The Quran, Islam’s central text, is often touted as divine and infallible, but when you hold it up to the scrutiny of modern science, cracks start to show. Here are five verses that clash hard with established scientific understanding, exposing Islam’s claims to divine wisdom as shaky at best.
Flat Earth Nonsense
Quran 88:20 says, “And at the earth, how it is spread out?” The Arabic term here, “sutihat,” implies something flattened or spread like a carpet. This aligns with a primitive, pre-scientific view of a flat Earth, which we’ve known since the Greeks—and confirmed with space exploration—is a sphere orbiting the Sun. The Quran doesn’t even give a hint that the Earth is round and spinning, which is a big mistake for a book that’s said to come from an all-knowing God.
Sun Setting in a Muddy Pool
Quran 18:86 describes a man traveling “until, when he reached the setting place of the sun, he found it setting in a spring of dark mud.” This isn’t poetic license—it’s a literal depiction of the sun sinking into a muddy pool, a laughable misunderstanding of cosmology. Science tells us the Sun doesn’t “set” anywhere; Earth’s rotation creates the illusion.A divine book should not promote such a clearly wrong idea.
Embryology Errors
Quran 23:14 claims, “Then We made the sperm-drop into a clinging clot, and We made the clot into a lump [of flesh], and We made [from] the lump, bones, and We covered the bones with flesh.” This echoes ancient Greek ideas about embryology, not divine insight. Modern science shows embryos develop through complex stages, with bones and flesh forming simultaneously, not bones first, then flesh. For a text claiming timeless truth, this is a clumsy, outdated blunder.
Mountains as Pegs Preventing Earthquakes
Quran 78:7 calls mountains “pegs,” and 31:10 suggests they stabilize the Earth. Islamic apologists often claim this means mountains prevent earthquakes. Geology laughs at this. Mountains are formed by tectonic plate collisions, which cause earthquakes, not prevent them. The Quran’s simplistic view betrays a 7th-century Bedouin’s ignorance of plate tectonics, not a divine grasp of Earth’s dynamics.
Stars as Missiles for Devils
Quran 67:5 says, “And We have adorned the nearest heaven with lamps [stars], and We have made them missiles for the devils.” Stars are massive, fusion-powered plasma spheres, not cosmic projectiles for chasing demons. This verse reeks of ancient superstition, conflating meteors with stars and tying them to a mythical battle against devils. It’s a childish fantasy, not the work of a universe-creating intellect.
These verses aren’t just small mistakes; they’re serious problems. They show that the Quran reflects the limited understanding of the time it came from, not any higher or divine wisdom. Anyone who thinks logically and values science can see the clear contradictions and would realize that Islam is a man-made belief system, built from the basic knowledge of 7th-century Arabia, not something revealed by an all-knowing creator.
