Miracles of the Qur’an

About a week ago, I had a conversation with a Muslim. His intention was to sell me on Islam. Unfortunately for him, I’m not stupid. Like so many theists, his presentation was nothing more than his religious opinions based entirely on presuppositions, misunderstandings, ignorance and faith, all wrapped up in logical fallacies. It didn’t take me long to clear the air of his holy smoke and reveal his errors. During his retreat, he went for an emergency fix-all, “Go to MiraclesoftheQuran.com and read the truth about Islam.”

I hate it when an ill-equipped person tries to convince me of something, but has no evidence. It’s even worse when I am directed to a website or book and expected to do his work myself! He who makes positive claims always bears the burden of proof. If he can’t defend the position, then he should avoid mentioning it and making a fool of himself. At first, I wasn’t going to visit another website offered to me by a desperate theist. I’ve done it so many times before, and it always proves to be a waste of time. But since I am not as familiar with Islam as I am Christianity, I decided I should give it a fair chance.

Miracles of the Qur’an is organized into sections which list various types of - you guessed it - miracles. When I loaded the page, I was immediately drawn to the list of scientific miracles. Hey, that’s just the kind of evidence I want to see! I started with the last one (I have an odd tendency to read lists bottom to top) and immediately learned something. Either the author(s) of the text is a complete idiot, or he expects his readers to be.

The first miracle I read is entitled “CHEST CONTRACTION WITH INCREASING HEIGHT.” There are a few paragraphs describing how the lungs work to provide oxygen to the body, and how elevation affects this process. It’s all fairly scientific and sensible until it gets to the quote from the Qur’an.

When Allah desires to guide someone, He expands his breast to Islam. When He desires to misguide someone, He makes his breast narrow and constricted as if he were climbing up into the sky. That is how Allah defiles those who have no faith. (Qur’an, 6:125)

This is a miracle? I was confused. The next thing I did was check dictionary.com for “miracle” to be sure I wasn’t missing something.

1. an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.
2. such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God.
3. a wonder; marvel.
4. a wonderful or surpassing example of some quality; a miracle of modern acoustics.
5. miracle play

Numbers 1 & 2 are what I think of when the subject of miracles comes up. I don’t use it in any other way. The only meaning given that I can fit to what I read is number 3. Many things in this world are amazing and wonderful. The intricacies of the respiratory and circulatory systems are indeed a marvel. But I don’t think this is the meaning the website is intending. I wrote to the website and asked for a definition that reflected their use, but I received no response. I do know how Muslims typically use “science” verses in the Qur’an. They say the presence of scientific knowledge in the Qur’an, which was written well before humans discovered such things, proves that it was revealed to Muhammad by allah.

So a mention in the Qur’an of difficulty breathing at high elevations shows divine knowledge? I don’t think so. Anyone could have experienced the feeling that is described by simply climbing mountains, which I’m sure had been done plenty of times by the 6th century CE. This is precisely why this miracle claim is not compelling. It could have been known through natural human experience. On the other hand, a complete description of how the lungs work would have been impressive. This claimed miracle is laughable.

I read through most of the scientific miracles on the list, and was equally unimpressed by each of them. The presentation on each page is designed to evoke a sense of awe in science, and then tries to connect that awe to the Qur’an. It’s (probably intentionally) misleading. The topic is described using modern scientific knowledge to lend credibility and impress the reader. Then a vague quote from the Qur’an is added and an attempt is made to show that allah revealed it all centuries ago. The reality is modern scientific knowledge has been retrofitted to ambiguous verses in the Qur’an in a desperate attempt to make it seem divine and relevant. If this sacred book is so filled with scientific knowledge, why isn’t it used by scientists to do science? Why hasn’t it ever been used to advance science in any field?

There is a way in which to make each and every described miracle seem wholly credible: presuppose the existence of the omnipotent, omniscient, invisible, immaterial, eternal, self-caused, undetectable, unprovable entity which is given credit for it all.

On a related note, this week’s edition of the Point of Inquiry podcast features Taner Edis discussing Islam and modern scientific undertanding.

Tags: fallacy, islam, miracles, qur'an, religion, skepticism