Scientific Miracles in the Qur’an

Muslim pop-apologists are often keen to say that the Qur’an contains some truly amazing scientific knowledge that has only recently been discovered by scientists. As your average seventh-century Arab couldn’t have known such things by him- or herself, the Muslim apologists go on to argue that this is sure evidence of divine inspiration.

There are quite a few websites that spin this nonsense, and I’ve heard it in about four talks I’ve gone to by Muslims. And I can only remember four talks by Muslims I’ve ever gone to.

Did you realise that the physiological widening of the birth canal was known in the Qur’an?

“From a drop of sperm He created him and proportioned him. Then He eases the way for him.” ( Qur’an, 80:20 )
– Miracles of the Qur’an

And did you know the Qur’an always knew about black holes?

“When the stars are extinguished …” ( Qur’an, 77:8 )
– Miracles of the Qur’an

Of course, this all takes some fairly imaginative interpretation of the Qur’an, in order to stretch the words until they seem to fit the parlance of modern scientific claims. I’ve always thought it was a little desperate, and while it doesn’t say much about the credibility of the Qur’an one way or the other, it does say something about the credulity of some of its followers. 

But there’s another problem with the whole approach. This ‘Jesus and Mo‘ cartoon makes the point well: