To the Atheists, I ask for your opinion?

Question

Please bear in mind, I'm only going to ask for your opinion. I wish you would keep an open mind, just as you guys claim you are, alright? Thanks in advance.

Okay, so first let me post this:

"The shape of the skeleton determines the general appearance of the embryo in the bones stage during the 7th week; muscles do not develop at the same time but their development follows soon after. The muscles take their positions around the bones throughout the body and therefore clothe the bones. Thus, the muscles take their well known forms and structures… The stage of clothing with muscle occurs during the 8th week…"


It's from a scientific publication about human developement in the womb, alright? Now see this:

[We] then formed the drop into a clot and formed the clot into a lump and formed the lump into bones and clothed the bones in flesh; and then brought him into being as another creature. Blessed be Allah, the Best of Creators! (Qur'an, 23:14)

This was from our Qu'ran, it was written over 1400 years ago, yet it described how the human fetus developed long before microscope was ever invented.

Alright, next we have... this.

In a paper published in the Journal of the Islamic Medical Association, Dr. Keith Moore states that during the development of the foetus, the eye begins to form after the inner ear has assumed its first form. He says the brain, the centre of feeling and understanding, begins its development after the ear and the eye.

While in the Qu'ran,

It is He Who has created hearing, sight and minds for you. What little thanks you show! (Qur'an, 23:78)

Allah brought you out of your mothers' wombs knowing nothing at all, and gave you hearing, sight and minds so that perhaps you would show thanks. (Qur'an, 16:78)

Say: "What do you think? If Allah took away your hearing and your sight and sealed up your hearts, what god is there, other than Allah, who could give them back to you?"… (Qur'an, 6:46)

Note that each three has a specific order: Hearing, sight and mind. Just as the medical journal says, also these verses were written 1400 years ago.


So now, please have an open mind, how would you intrepret this? In your logic, how was all these written 1400 years ago? Again I must remind that I'm only asking your opinion and your point of view as an atheist.

I'm sorry Brendan, I've run through a search and there's no such thing as "four corners" in the Qu'ran.

Alright then o_O

I just asked for your opinion, sheesh.

Verse 23:12-13:

"Verily We created man from a product of wet earth; Then We made him a small seed in a firm resting-place"

Alright morning star, I'll give you three translations of it:


YUSUFALI: Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (foetus) lump; then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the best to create!
PICKTHAL: Then fashioned We the drop a clot, then fashioned We the clot a little lump, then fashioned We the little lump bones, then clothed the bones with flesh, and then produced it as another creation. So blessed be Allah, the Best of creators!
SHAKIR: Then We made the seed a clot, then We made the clot a lump of flesh, then We made (in) the lump of flesh bones, then We clothed the bones with flesh, then We caused it to grow into another creation, so blessed be Allah, the best of the creators.

Answer 1

Interpret it? I'm sorry but I wouldn't give it a moment's thought or regard it as remotely significant.

Answer 2

You are asking us, with the "open minds" with which you flatter us, to assume that the written word of the Qu'ran shows the kind of knowledge that would be impossible without modern technology. That is to jump to conclusions which, with respect, is what you are doing. Had the words been truly insightful - for instance, had described something as elementary as the circulation of the blood, which was not scientifically demonstrated until the seventeenth century, it might be different. The sacred word of Allah might have given a detailed description of the outermost planets, the structure of an amoeba, the fusion of sperm with egg, the behaviour or light and radio waves, or any number of detailed scientific concepts that could NOT have been known without modern science. But it does not. You offer instead the intuitively obvious construction of a human being (which might easily have been observed in the detail given: miscarriages are not a modern phenomenon, you know). Anything is build with the innermost items in place first, whether it is a tent, an outfit of clothing, a meal or a human being. Of course anything credited with creating all life would do it in such an intuitive way - with the skeleton first. It is not that difficult and it does not demonstrate a closed mind to point this out.

It always intrigues me that the vaguest similiarity between the words of a holy text and science are seized upon by the pious as dazzling evidence for the terms of their faith, while endless contradictions and absurdities can be dismissed as, for instance, being read out of context. You would do well to think about who you accuse of not having an open mind.

Answer 3

During the European Dark Ages the Islamic world made quite a few discoveries in math and science much of which was later lost. It could be that someone had studied fetal development back then.

What is the context of the first citation? I am curious about the reference "brought him into being as another creature" Him who? What sort of creature? If this is supposed to be the creation of Man doesn't that also imply that Man is just another creature like the rest of the animals?

Answer 4

You make a fair point, but realize this - all 'books' of religion have been written by 'man' , and do you think that medical experiments did not happen centuries ago? During all those wars, all that bloodshed, 'man' would have seen plenty of dead bodies, and open human flesh, wounds, beheadings, lost limbs. Before Mohamed,, before Christ there were many philosophers and Scientists, many medical practitioners who studied the human body, the human brain, how could they do that without cutting and researching? Perhaps you should do some serious research yourself into HISTORY before making assumptions and quoting from books that were and still are misused by man for his own ends to prove frivolous points!

Answer 5

you are really grasping at straws, no?

"formed the drop into a clot and formed the clot into a lump"
You think this is a plausible simile?

"yet it described how the human fetus"
NO IT DOESN'T. How does a drop that clotted and turned into a lump in ANY way describe a fetus unless you are bending reality over backwards to try to make your sky fairy religion fit science?

And your your next rambling point:
"Note that each three has a specific order: Hearing, sight and mind"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

Answer 6

My opinion of

[We] then formed the drop into a clot and formed the clot into a lump and formed the lump into bones and clothed the bones in flesh; "

This statement is the most inaccurate, non-sensical piece of garbage i have ever read.

The koran is just a tatty old story book... an evil one at that

Answer 7

Well lets see, the Koran also say 11 planets, that the Sun sets in particular places on a flat Earth, and that the Earth is fixed and doesn't move.

My opinion is that you are stretching a small part of it to fit facts, when really there is no actual knowledge there at all.

Answer 8

No. We didn't form from a drop into a clot or from a clot into a lump.

We formed from 2 haploid cells into a diploid cell. No drops here buddy

A blastocyst is not a clot. It is a blastocyst.

Plus you can get all that information just by thinking about it and knowing a little about miscarriage. You don't even need an ultrasound machine or fiber optics.

Answer 9

But if the Quran is anything like the Bible, it refers repeatedly to the "four corners" of a flat earth and totally ignores the existence of the New World.

What's your point?

Answer 10

It is easy to view the fetus at certain stages of development if the fetus is outside the womb.

Answer 11

Your question is way too long and by the end all you are doing, as most "christian fanatics" do, once again, is spouting off quotes and parables from you nursery rhyme book and fairy tale book

just to hear yourself talk!!