A response to “23 Criticisms of the Quran DEBUNKED”
I was scrolling through the comments on this video by SyeTenAtheist when I saw a number of people were saying the video had been “debunked” by a 16 year-old convert. Here is a link to his response entitled “23 Criticisms of the Quran DEBUNKED“.
I put together some notes on his responses, and here they are.
Criticism 1: Talking body parts
Response: It’s a miracle!
If the story of Jack and the Beanstalk were in the Quran, would you dismiss criticism that geese don’t lay golden eggs and people cannot walk on clouds, because “it’s a miracle”?
Besides, why does an all-knowing god need testimony?
Criticism 2: Dead birds
Response: It’s a miracle!
So was Jack and the Beanstalk!
If blind faith is such a good thing, then why did people of the past allegedly get conclusive proof? Isn’t it far more likely that people later made up those stories, just as they did in Hinduism and every other “false” religion that has a history of miracles proving they are true?
Criticism 3: Earth existed before stars
Response: It uses the word Thumma, which can mean moreover/also.
No, it uses the word “fa”.
فَقَضَىٰهُنَّ = faqaḍāhunna
- fa = Then
- qaḍā = complete
- hunna = them
Are you now going to tell us “fa” means “also” too? The Arabic language really does seem to change to mean whatever is needed any time there is an error in the Quran.
And even if it did mean “also” – why would it list them out of sequence and look like a copy of previous erroneous creation stories from Judaism? What is the benefit of looking like a copy of incorrect beliefs that were commonly held by humans at the time when it could just list them in the correct order?
I thought the Quran came to correct previous errors and confirm what is true? All it did here was repeat a common belief that was false.
Criticism 4: The Moon emits light
SyeTen added that, it wasn’t in my original lyrics. I don’t find it a very good argument. The Moon is a light. I don’t agree the Quran says it is a reflected light, but it also doesn’t say it generates its own light – it is just a light.
Criticism 5: Moon split in half
Response: It was a miracle!
The idea the Moon was split in two only actually comes from hadiths, tafsirs. and miracle claimers. It is far more likely to actually mean “the Moon was split away from the Sun” – describing a solar eclipse where Muhammad begged Allah not to end the world, and so the eclipse continued as usual (Moon moving away from the Sun) instead of the world ending.
But if you believe it was a miracle of the Moon being split in two then you believe the Quran has an error, because it simply never happened. If it had then there would have been accounts of it throughout human history from all over the world, because the Moon is always observable from just over half of the Earth’s surface.
And believing nobody else in the world thought it was worth mentioning is ridiculous.
Criticism 6: Elephants to chewed grass
Response: Miracle! A warning from Allah not to attack the Kaaba.
If Allah was warning people not to attack the Kaaba, why has the Kaaba been successfully attacked multiple times since? Why were the Qarmatians able to steal the black stone and desecrate it?
It seems the only birds you get these days are the pigeons that sit on the Kaaba and use it as a toilet. Perhaps they can only drop kidney stones these days?
Criticism 7: Noah was 950+ years old.
Response: It was a miracle!
And magic geese can lay golden eggs…if it’s a miracle!
Again, a commonly misconception that people were bigger and lived longer in the past. The idea was most likely introduced to the area by Greeks (who believed the same thing) and invaded large areas under the leadership of Alexander the Great.
They believed it because they used to find fossil remains of creatures that were far larger than anything alive at the time. There is also recorded evidence that they found the remains of a mammoth – because mammal skeletons are all approximately the same (just with different bone lengths) they assembled the remains as if it were a giant human
~ Adrienne Mayor, The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times (Princeton University Press, 2000)
Criticism 8: Clot of blood
Response: It means leach / thing that clings / etc
If you look at the Embryology in the Quran, it is again all just a copy of the erroneous beliefs held locally at the time.
Criticism 9: No evolution
Response: Some Muslims believe in evolution.
I agree, the Quran doesn’t explicitly deny evolution so some Muslims accept it is true – but some hadiths contradict evolution so many Muslims don’t.
Criticism 10: Men turned into apes
Response: It was a miracle!
9 and 10 were a single point. The song is a mockery of those who claim it’s impossible for a species to change very slightly over many generations for millions of years and end up looking completely different, and then in the same breath accept humans immediately turning into apes – and then claim it is the former that is a fairy tale.
Criticism 11: Viruses made for our delectation
Response: It’s a misquote – and how can evolution possibly make such intricate things?
SyeTen made a mistake with both the reference and the interpretation. It was originally “Viruses made for us” and the reference is supposed to be
He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth
Quran 2.29
This states that everything in the Earth was created for humans – which is untrue, because viruses kill us, so they clearly weren’t created for us.
I note that you don’t believe in evolution, so you are literally one of the Muslims the video mocks in points 9 + 10. Read “The Greatest Show on Earth”, “Why Evolution is True”, and “The Language of the Genes”.
Criticism 12: Earth and heavens were smoke
Response: It is correct, they were smoke!
It isn’t correct!
Then turned He to the heaven when it was smoke, and said unto it and unto the earth: Come both of you, willingly or loth. They said: We come, obedient.
Quran 41.11
The Earth didn’t come into being when the heavens were smoke. There were suns and planets for billions of years before the Earth existed. So it was impossible to talk to the Earth when the heaven was still “smoke”.
Criticism 13: Worms live in communities
Response: It means animals across species live in communities.
Then the Quran is wrong!
The word used is umma – which means family/community/group. A lion eating a gazelle makes it part of the same ecosystem, it does not make them a single community.
If you think community is eating each other, I don’t want to be your neighbour 🙂
Criticism 14: Milk from cows’ bellies
Response: Lots of talk about bellies…video of milk being made in udders.
Cows’ stomachs break down food in their bellies, but that’s not where milk is made. The nutrients travel to their mammary glands before being turned into milk. Their mammary glands are in their udders, which are below the cow’s belly, not inside it. Their milk is never inside their bellies, even your video even shows the milk being created outside of the belly.
You seem to be mixing up “in” and “under”. Here’s an easy way to understand it
“I’d rather be in a bus than under one” 🙂
If it had said “below their bellies” it would have been correct – but it’s wrong.
Criticism 15: Semen comes from between backbone and ribs
Response 1: The penis is parallel to the backbone, the seminal vesicle is above the penis, therefore the seminal vesicle is between the backbone and ribs.
So, your penis is between your backbone and ribs then? Of course not! Both the seminal vesicle and penis are beneath the ribs, neither are between the backbone and ribs. Using your logic, your ankles and ears are between your backbone and ribs. You wear your hat between your backbone and ribs. When you pray in the mosque, the imam is between your backbone and ribs.
Now it seems you are mixing up “between” and “beneath”. With such loose definitions, how do you ever find anything? If spend your time in the park between the slides you’ll be fine, if you spend your time beneath the slide in the kids’ park you might find yourself in trouble with the police.
Greeks didn’t know about seminal vesicles, and used to argue whether semen came from testicles or kidneys. Greek beliefs were prominent in the area. Muhammad had a 50/50 chance of choosing one that could credibly be argued as being correct, and yet still he bet on the wrong one.
Response 2: Or it might mean we are born out of the womb, which is between backbone and ribs.
This is a weak argument. You come out of your mother’s vagina. It’s referring to the last noun it mentioned, which was the fluid. The word used دَافِقٍ (dāfiqin) is used to describe a motion of liquids:
- Lisan al-Arab: pouring or gushing particularly in reference to fluids like water or semen.
- Al Mufradat: abundant pouring.
- Lane: Pour, water.
Criticism 16: The night is a veil
Response 1: It means the day and night wrap around each other.
No, the word used is يُغْشِى (yugh’shī) which means veil/cover. Here are other places in the Quran where the same word is used:
- 2.7 Their vision is a veil
- 7.41 Theirs will be a bed of hell, and over them coverings
- 45.23 (Allah) puts over his vision a veil
Response 2: Do you think someone would be that stupid?
You obviously don’t know about ancient cosmology!
It was believed the Earth was flat, and sat under a dome called “The Firmament” (which the Quran also mentions in 2.29, 16.79, 51.47, 52.9, 55.7, 86.11, 91.5). Stars were close to the Earth because they were attached to the Firmament, and would sometimes become detached and burn up as they passed through “The Ether” thus becoming shooting stars (which is in the Quran too).
And verily We have beautified the world’s heaven with lamps, and We have made them missiles for the devils
Quran 67.5
Funny how the Quran contains so much of the false ancient beliefs of the time, isn’t it?
Criticism 17: Raising dead with slices of beef
Response: It was a miracle!
Again, silly!
Slapping a corpse with a bit of dead cow to bring him to life. It’s ridiculous. And again, why did people of the past get unquestionable evidence of Allah but today when we have video cameras and mobile phones … nothing!? Because it’s all made up!
You are believing in fairy tales! If it were in the Quran, would you believe in the enchanted self-playing harp owned by a giant that lives in a castle in the clouds? I expect you chuckle to yourself and say “no”, but these stories are equally as silly!
Criticism 18: Islamic wills are complicated
Response: These verses are quite long and complicated, but not incorrect. There are calculators online.
You die, leaving behind a wife, two daughters, and both parents. The Quran says the following people get the following shares of your estate.
- 1 Wife = 1/8ths
- 2 Daughters = 2/3rds
- 1 Mother = 1/16th
- 1 Father = 1/16th
That’s more than 100%, which is why it is wrong!
Both of the sites you linked to reduce the wife’s share from 1/8 to 1/9, presumably to help to fix the error – but then the wife isn’t getting her 1/8 that the Quran prescribes.
Criticism 19: The Moon follows the Sun
Response 1: It does appear to, so that’s right.
But it doesn’t actually follow it, so it’s wrong.
Dip your finger into water and the refraction of light through the water will make your finger appear to be snapped backwards – but it doesn’t hurt, because it isn’t.
Response 2: The Moon follows the Earth and the Earth follows the Sun, so the Moon is technically following the Sun.
If you follow your mother, who is following your father, then you will ultimately end up in the same place as your father, but you aren’t following him. If your mother stops following your father then you won’t end up in the same place because you are following your mother, not your father.
Of course, in the past people believed the Sun and Moon were approximately the same size, approximately the same distance away, and travelled in the same direction (different paths, one after the other). This is why the Quran talks about the end-days involving the Moon colliding with the Sun
And becomes dark the Moon
Quran 75.8-9
And are joined the Sun and the Moon
The Moon will become dark as it eclipses the Sun, and then it will join with the Sun. This is why an eclipse is a sign of the end of days, because the Moon colliding with the Sun was perceived as being a major catastrophe. It’s why Muhammad prayed to Allah not to end the world when there was an eclipse.
Criticism 20: The Sun sets in mud
Response: The Quran uses the word Wajadaha, which means perceived, so it doesn’t mean it literally sets in a place.
The word you described isn’t the error, it comes after the error!
Until when he reached the >setting place< of the Sun, wajadada (he found it) setting
Quran 18.86
It has already said “the setting place” (maghriba), meaning a physical location. You’ve completely missed the error and talked about another part of the sentence entirely – which is what apologists always do when answering this criticism. I don’t think you’ve been deliberately dishonest, I just suspect you’ve picked up someone else’s response without realising what they’d done.
But guess what? This was a common belief of the time. The sea doesn’t reach the firmament, there is a fetid water between the sea and the Firmament. It’s a story from the Alexander the Great romances. Alexander the Great was historically represented as a man with two horns, “quarnayn” literally means “two horns”.
On his war campaign he first travelled West in order to protect Greece from invasion, and then he continued to invade West. Many cultures throughout history have claimed him as one of their own. The “romances” stories exaggerate this so that he went to the extreme West (the edge of the Earth where the Sun sets) and then to the extreme East (the edge of the Earth where the Sun rises).
Criticism 21: The Earth is flat
Sye Ten got the wrong reference again. It should have been
And the Earth, We have spread it
Quran 51.48
The Quran is riddled with Flat Earth verses. Watch my video on the subject.
Criticism 22: The stars will fall
Response 1: It’s describing events we cannot understand.
When the Sun is wrapped up
Quran 81.1-2
And when the stars fall
As I said earlier, people used to believe that the stars were close to Earth and attached to the Firmament. The Moon crashing into the equally sized Sun would cause a great calamity, causing the stars to be shaken from the Firmament and fall down to Earth – just as they were allegedly supposed to when they fell off and become shooting stars.
There is no “fall” in space because there is no universal up/down, there is only move towards/away. In reality, many of the stars you see are larger than our own Sun, so they pull things towards them. They aren’t going to fall, because they aren’t small lamps attached to a Firmament that burn up as shooting stars when they fall off or need to shoot down Shaytans who are trying to eavesdrop on the heavens.
Response 2: It could mean The Big Crunch ending of the universe.
This was once another “Quran miracle” that was touted by many Islamic apologists.
and the Heavens will be folded in His right hand
Quran 39.67
But they all went quiet when science announced that not only is the expansion of the universe not slowing down (causing it to reverse and collapse) but is in fact accelerating.
So no, it’s definitely not the thing you thought up and decided to tell people about.
Criticism 23: The Quran is easy to understand
Response 1: I’ve just explained everything
Yes, and you got it all wrong!
Response 2: It says the Quran is easy to remember, not to understand
You are correct. This was just poetic licence in the video for amusement.
Response 3: The Quran is easy to remember.
So, you’ve memorised it then? And which of the many versions have you memorised?
Response 4: In this video I’m just explaining [the misconceptions]
You have tried to use intuition to guess answers, and they were all wrong. When you try to debunk something, it’s good practice to try to debunk your own responses before publishing. If you’d done this, you’d have probably learned all about the things I’ve told you in this response that has taken me a lot longer than 40 minutes.