I wrote a reasonably long reply to your question. Part of it is quoted by Londoner above. Wonder why my post was deleted??Semtek wrote:Hi again Spectrum. Thank you for your thoughtful replies.
I was hoping to address your argument.
-- Updated Tue Aug 15, 2017 10:01 pm to add the following --
[b]Londoner[/b] wrote:I want to believe you have done all the studies you claim, even though they have lead you to some peculiar conclusions, but then you write stuff that suggests you have made no effort at all.Spectrum wrote: E.g. in the Quran, Allah stated the Sun settled into a muddy pond. Scientific knowledge contributed to expose such irrationality out of psychological desperations.
For those that are interested, the verse about the sun setting in a pond comes as part of a story about a being that travels not only past the setting sun, but also past the rising sun, and builds a great wall to keep the giants Gog and Magog from destroying our world, which wall will stand until the Day of Judgement. It is plainly not meant to be understood in the same way as a physics text book. In the same chapter is the story of the 'seven sleepers', who remain sleeping in a cave for 300 years. Did you read that and conclude that religion claims we can, or do, sleep for 300 years?
I think you must be a terrible sufferer from 'confirmation bias'. It is no good spending years studying if you do so with a closed frame of mind! You have some theory and everything you read or come across is interpreted to fit with that theory.
- 18:86 - Arabic
حَتَّىٰ إِذَا بَلَغَ مَغْرِبَ الشَّمْسِ وَجَدَهَا تَغْرُبُ فِي عَيْنٍ حَمِئَةٍ وَوَجَدَ عِندَهَا قَوْمًا قُلْنَا يَا ذَا الْقَرْنَيْنِ إِمَّا أَن تُعَذِّبَ وَإِمَّا أَن تَتَّخِذَ فِيهِمْ حُسْنًا
Transliteration
Hatta itha balagha maghriba alshshamsi wajadaha taghrubu fee AAaynin hami-atin wawajada AAindaha qawman qulna ya tha alqarnayni imma an tuAAaththiba wa-imma an tattakhitha feehim husnan zoom
(Word by Word)
Until, when he reached (the) setting place (of) the sun, he found it setting in a spring (of) dark mud, and he found near it a community. We said, "O Dhul-qarnain! Either [that] you punish or [that] you take [in] them (with) goodness."
First of all the Quran was not written by a God otherwise the Quran would not have included such a stupid point as 18:86.
The Quran was written by a person or a group of people.
The Quran is claimed to be easy to read as it was revealed in Arabic so that the local Arabs can understand it easily.
The phrase "he found it [the Sun] setting in a spring (of) dark mud" is to be understood as a fact [from a supposedly omnipresent God] by the majority of the Arab readers and not sophisticated scholars. Obviously the majority of simple readers of the Quran will accept that as a fact since it is God's word.
Similarly, since the Quran is God's words, the majority of Arabs and Muslims will take it literally there are people who survived for 300 years in cave during that certain period. This is their Confirmation Bias, not mine.
My point only confirm the many stupid and evil laden statements in the Quran are not from a supposedly all powerful omniscient God [if it ever exists] but rather the Quran was written by a person or group of people.