Muslim & Christian Discussion ForumMiracles of Quran;Does bible competeshahryar wrote:
Dear Kai,
Let’s suppose I accept that there was knowledge of embryology before Mohammad (SAW).But what do you say about the knowledge of universe, astronomy (never to confuse with astrology). Here is the history of astronomy and the discoveries made before the Prophet (SAW).
Hipparchus (c. 190-120 BC)
The most important Greek astronomer of his time. Hipparchus was born in Nicaea, Bithynia (now Iznik, Turkey). He was extremely accurate in his research, a record of which was preserved in the Almagest, the scientific treatise by the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy, who was greatly influenced by Hipparchus. By comparing his own celestial studies with those of earlier astronomers, Hipparchus discovered the precession of the equinoxes. His calculation of the tropical year, the length of the year measured by the sun, was within 6.5 minutes of modern measurements. Hipparchus devised a method of locating geographic positions by means of latitudes and longitudes. He cataloged, charted, and calculated the brightness of perhaps as many as 1000 stars. Hipparchus also compiled a table of trigonometric chords that became the basis for modern trigonometry.
Ptolemy (AD 100?-170?)
An astronomer and mathematician, whose astronomical theories and explanations dominated scientific thought until the 16th century. He is also remembered for his contributions to the fields of mathematics, optics, and geography. Ptolemy's actual name, Claudius Ptolemaeus, reflects all that is really known of him: The name "Claudius" suggests a Roman background, while "Ptolemaeus" hints at a possible Egyptian heritage for him. In fact, ancient sources report that for most of his life he lived and worked in Alexandria, Egypt. At a time when Egypt was ruled by Romans, Alexandria was the center of widespread Greek culture, and we know that Ptolemy wrote his works in Greek.
The Almagest
Ptolemy's earliest and most famous work, originally written in Greek, was translated into Arabic as al-Majisti (Great Work). In Europe, medieval Latin translations reproduced the title as Almagesti, and it has since become known simply as the Almagest. In this work, Ptolemy proposed a geometric theory to account mathematically for the apparent motions and positions of the planets, sun, and moon against a background of unmoving stars. This work did not include any physical descriptions of objects in space.
Source: http://www.geocities.com/sblokl/oldguys.html
Now, what do you say about the theory of expansion of this universe, in the Qur'an, which was revealed fourteen centuries ago at a time when the science of astronomy was still primitive, the expansion of the universe was described in the following terms:
And it is We Who have constructed the heaven with might, and verily, it is We Who are steadily expanding it. (Qur'an, 51:47)
The word "heaven," as stated in the verse above, is used in various places in the Qur'an. It is referring to space and the wider universe. Here again, the word is used with this meaning, stating that the universe "expands." The Arabic word "moosiaaoona" in the term "inna lamoosiaaoona," translated into English as "it is We Who are steadily expanding it", comes from the verb "evsea," meaning "to expand." The prefix "la" emphasises the following name or title and adds a sense of "to a great extent." This expression therefore means "We expand the sky or the universe to a great extent." This is the very conclusion that science has reached today.
Theory of expansion of universe was given in late 1920s.See details at:
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect ... nsion.html
Kai replies:
I think you exaggerating your point here bro
Cosmological expansion (or whatever we call it, cosmological inflation or the expansion of the universe) was predicted long time before Muhammad. For example Hesiod claimed that chasm existed prior to matter; hence space had to be formed, or in other words expanded (Aristotle, Physics, 1999: 79).
Furthermore Lucretius (50 BC) writes:
‘At that time the sun’s bright disc was not to be seen here, soaring loft and lavishing light, nor the stars that crowd the far-flung firmament, nor sea nor sky, nor earth, nor air nor anything in the likeness of things we know – nothing but a hurricane raging in a newly congregated mass of atoms of every sort. From their disharmony sprang conflict, which maintained a turmoil in their interspaces, courses, unions, thrusts, impacts, collisions and motions…they (the atoms) began, in fact, to separate the heights of heaven from the earth, to single out the sea as a receptacle for water detached from the mass and to set apart the fires of pure and isolated ether. In the first place all the particles of earth, because they were heavy and intertangled, collected in the middle and took up the undermost stations. The more closely they cohered and clung together, the more they squeezed out the atoms that went to the making of sea and stars, sun and moon and the outer walls of the great world’
(Lucretius, The Nature of the Universe, 1957: 1984-5).
According to Lucretius the Cosmos starts with an entity of chaos, consisting of atoms, and the entire existence of heaven and earth.
Then suddenly the atoms start separating the heights of heaven from the earth; in other words, the heaven starts expanding from the earth, and within this expansion, the sun, moon and heavenly bodies are formed and the outer walls of the universe.
This expansion of the universe includes according to Lucretius, the space:
‘If there were no empty space…they could not possibly have come into existence’ (Lucretius, 1957: 37). ‘if there were no space, everything would be one solid mass’ (Lucretius, 1957: 42).
In the same way Lucretius also predicts a Big Crunch, that the entire universe will bounce back into this compressed entity or to its original state:
‘These three bodies so different in nature, three distinct form, three fabrics such as you behold – all these a single day will blot out. The whole substance and structure of the world, upheld through many years, will crash… the whole world can collapse with one ear-splitting crack!’ (Lucetius, 157: 174).
The theory of the Expanding Universe is also predicted by the Bible itself.
Lets first look at Isaiah 42: 5 and see how it fits the Qur’anic description:
‘This is what God the Lord says—he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life two those who walk in it’.
This resembles Sura 51: 47-8 remarkably, both in context and terminology:
‘With the power and skill did We construct the firmament: for it is We Who create the vastness of space. And We have spread out the (spacious) earth; how excellently We do spread out!
This should not surprise us as some of Muhammad’s followers were Jews, and even include ex-Jewish Rabbies, such as Abdullah Salim who was also a cosmologist, which also explains why not only Biblical but also Talmudic cosmology is found in the Qur’an. This certainly reveals that the Qur’an is the product of a human hand that merely sought to plagiarise the ideas of his own day and era.
Let’s see what more the Bible has to say about Universal Expansion; in Isaiah 40: 22 we read:
‘He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth…He stretches out the heavens like a canopy…’
Here Isaiah is probably the first in the world to predict that the earth is a sphere and that the universe is CONTINUALLY EXPANDING.
So you were looking for Scientific facts in the Bible, well here you have two.
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