Debunked 1 : Quran - Scientific Miracle ; The Shape of Earth

Claim :

"The slightly flattened spherical shape of the Earth is known as geoid. From that point of view, the use of the word "dahaa" contains important information about the shape that Allah has given to the Earth. For hundreds of years, people imagined the Earth to be completely flat and only learned the truth thanks to technology. Yet, this fact was revealed in the Qur'an fourteen centuries ago. "


Sources are included at the end of the post.

Utter rubbish ;


*Quran states the shape of the earth in a very very vague way.

*There are many other verses which imply flat earth.(Which I will come to later in to post)

*The fact that earth is spherical was known long before Muhammed.




550 BC

Pythagorassaw harmony in the universe and sought to explain it. He reasoned that Earth and the other planets must be spheres, since the most harmonious geometric solid form is a sphere. After the fifth century BCE, no Greek writer of repute thought the world was anything but round.



400 BC

Plato also taught his students that Earth was a sphere. If man could soar high above the clouds, Earth would resemble "a ball made of twelve pieces of leather, variegated, a patchwork of colours."


300 BC

Aristotle provided physical and observational arguments supporting the idea of a spherical Earth:

• 
  * Every portion of the earth tends toward the center until by compression and convergence they form a sphere. (De caelo, 297a9-21)
  * Travelers going south see southern constellations rise higher above the horizon; and
  * The shadow of Earth on the Moon during a lunar eclipse is round. (De caelo, 297b31-298a10)

240 BC

Eratosthenes estimated Earth's circumference around 240 BC. Using the differing angles the shadows made as the basis of his trigonometric calculations he estimated a circumference of around 250,000 stades. The length of a 'stade' is not precisely known, but Eratosthenes' figure only has an error of around five to ten percent.


Carl Sagan Explains :









So even if Quran mentioned earth circumference with 10% error,it wouldn't be impressing since it was calculated 1,000 years before Muhammad,without divine inspiration with pure mathematics.



Let's see what Quran actually says about shape of the Earth :



79:30

Tafsir al-Jalalayn



{ وَٱلأَرْضَ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ دَحَاهَا }

and after that He spread out the earth: He made it flat, for it had been created before the heaven, but without having been spread out;


13:03



تفسير Tafsir al-Jalalayn


{ وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِي مَدَّ ٱلأَرْضَ وَجَعَلَ فِيهَا رَوَاسِىَ وَأَنْهَاراً وَمِن كُلِّ ٱلثَّمَرَاتِ جَعَلَ فِيهَا زَوْجَيْنِ ٱثْنَيْنِ يُغْشِى ٱلَّيلَ ٱلنَّهَارَ إِنَّ فِي ذٰلِكَ لآيَاتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ }

And He it is Who spread out, extended [flat], the earth and set, created, therein firm mountains and rivers, and of every fruit He has made in it two kinds, of every species. He covers, He cloaks, the night, and its darkness, with the day. Surely in that, which is mentioned, are signs, indications of His Oneness, exalted be He, for a people who reflect, upon God’s handiwork.


15:19

ٱلَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلأَرْضَ فِرَٰشاً وَٱلسَّمَاءَ بِنَآءً وَأَنزَلَ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءً فَأَخْرَجَ بِهِ مِنَ ٱلثَّمَرَٰتِ رِزْقاً لَّكُمْ فَلاَ تَجْعَلُواْ للَّهِ أَندَاداً وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ }

He Who assigned to you, created [for you], the earth for a couch, like a carpet that is laid out, neither extremely hard, nor extremely soft so as to make it impossible to stand firm upon it; and heaven for an edifice, like a roof



88:20

{ وَإِلَى ٱلأَرْضِ كَيْفَ سُطِحَتْ }

And the earth, how it was laid out flat?, and thus infer from this the power of God, exalted be He, and His Oneness? The commencing with the [mention of] camels is because they are closer in contact with it [the earth] than any other [animal]. As for His words sutihat, ‘laid out flat’, this on a literal reading suggests that the eEarth is flat, which is the opinion of most of the scholars of the [revealed] Law, and not a sphere as astronomers (ahl al-hay’a) have it, even if this [latter] does not contradict any of the pillars of the Law.

91:06


Tafsir al-Jalalayn



{ وَٱلأَرْضِ وَمَا طَحَاهَا }

and [by] the earth and the One Who spread it, laid out flat.



Sources

http://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=91&tAyahNo=6&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0

http://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=88&tAyahNo=20&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0