56
TL;DR : No, even if one chooses to interpret the excerpt of the Qur'an as such, the maths don't hold up
I am going to base this answer on your second source, as the calculation there is reduced to the minimum which makes it a lot easier to show its flaws. This is an answer on the mathematical aspect of the problem, not covering the interpretation of the ...
50
Is it true that there are no textual deviations between the dead sea scrolls and the old testament?
No. Most people claiming that there are no differences seem to cherry-pick the texts that they compare. And there are indeed texts which contain only few significant deviations, for example Isaiah.
Although even they do contain some differences, such as ...
40
Ron Wyatt (1933-1999) was a nurse-anesthetist in a hospital in Madison, Tennessee. His claim of finding 'Wheels from Egyptian Chariots involved in the pursuit of the Israelites from Egypt' has been debunked thoroughly by professional archaeologists and respected biblical scholars. Most professional archaeologists have found so many discrepancies in Wyatt's ...
34
Yes. According to Deuteronomy, if a man rapes or otherwise have sex with a woman who is not married or engaged, he is forced to "set things right" by marrying the woman. Think of it as a shotgun wedding.
If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies
with her, and they are caught in the act, 29 the man who lay with her
shall give ...
30
Maimonidies (12th Century) puts it at 29.530594. His source is the Talmud (Bavli RH 25a) (~7th century quoting a rabbi from the 2nd century).
(For the curious the precise number given is 29 days, 12 hours, and 793/1080 of an hour.)
However, lunar cycles can be calculated pretty accurately even in ancient times by counting between total solar eclipses. ...
29
In the past, if a male wanted to marry a female, he'd transfer property, animals or goods to her father. The idea is of giving something valuable in return of a marriage; marriage was just a business deal about trading girls and money. This is called dowry (1) and it is well evidenced in the bible, for example:
Genesis 34:12:
"Ask me ever so much ...
29
It's wrong to say there is literally no difference.
The oldest relatively complete copies of the Old Testament are in Greek, so there is no direct comparison. These are the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus.
The oldest complete version in Hebrew was the Aleppo Codex. During the pogrom in 1947 the Aleppo Codex was lost and feared destroyed. The book ...
27
Context suggests that that commandment is more related to wealth than sex:
“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” (Exodus 20:17, ESV)
Modern translations usually only render the Hebrew word here as ...
25
No; during the life of Muhammad, there was no single text, as it was more about understanding the message than how it was told:
This page cites hadiths that mention seven different ways of teaching:
The Seven Ahruf (modes of recitation) are part of Islamic doctrine and
a Muslim MUST ACCEPT IT...
Saheeh Bukhari
Volume 6, Book 61, Number 513: ...
24
I have been unable to find any corroborating source concerning the planks glued together (even the Wyatt Museum website says nothing of this); at this time it appears to have originated with this article. I have sent an email requesting references, and will provide an update later.
What I do know:
The Witnesses
Dr. Brandenburger
Ohio State University's ...
23
To repeat Oddthinking's answer, that is a simple NO. The mustard seed is far from the smallest. That distinction belongs to the Orchid. With over 26,000 species, many having seeds no larger than grains of dust from 0.4mm to 0.2mm in size. This document (PDF) actually gives a pretty full accounting of Orchid seeds.
20
The paper that sparked the news story states in its conclusion:
Considering the historical documents attesting the occurrence in the “Old Jerusalem” of a disastrous earthquake in 33 A.D., the authors assume that a seismic event with magnitude ranging from the 8th to the 9th degree in the Richter scale could have produced a thermal neutron flux of up to ...
20
In his essay, Was There an Exodus?, Joshua Berman states that the book of Exodus was written by someone intimately familiar with the structure of early Egyptian dynastic life; and that the Biblical account is supported by recent archaeological discoveries that could not have been known at the time when the Old Testament was compiled:
There is rich evidence ...
20
Eve having Sex with the serpent
This is also called the serpent seed theory.
The idea is that the arch angel Samael was the serpent and used that form to have sex with Eve, which then resulted in the birth of Cain.
As for the reasoning for the claim, see for example this article by Howard Schwartz:
This myth is a response to the enigmatic verse in which Eve ...
19
Do we know the words used by the original authors of the New
Testament?
The answer is a qualified yes.
As tniles09 comments, the (scientific) discipline that studies this is called Textual Criticism, and has had an enourmous development, especially during the last two centuries. You can check the current consensus of the scholars in the majority of ...
18
No.
Several sources put mustard seeds as between 1 and 2 or 3 mm in diameter.
For example:
During the hulling of white mustard seeds and rapeseeds,
1.4 mm to 2.8 mm in diameter, on a disk equipped with blades [...]
Meanwhile, begonia seeds, as an example, are much smaller:
Species description Begonia fangii [...] Seeds many, brown, ellipsoid, 0.5-...
17
Are Muslims allowed to deceive non-muslims through a practice called Taqiyya?
Wikipedia says,
In Islam, taqiyya تقية (alternative spellings taqiyeh, taqiya, taqiyah, tuqyah) is a form of religious dissimulation,[1] or a legal dispensation whereby a believing individual can deny his faith or commit otherwise illegal or blasphemous acts while they are in fear ...
17
The Dracaena cinnabari (Socotra dragon tree or dragon blood tree) is well known for having a distinct red sap or resin and there are a number of other plants that also exhibit similar "Dragons's Blood". As noted in the Wikipedia article on Dragon's Blood:
The dragon's blood known to the ancient Romans was mostly collected
from D. cinnabari, and is ...
16
To answer your question, "Is there a place in the world where two oceans meet and they don't mix?" No, the water mixes it just isn't instantaneous. Saline, temperature differences, and pollutants can cause them to appear as if they don't mix for a period of time, especially if there aren't strong currents.
According to Ken Bruland, a professor of ocean ...
14
Yes, the Bible explicitly and clearly forbids homosexuality, in the Old and New Testament. Those are the passages:
Leviticus 20:13:
If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
Leviticus 18:22:
Do not practice ...
13
NOTE: This answer has been heavily rewritten. As requested it now discusses the opinions of Bible scholars on the subject.
The interpretation of the law in the infographic is not based on known historical facts. It is based on unfavorable and unproven assumptions about the culture to which it belonged, prejudices if you will. For this reason it is ...
13
The measurement of the mean lunar month as 29 days, 12 hours, and 793/1080 of an hour is (in this notation) first found in Treatise on the Computation of the Chronology of the Jews and their Festivals by the Muslim astronomer al-Khwarizmi in the 9th century, then by the Muslim al-Biruni in the 10th/11th century, then by the Jewish scholar Bar Hiyya in the ...
13
There were many reports claiming that people have memorized the entire bible. For example:
15 years ago, Baptist Press released an article reported that Nadine Hammonds, a blind woman, has memorized the New Testament
Nadine says it took her about three years to get the memorization done. She had memorized Scripture all her life, so she did have a history ...
12
The overwhelming consensus of scholars, based on sound evidence, is that the Exodus from Egypt never happened as described in the Bible.
Wikipedia describes the Exodus as the founding myth of Israel, but says most histories of ancient Israel no longer consider information about it recoverable or even relevant to the story of Israel's emergence. A century ...
11
I like the other answers, but I like the question so I wanted to give a more complete and thorough answer. I'd have to say, though I much prefer religious folk contorting their holy books to match science rather than trying to contort science to match their holy books.
So firstly, as Oddthinking points out in his answer, the age of the universe is not some ...
7
No, but one should not expect a literal interpretation of of parable.
It is a good idea to use an interlinerar bible when reading translated works. A concordance or other search tool that allows you to search in multiple languages can also be useful to determine the best translation. In this particular instance, the translation you quoted above seems fairly ...
6
It's not true, simply because the numbers are off. We can count the words ourselves. Psalm 46, KJV (1611):
1 [To1 the2 chiefe3 Musician4 for5 the6 sonnes7 of8 Korah9, a10 song11 vpon12 Alamoth13.] God14 is15 our16 refuge17 and18 strength19: a20 very21 present22 helpe23 in24 trouble25.
2 Therfore26 will27 not28 we29 feare30, though31 the32 earth33 be34 ...
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