Quran corrects 6 scientific errors in the bible – Introduction

Following my recent upload of a debate between myself and Nadir Ahmed (from many years ago), Nadir emailed me and suggested we do another. I suggested instead we exchanged written arguments that we could publish on our blogs. Nadir agreed, and sent me a document outlining an argument that the Quran corrects at least 6 errors that occur in the Bible.

Nadir’s arguments can be found in full here.

I’ve decided to split this blog into 7 parts. Each part will consist of one of Nadir’s arguments along with my responses.

1. Introduction.
2. Mustard seed.
3. Blood on the bed sheet blunder in the Bible.
4. Quran corrects worldwide flood account of the Bible.
5. Divorce only allowed in cases of adultery.
6. Five year old children drinking beer.
7. Bible spreads the Ebola virus.

Nadir’s writing will be included in full as quoted text, like this current line.

My responses will be written in standard text, like the current sentence.

Introduction

The Quran claims to be Muhaymin مُهَيْمِنُ which means a guardian or corrector of the Bible (5.48).

When the Quranic corrections are closely examined, they are astonishing – because they are correcting the scientific errors of the Bible.

I would like to point out that merely omitting an error is not astonishing at all, especially if it is the case that the Quran simply duplicates some of the Bible’s errors rather than all of them. A correction can either be

1. An explicit declaration that a previous statement is wrong, including accurate information instead.
   
     Before: “The Earth is flat”
     After: “The Earth is not flat, it is a spheroid”.
   
2. An explicit declaration that a previous statement is wrong, but excluding the accurate information.
   
     Before: “The Earth is flat”
     After: “The Earth is not flat”.
   
3. In it’s weakest form, a correction is the repetition of a previous statement with the error omitted.
   
     Before: “We all live on Earth, which is flat.”
     After: “We all live on Earth.”

Merely talking about the same phenomenon, or using the same analogy without including the original mistake is not a correction.

We can all agree that all religions but one are made by men. As a result, you will find man’s error in those books.NO man made book is without error.

No, we cannot all agree that all religions but one are made by men. Many people believe that all religions – without exception – are made by man, some believe that all religions are in some way valid, like a piece of a jigsaw.

We cannot even agree that no man-made book is without error. It is quite easy for humans to write error-free books. I expect there are millions of them. Being without error does not require a super-natural author.

The followers of those man made books try to hide the man made errors in the exact same way:

1. Don’t take it literally.
2. It is metaphorical.
3. It is relevant to only those people at that time.

All religions hide and cloak the man made errors through these interpretations. The internet is bursting with people of all religions singing the chorus of the same song.

These are actually the most common excuses I hear when pointing out errors or contradictions in the Quran. I am pleased Nadir is setting these high standards for his own religious book. One often overlooked form of confirmation bias is to set higher standards of proof for the claims of everyone else’s beliefs.

Rather Islam is the only religion which allows the Quran to be taken literally. It is true there are metaphorical passages, but it will offer that as an excuse to explain away.

I assume Nadir means here he will *not* offer that as an excuse.

During this exchange I will take the Quran literally, after all, why would an all knowing author that wants to convince us of a book’s divine origins have to rely on humans “interpreting” the words in order to ignore the fact that when taken literally the words look like they are describing a common misconception of the time?