Rotating Earth (mountains that move) miracle claim debunked

Quranmiracles.com is a despicable site but one that perfectly illustrates the lies, half-truths and fact-bending that Muslim miracle seekers are willing to commit to persuade the gullible and desperate that the Qur'an is divine in origin. Here is a miracle claim which is not commonly rebutted that illustrates perfectly what I mean .


The claim (that Allah is informing us that the Earth rotates by telling us that mountains move as clouds do) appears to be not totally unreasonable when we read the verse, as given at Quranmiracles.com:

When you look at the mountains, you think that they are standing still. But they are moving like clouds. Such is the artistry of God, who disposes of all things in perfect order. He is indeed fully aware of what you do.27:88

And this is how quranmiracles.com interprets the verse: 

The mountains’ features seem to make them the most stationary components of the earth’s surface. The idea of the unattainability of mountains led certain primitive mentalities to believe in polytheism and fancy that the mountains were the abode of divinities. The idea of mountain peaks being beyond man’s reach was an illusion, as was also their stationary aspect. The verse refers to this illusion and speaks of the motion of mountains like clouds. If the mountains that had a stationary aspect did move, it would follow that the earth itself also moved. The verse thus dismisses the idea of a fixed world entertained as a consequence of false perception, and informed the public of the time of the movement of mountains, likening them to clouds. 

Except that it doesn't. The verse has NOTHING to do with telling mankind that the Earth rotates instead of being stationary.

How can we be so sure? Because if we look at the verse which comes immediately before this one, we can understand better the intentions of the author. (Note to quranmiracles.com - this is called PUTTING THE VERSE IN CONTEXT)

And on that Day the trumpet [of judgment] will be sounded, and all [creatures] that are in the heavens and all that are on earth will be stricken with terror, except such as God wills [to exempt]: and in utter lowliness all will come unto Him. 27:87

From this it becomes clear that the author is detailing what will happen on Judgement Day (hence the reference to "trumpet [of Judgement]". On Judgement Day frightening things happen.. like the seas boiling, the heavens opening and ... mountains flying around like clouds.

Now let's look at some other (more accurate?) translations of the verse.

And thou wilt see the mountains, which [now] thou deemest so firm, pass away as clouds pass away: a work of God, who has ordered all things to per­fection! Verily, He is fully aware of all that you do! (M Asad)

Thou seest the mountains and thinkest them firmly fixed: but they shall pass away as the clouds pass away: (such is) the artistry of Allah, who disposes of all things in perfect order: for he is well acquainted with all that ye do. (Yusuf Ali)

And thou seest the hills thou deemest solid flying with the flight of clouds: the doing of Allah Who perfecteth all things. Lo! He is Informed of what ye do. (Pickthall)

Hmm - seems that the wonderfully clear Qur'an is open to misunderstanding. And how does an Islamic  Qur'an search engine site interpret this verse?

  "Topics discussed in this Verse: [Allah's artistry] [Allah's attributes:Aware (Well_acquainted)] [Mountains:destroyed _ made into dust]"

So the mountains will be turned into dust on Judgement Day. That's it. No mention of the Earth rotating. Has  islamicity got it wrong, then? I don't think so.

Let's read the two verses, together with the one immediately following. Thus we will read the verse sandwiched between the one before and the one after...presumably as was intended and as one would hear it were it being recited. I think it now becomes totally clear what is meant.

And on that Day the trumpet [of judgment] will be sounded, and all [creatures] that are in the heavens and all that are on earth will be stricken with terror, except such as God wills [to exempt]: and in utter lowliness all will come unto Him. And thou wilt see the mountains, which [now] thou deemest so firm, pass away as clouds pass away: a work of God, who has ordered all things to per­fection! Verily, He is fully aware of all that you do!  If any do good, good will (accrue) to them therefrom; and they will be secure from terror that Day. 27:87-89

So we have the verse before referring to "on that Day" and the verse after referring to "on that Day". No-one, not even desperate miracle seekers, can maintain the lie that this is a miraculous reference to the rotation of the earth or the Earth's movement through space.

Will quranmiracles.com remove the claim? What do you think?

One final question. If the Qur'an truly is the uncreated word of God, full of scientific miracles, why do Muslim miracle seekers need to lie to their readers to convince them of the fact? Do any Muslims reading this ever wonder about that? And if you do, why don't you get these cowboys off the web?

(And just in case you thought no-one would be stupid enough to fall for this gunk - here's a comment that some poor sap has left at the end of the article:

Very informative article May Allah shower his bounties and blessings on the persons who are sharing this article regarding the Creator ALLAH

Actually, I'd have thought Allah would be mighty pissed off that his words were being used to hoodwink people. Instead of showering the authors of islamicmiracles.com with praise, he ought to be reserving a special tub of hot oil for them.

Thank goodness he doesn't exist, then.

Makes me want to weep...)

Mountains as tent pegs...

One of the more persistent miracle claims, and one that seems to over-excite a certain type of believer, is the role of mountains in the Earth’s geological processes, as apparently described in the Qur’an. “Kevin” had suggested some time ago that these references in the Qur’an to mountains were an example of miraculous divine knowledge and had recently sent me some material from (you’ve guessed it) the iERA. Before we examine this material and the claims in more detail, let us look at the qur’anic verses that refer to mountains. I have gone with YusufAli’s translations as this appears to be the version preferred by believers for this particular miracle because of the word peg (Pickthall prefers “bulwarks” and Shakir “projections” for example).

78:6-7: Have We not made the earth as a wide expanse,
78:7: And the mountains as pegs?
(88:17-19 : Do they not look at the Camels, how they are made?-
 And at the Sky, how it is raised high?-)
 And at the Mountains, how they are fixed firm?-
79:32 : And the mountains hath He firmly fixed;-
21:31 : And We have set on the earth mountains standing firm, lest it should shake with them, and We have made therein broad highways (between mountains) for them to pass through: that they may receive Guidance.

(I include 88:17-18 as well as 19 purely to give context and so that you may wonder, along with the believers, at “how camels are made”...)

In summary then, we have mountains as pegs, which are firmly fixed and which apparently stop the Earth from shaking.

You may wonder if, like me, you are a non-believer and thus destined to be tortured for an eternity by the merciful Allah, what all the fuss is about. There appears to be little here to convince one of a divinely inspired, omniscient author. In fact quite the opposite, as there is a  rather obvious error in that mountains don’t prevent the Earth from shaking (one has only to look at the number of earth quakes in geologically active mountainous areas such as Japan to see this). So let’s see how the iERA deal with this...

The Qur’an always mentions nature as a sign for God’s existence, power and majesty. Every time these are mentioned, they are expressed with a great accuracy, and they also give us information that could have never been known at the time of the Prophet Muhammad. One of these signs includes the function and structure of mountains. The Qur’an mentions that mountains have “peg” like structures and that they have been embedded into earth to stabilise it, a concept known in Geology as isostasy. The Qur’an mentions: “We placed firmly embedded mountains on the earth, so it would not move under them…” and “Have We not made the earth as a bed and the mountains its pegs?” The Qur’an’s eloquent renderings of the facts mentioned above are confirmed by modern science which only came to be understood by the end of the 20th Century. In the book Earth, by Dr. Frank Press, former president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, states that mountains are like stakes, and are buried deep under the surface of Earth. With regards to the vital role of mountains, it was formerly understood that mountains were merely protrusions rising above the surface of Earth. However, scientists realised that this was not actually the case, and that the parts known as the mountain roots extended down as far as 10 to 15 times their own height. With these features, mountains play a similar role to a nail or peg firmly holding down a tent, which has been discovered by modern geological and seismic research, a concept known as isostasy.  In conclusion, how can we explain this in the light of the fact that this is relatively recent science (with no one at the time of the revelation knowing this information)? What does this tell you about the author? Again, there is no naturalistic explanation.

Here is what I sent to “Kevin”.

Thanks for the reference to mountains as pegs. I was disappointed but not surprised to learn the name of the expert quoted.

In the same way that one particular edition of one book by Keith Moore has been used by the miracle-seekers hoping to give some semblance of respectability to their claims for embryology, so I have discovered that Dr.Frank Press appears to be fulfilling much the same role for the mountains as pegs miracle. As far as I can ascertain, he seems to be the go-to guy to support the idea that mountains act like pegs and help stabilise the Earth. Put another way, wherever one looks to get to the bottom of this, Frank Press's 24 year-old book is there on ALL THE ISLAMIC SITES. If the scientific geological community thought that mountains acted like pegs you'd have thought that it would have appeared somewhere else...