As I am preparing my youtube videos on the Qur'an and modern science, I would first wanna hear the Muslim opinion and interpretation on this particular passage in the Qur'an:
‘Have not those who disbelieve known that the heavens and the earth were of one piece, then We parted them, and we made every living thing of water? Will they not then believe? (Sura 21: 30)’
Do Muslims actually believe:
1) That the heaven and earth were fused in cosmological time?
2) That the earth actually separated from this primordial entity?
3) That this view of the Qur'an correlates with modern science?
Furthermore:
4) Who are these disbelivers?
5) How did the disbelivers know something that modern science has just recently revealed?
6) If the disbelivers already knew, what makes this passage in the Qur'an so special?
7) If the disbelievers already knew, what makes us deny the possibility that the Qur'anic author simply plagiarized this particular claim and other scientific claims from intellectuals who were contemporaries of Muhammad?
4 comments:
Hey Hogan:
Gotta hit the books soon, but I'll try to respond to these points later. Anyways wanted to point you to this site:
What do think about this:
http://messiahtruth.com/response.html
Thanks
Ehteshaam Gulam
http://www.answering-christian-claims.com/index.html
Thanks,
I might check it out
Yeah I know about that particular Jewish organisation, they are simply a reaction to the many Jews embracing the Christian faith.
I hope you are not utilizing such sources, as they lean heavily toward liberal theology such as historical, form and redaction criticism. The website makes it very clear that if these theories are true then Jesus was not a prophet but only a teacher, according to some a Cynic teacher.
Notice also that the website bases its conclusion upon the Jesus myth theory. The problem remains that if a Muslims holds to such a theory, then the Jesus of the Qur'an is depended upon the same myth, since the mythological Jesus who was plagiarized from pre-Christian religious figures were typically born of virgins; this Jewish website even addresses that issue. As a Muslim holding on to such theories, you cannot retain your integrity and cherry-pick from the details of these arguments what suits you and reject what harms the Qur'an. If you are to view the Jesus-myth as a reliable argument, then the original Jesus was not born by a virgin and the Qur'an is therefore false. You cannot maintain Jesus' death was plagiarized because Osiris or another figure died and reject that Jesus' virgin birth was not plagiarized. This will prove you inconsistent and harm your integrity and personality.
Furthermore, the website denies the historical Jesus and applies the typical atheist argumentation, firstly to demand from Christians external evidence, and when this evidence is brought forward, they simply brush it aside calling it early corruption.
I have spent far too many years of my life reading such authors and I honestly don't find them nor this Jewish website impressive.
Anyway I will be waiting for you answers related to the separation of the heaven and earth.
Furthermore, another issue I forgot to point out, is that these particular Jews and this website denies that Jesus is the Messiah, they also deny his prophethood and even claim that he was not sent by God.
Hence if a Muslim were to apply their theories and sources you can imagine the contradiction souch would bring up if considering its conclusion in comparative with the Islamic teaching.
Furthermore, if as the website states, that we know nothing about the historical Jesus (which I disagree with and you agree with) then on what basis can they attest their own claims as valid.
What I mean is: if we know nothing of the historical Jesus, on what basis can we state that he was not a prophet, the Messiah or divine? Similarily, if a Muslim holds to these views (which I know you do) on what basis can you state that Jesus was a prophet in consistence with the Jesus of the Qur'an, I mean you have not external sources.
And you simply cannot claim that the Qur'an is from God and hence provides the true picture. Why is that? Because the writings of the gospels, the epistles and some ecclesisatical manuscripts such as Clement of Rome, are all first centurty material, written when eyewitnesses were still alive and when the disciples of the apostles were still living. Hence from a historical perspective this is much more reliable than the Qur'an. Furthermore, you cannot quote the Qur'an here, since we are considering the historical Jesus, and hence requires us to consider the earliest data, which is the Gospels and the Epistles. The Qur'an is of no significance here what so ever.
Which Makes this a whole lot more funny. When Muslims study Jesus they actually turn to the Gospel, not the external sources.
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