What was going to be a 2 minute script seems to have grown. Would you guys take a look and let me know what you think? If you spot anything then please let me know ASAP (I am impatient and tend to record sooner rather than later) - especially if I have screwed something up in the Arabic...
The claim of the big bang in the Quran is based on the following verses
http://www.harunyahya.com/miracles_of_the_quran_p1_02.php#5a21:30 - Do those who disbelieve not see that the heavens and the earth were sewn together and then We unstitched them and then made every living thing of water?
51:47 - And it is We Who have constructed the heaven with might, and verily, it is We Who are steadily expanding it.
For these verses to be miracles they have to match the following criteria
1: The information they contain must be accurate.
2: It must be unambiguous. If there is an alternative meaning which is more simple than the claimed meaning, then the more simple alternative must be considered more likely.
3: They must contain information which was impossible to know except via divine revelation.
So let's look at 21:30 first.
21:30 - Do those who disbelieve not see that the heavens and the earth were sewn together and then We unstitched them and then made every living thing of water?
Test 1: Is the information accurate.
No:
Point 1: The Earth has not in any way been separated from the heavens. If we stand on Earth and observe the heavens we see the Moon, if we stand on the Moon and observe the heavens we see the Earth. Everything is still part of the same thing, nothing has been pulled apart from the heavens or unstitched from it.
Point 2: This verse states that the heavens and the Earth were once one and then separated from each other, meaning that both existed in a combined form and that an act of separating them resulted in both existing.
This is incorrect. The expansion event which occurred initially resulted in one big soup of the same stuff, as this stuff expanded and cooled it became atoms. Gravity pulled these atoms together so tightly that they formed suns which fused them together to make heavier elements. At some point one of these suns would have exploded, releasing its heavy atoms into the universe, whereupon gravity acted once more to create a new sun and ultimately our planet.
It is incorrect to state that this expansion resulted in the heavens and the Earth, the universe existed for approximately 9 billion years before the Earth was formed, and during this time countless stars formed, processed atoms, and then exploded.
Test 2: Is it free of more simple alternative meaning?
No:
In the Torah, Genesis 1, the Earth and the heavens are created when god moves across "the deep" and then separates two bodies of water. One water is named the heavens whereas the other is called the seas...in which the land then forms.
This Quranic verse can just as easily refer to the incorrect creation story of the Torah. The heavens and the Earth were once one (the deep) and were separated to form two distinct entities.
It's interesting to note that the verse also goes on to say "and we made every living thing of water".
3: Does it contain information which could only have been known by divine revelation?
No:
Anyone with even a passing interest in religion could have heard of the story of Gensis in the Torah.
Conclusion: This verse is amiguous. It is much more likely to represent a commonly held misconception of the time, and could easily have been said by anyone even vaguely familiar with the Jewish story of creation.
Now let's look at 51:47
51:47 - And it is We Who have constructed the heaven with might, and verily, it is We Who are steadily expanding it.
Test 1: Is the information accurate?
Yes: The universe is expanding.
Test 2: Is it free of more simple alternative meaning?
No:
It's only recently that people have started to translate the Arabic word lamoosi'auwna to mean an ongoing process of expansion. Both Pickthal and Yusuf Ali for example translate this to mean that the heavens have been made a vast expanse
Yusuf Ali: With the power and skill did We construct the Firmament: for it is We Who create the vastness of Space
Pickthal: We have built the heaven with might, and We it is Who make the vast extent (thereof)
The respected Quranic commentator Ibn Kathir states that this verse means "We made it vast", note this is a past tense and does not mention an ongoing process.
The Lane Lexicon describes this Arabic word to mean ample, abundant, wide, broad, spacious, roomy
studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000306.pdf
studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000307.pdf
Arabic words are variations of a root word. In this case the root of lamoosi'auwna is waw sin aiyn. This same root is used in the following places in the Quran
"Allah's knowledge encompases all things"
6:80, 7:89, 20:98, 40:7
Is Allah's knowledge vast enough to contain everything, or is Allah's knowledge expanding?
"Allah is all embracing"
2:115, 2:261, 2:268, 3:73, 5:54, 24:32, 4:130, 2:247
Does Allah embrace all, or is something outside of Allah's brace and it embraces more with time?
"Allah has vast mercy"
53:32, 6:147
Is Allah's mercy vast, or is Allah's mercy expanding?
"Allah's Earth is spacious"
4:97, 29:56, 39:10
Did Allah make the Earth sufficiently spacious, or should it be expanded?
"Let him who hath abundance spend of his abundance"
65:7
Should people spend if they have abundance, or only if their abundance is expanding?
This verse has a much more simple meaning that Allah made the heavens really really big, or big enough.
Test 3: Does it contain information which could only have been known by divine revelation?
No:
One could make the same observation simply by standing outside on a clear night and looking up.
Conclusion: The use of the related words in the Quran indicate an encompassed vastness rather than things which are expanding in order to encompass more.
Summary:
This claim for the big bang in the Quran is without basis. The expanding universe claim is a case of the claimant being creative whilst translating the meaning of the Arabic words to try to get them to match scientific observations. The separation of the Earth from the heavens is a case of ignoring the far more probable mundane explanation so that a far more fantastic one can be presented in its place.
Topic: The expanding universe