peoples]? Indeed, you approach men with desire, instead of women.'"
Quran 7:80-81; similar: 26:165-166; 29:28-29
(Sahih International translation)
Allah was unaware that plenty of people and also animals were practicing homosexual acts before Lot's time because that's how some people and animals are born, per Allah's design by the way.
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"Pharaoh threatened... 'I will certainly cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, then crucify you all.'"
Quran 7:124; similar: 20:71
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Pharaoh at the time of Moses wouldn't be aware of crucifixion which was a Roman, not Egyptian, execution established much much later.
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"We destroyed what Pharaoh and his people constructed and what they established."
Quran 7:137
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
It is said in the context of punishment for not letting Moses with his people go. Archeological trace suggests that this is a false statement.
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"They [i.e., the disbelievers] turn away their breasts to hide themselves from him. Unquestionably, [even] when they cover themselves in their clothing, He [i.e., Allah] knows what they conceal and what they declare."
Quran 11:5
(Sahih International translation)
Allah thinks that thoughts are generated in physical chests.
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"It is Allah who erected the heavens without pillars that you [can] see; then He established Himself above the Throne"
Quran 13:2; similar: 31:10
(Sahih International translation)
This verse pictures heavens as resting on Earth, otherwise it wouldn't talk about so much-needed invisible pillars and a throne above it.
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"Allah... has subjected the sun and the moon, each orbiting for an appointed term."
Quran 13:2; similar: 21:33; 35:13; 36:40
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
The Sun is not orbiting the Earth.
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"He is the One Who spread out the earth"
Quran 13:3; similar: 15:19; 50:7; 51:48; 71:19; 79:30; 88:20; 91:6
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Despite the Quran doesn't explicitly say that the earth is flat, the words used in the narrative around its formation suggest a flat structure of it in the author's eyes.
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"Your Lord inspired to the bee, '... eat from all the fruits'"
Quran 16:68-69
(Sahih International translation)
But the bees don't listen to your Lord and eat nectar and pollen instead.
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"He reached the setting ˹point˺ of the sun, which appeared to him to be setting in a spring of murky water"
Quran 18:86
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Quran says that the sun is setting into something appearing like a swamp. Now, the interpreters will try to tell you that it only looked to the observer like it set into it. However, that's not what the text says, so it's just a poor attempt to make a hopelessly outdated text look better than it is.
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"He reached the rising ˹point˺ of the sun."
Quran 18:90
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Where is that place, please?
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"O humanity! If you are in doubt about the Resurrection, then ˹know that˺ We did create you from dust, then from a sperm-drop, then ˹developed you into˺ a clinging clot ˹of blood˺, then a lump of flesh—fully formed or unformed—in order to demonstrate ˹Our power˺ to you."
Quran 22:5
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
This doesn't demonstrate the power of god, but the power of natural mechanisms formed through evolution which god tries to take credit for.
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"We placed him as a sperm-drop in a firm lodging [i.e., the womb]. Then We made the sperm-drop into a clinging clot, and We made the clot into a lump [of flesh], and We made [from] the lump, bones, and We covered the bones with flesh; then We developed him into another creation."
Quran 23:13-14
(Sahih International translation)
Muslims tend to think that listing high-level steps of embryo development is a scientific miracle of the Quran. But the cycle of an embryo was already explained in a very similar way long before Quran by Greek and Roman doctors. This is something you can observe if you have enough unlucky to-be mothers. The best part of it is that Quran states that the initial lump of flesh becomes bones which then get covered with flesh, but according to actual non-Quranic science bones gradually grow within the living tissue.
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"Allah has created from water every living creature. Some of them crawl on their bellies, some walk on two legs, and some walk on four."
Quran 24:45
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
The most populous group are animals walking on six legs but the author forgot about them.
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"Solomon... said, 'O people! We have been taught the language of birds'... Solomon’s forces of jinn, humans, and birds were rallied for him, perfectly organized."
Quran 27:16-17
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Quran claims that Solomon could speak bird language and could organize the birds in military formations for a battle.
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"And when they came across a valley of ants, an ant warned, “O ants! Go quickly into your homes so Solomon and his armies do not crush you, unknowingly.” So Solomon smiled in amusement at her words"
Quran 27:18-19
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
If you thought that Solomon speaking bird language was a lot, take this one. He could also speak the ant language! And ants knew him by name despite ants having no ears! But Allah is not aware of it.
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"˹One day˺ he [Solomon] inspected the birds, and wondered, 'Why is it that I cannot see the hoopoe? Or could he be absent? I will surely subject him to a severe punishment, or ˹even˺ slaughter him, unless he brings me a compelling excuse.'"
Quran 27:20-21
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Solomon will kill the bird hoopoe for not showing up to aid him in the battle. Unless hoopoe has a good excuse, of course.
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"We sent Noah to his people, and he remained among them for a thousand years, less fifty."
Quran 29:14
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Even in the most perfect conditions, a human can't keep going for 950 years.
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"The sun runs [on course] toward its stopping point"
Quran 36:38
(Sahih International translation)
It must be somewhere between the setting point of the Sun from surah 18:86 and its rising point from surah 18:90.
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"We have adorned the lowest heaven with the stars for decoration and ˹for˺ protection from every rebellious devil. They cannot listen to the highest assembly ˹of angels˺ for they are pelted from every side, ˹fiercely˺ driven away."
Quran 37:6-9; similar: 41:12
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
"We adorned the lowest heaven with ˹stars like˺ lamps, and made them ˹as missiles˺ for stoning ˹eavesdropping˺ devils"
Quran 67:5
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Stars are apparently missiles shooting at curious devils at the lowest level of the heavens.
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"Solomon... We subjected to him the wind, blowing gently at his command to wherever he pleased."
Quran 38:34-36; similar: 34:12
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Solomon could not only speak animal languages but even command the wind.
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"He turned towards the heaven when it was ˹still like˺ smoke, saying to it and to the earth, ‘Submit, willingly or unwillingly.’ They both responded, ‘We submit willingly.’ So He formed the heaven into seven heavens"
Quran 41:11-12
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Talking smoke. Great. Anyway, this is sometimes claimed to be talking about the formation of the celestial bodies of the universe from gas and is sometimes claimed to be a scientific miracle of the Quran. But it's just a literary twist of the author. Quran provides no specifics of this 'smoke'. The author had no idea about the formation of the universe and was just guessing. When you write a bunch of different random things about the cosmos in a long book, a few of them will inevitably happen to be resembling reality. And then the adepts will advertise the matches while ignoring the mismatches.
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"˹He is the One˺ Who... made for you ships and animals to ride"
Quran 43:12
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Looks like Allah thinks that he invented ships for people. Well, people went much further than Allah and created planes, beating him in engineering big time.
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"Of all things We created two mates"
Quran 51:49
(Sahih International translation)
Allah didn't know what he was creating. Many animals reproduce without a need for a pair.
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"Allah is the One Who created seven heavens ˹in layers˺, and likewise for the earth."
Quran 65:12
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
A very likely reason why Quran keeps repeating the 'seven heavens' model is that at the time of Muhammad there were seven known celestial bodies: the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The earth was flat and the seven heavens revolved around it in their paths with stars located at the lowest level, as other passages of the Quran say.
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"You do not see in the creation of the Most Merciful any inconsistency. So return [your] vision [to the sky]; do you see any breaks?"
Quran 67:3
(Sahih International translation)
Allah tells Muhammad to check whether the sky has any breaks (or cracks in some other translations), which implies that in Quran's view the sky is a hard dome.
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"˹He is the One˺ Who created seven heavens, one above the other... We adorned the lowest heaven with ˹stars like˺ lamps"
Quran 67:3-5
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
"Do you not see how Allah created seven heavens, one above the other, placing the moon within them"
Quran 71:15-16
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Such passages dismiss the idea used by many Muslim apologists who tell that the seven heavens are the layers of the atmosphere, claiming that it's a scientific miracle of the Quran. The text says that the lowest level has stars and the Moon is within the layers, meaning that seven heavens can't be about the atmosphere.
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"When the stars fall down... and when the sky is stripped away... ˹on that Day˺ each soul will know"
Quran 81:2-14
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Stars will fall down to where? Whoever wrote these lines most likely expected the stars to be only above people and to be much smaller than the Earth.
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"Man... created from a fluid, ejected, emerging from between the backbone and the ribs."
Quran 86:5-7
(Sahih International translation)
Allah thinks that sperm is formed between the backbone and the ribs. But it's actually testicles. Muslim apologists will likely try to offer you an excuse full of mental gymnastics why you need to ignore the obvious error in the book and embrace a different explanation of the case to make it look right. But that's just self-deception.
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"By the sun and its brightness, and the moon as it follows it'"
Quran 91:1-2
(translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Allah thinks that the Moon follows the Sun instead of orbiting around the Earth which orbits around the Sun.
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"When the earth is shaken with its [final] earthquake and the earth discharges its burdens... That Day, the people will depart separated [into categories] to be shown [the result of] their deeds."
Quran 99:1-6
(Sahih International translation)
The quranic end of the world is just a massive earthquake with volcanic eruptions because Allah is unaware of the cosmic scale.