Islam's Flat Earth?

[Rich]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wppjYDj9JUc

[Xavier_Onassis]

Of course, the Earth, Moon and Sun are spherical. Any fool can see the roundness of the Moon and Sun, and from what we have learned from space exploration (as well as other calculations), we know that the Earth, Moon and Sun are all nearly spherical.

The Iraqi in the yellow shirt believes in "Koranic Science" which is just the Muslim form of "Bible Studies". Columbus refused to accept that he had discovered a new continent, South America, because there are only three continents mentioned in the Bible (Asia, Africa and Europe). In reality, Asia and Europe are the same continent, but Asia Minor APPEARS to be divided from Europe by water to those who lived in the eastern Mediterranean.

Koranic Studies, like Bibilical Studies declares that the Koran (like the Bible) is the revealed word of God, and if reality appears to disagree with the Koran, then obviously the Devil is at work, altering our perceptions. This is the sort of silliness that was used to execute Tyco Brahe and to shut Galileo up. 


Amerigo Vespucci recognized that the Orinoco River in Venezuela, which has more water in it than any river in Europe or the Mediterranean, HAD to flow from a continent rather than an island, as no island could produce that much water.

In the Koran, the months are lunar months, which cycle through the seasons because the lunar year is shorter than the 365 day orbital year. So at some latitudes, the Sun will never set during the month of Ramadan. In the Koran, Mohammad says that no devout Muslim can eat until sunset during Ramadan. In some years, Alaskan and Greenlander Muslims as well as those in the South Orkneys, would starve, were there any Muslims there.

One can only conclude that either (a) Mohammad had a very faulty understanding of the Solar System and the Earth's seasons, or (b) Allah does not actually want to convert people who live above the Arctic or Antarctic Circles (60? N and S Latitude), or if he does, he does not wish them to survive. Allah, the Compassionate and Merciful, or Muhammad the Dim-Witted and Ignorant?

Christianity went through this particularly boneheaded view of science in the 1500's and 1600's. Apparently Islam is about at this stage, at least for the uneducated.

[Rich]

>>Apparently Islam is about at this stage, at least for the uneducated.<<

These people want nuclear weapons. Which is of course fine and dandy with you.

[Xavier_Onassis]

These people want nuclear weapons. Which is of course fine and dandy with you.

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I heard the guy in the yellow shirt say the Earth was flat. I didn't hear him say one damned thing about nuclear weapons. Perhaps he thinks that the Koran would be against them.

You are equating all Muslims with the same beliefs, and then claiming that I want nuclear weapons for them. This is untrue. I want all nuclear weapons to be destroyed everywhere.

[Universe Prince]

These people want nuclear weapons. Which is of course fine and dandy with you.

I did not see one place in that video where anyone mentioned wanting nuclear weapons. But of course, the obvious question is, by "these people" do you mean the one guy defending "Koranic science" or the other two guys defending actual science?

My real problem, however, with your comment is that in the U.S. there are a lot of people who think biological evolution is a lie, and that the earth is only 6000something years old, and I don't see you criticizing the U.S.  for having and wanting to keep nuclear weapons. So it seems like a double standard.

[Amianthus]

Columbus refused to accept that he had discovered a new continent, South America, because there are only three continents mentioned in the Bible (Asia, Africa and Europe).

Got a source for that? He underestimated the diameter of the Earth, but I never heard that particular claim.

In reality, Asia and Europe are the same continent, but Asia Minor APPEARS to be divided from Europe by water to those who lived in the eastern Mediterranean.

Asia and Europe are on different plates, hence they are different continents.

[Xavier_Onassis]

In reality, Asia and Europe are the same continent, but Asia Minor APPEARS to be divided from Europe by water to those who lived in the eastern Mediterranean.
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Asia and Europe are on different plates, hence they are different continents.

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California and the rest of North America are on different plates, and yet they are not different continents.

Does the plate separating Asia and Europe actually run all the way down the Ural Mountains? I think that this is just a convenient fiction. They have redefined continents to preserve the ancient separation, it would seem.

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Columbus refused to accept that he had discovered a new continent, South America, because there are only three continents mentioned in the Bible (Asia, Africa and Europe).

Columbus' main source of geographical information about undiscovered lands was a book called Imago Mundi, by a Pierre D'Ailly.
http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/art/WATTS03.ART

Columbus also read about the major rivers mentioned in the Bible, and concluded that the Orinoco was the river that flowed near Paradise, which he believed to be the Island of Trinidad. He mentions in his writings that the world was not just round, but shaped like a woman's breast, and on the nipple of the world was Trinidad and the Garden of Eden. The priests and monks back at the court felt that old Chris has been at sea for too long, and the Catholic Kings were not about to pay him his one-fifth share of the monetary value of the Garden of Eden.

He was charged with maladministration of the colony a Santo Domingo and returned home to Spain in chains. Then he was freed and named the Duque de Veragua, Veragua being the Atlantic Coast of Panama. His descendents still hold this title.

You can read all about this in several biographies of Columbus. The one I read was in Spanish, and I can't recall the name. El Almirante del Mar Oc?ano, perhaps.

Amerigo Vespucci was more of a realist, and concluded that South America had to be a continent, because of the tremendous volume f water flowing out of the mouth of the Orinoco, which has the Nile beat in volume of water by several times, though the Orinoco is smaller in volume than the Amazon.

Columbus was right about the shape of the world (if being sort of spherical, I mean). But he was wrong about the size.
On the coast of Panama, he had all his men swear on the Blessed Virgin that they were within 600 leagues of Cipango (Japan). Which, of course, they weren't.

There is a lot of fascinating stuff about Columbus that has been recently discovered in the Archives of the Indies in Sevilla, where it was lost for centuries.

[Amianthus]

California and the rest of North America are on different plates, and yet they are not different continents.

No they are not. California is more active because the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate meet just offshore.

Interestingly enough, part of Asia is technically on the North American Plate.

Actually, Asia is spread across 4 plates, so it shouldn't be a continent at all.

[Rich]

>>I did not see one place in that video where anyone mentioned wanting nuclear weapons.<<

Yes?

>>But of course, the obvious question is, by "these people" do you mean the one guy defending "Koranic science" or the other two guys defending actual science?<<

"These people" are radical muslim's who are inclined to believe the Earth is flat because the Koran says so.

(I can't believe I actually had to explain that)

[Xavier_Onassis]

So you think this one single Iraqi that believes the Earth is flat because the Koran tells him so craves his own nuke, even though he has never said so?  Perhaps he also believes the Koran does not mention nukes, and therefore he should never want one?

Have you ever had your circuits tested for defective wiring in your logic circuits, Richie?

[Universe Prince]

"These people" are radical muslim's who are inclined to believe the Earth is flat because the Koran says so.

(I can't believe I actually had to explain that)

So when you said "these people", you meant possibly none of the people in the video. Hm. This of course does nothing to counter my main objection.

[Rich]

These people meaing Muslim's who believe that sort of thing. Do you think just the one numbskull in the video believes that? Considering the wacky things large numbers of them believe, I thought it was safe to assume there were others who follow his reasoning.

I take it you disagree.

 

[Xavier_Onassis]

The Muslims that exist in the limited space between your ears are all evil and all want nukes and think the world is flat, Richie.

[Universe Prince]

These people meaing Muslim's who believe that sort of thing. Do you think just the one numbskull in the video believes that? Considering the wacky things large numbers of them believe, I thought it was safe to assume there were others who follow his reasoning.

I take it you disagree.

No, I do not think just the one guy believes that. But again, you seem to have a double standard. As I pointed out before, in the U.S. there are a lot of people who think biological evolution is a lie, and that the earth is only 6000something years old, and I don't see you criticizing the U.S. for having and wanting to keep nuclear weapons.

[Rich]

>>But again, you seem to have a double standard. As I pointed out before, in the U.S. there are a lot of people who think biological evolution is a lie, and that the earth is only 6000 something years old, and I don't see you criticizing the U.S. for having and wanting to keep nuclear weapons.<<

I suppose I could have a double standard, but you never asked me about evolution, so how would you know?