My friends, the point I sought to make was simply this: Ancient statements about this or that trivia, are not nearly so important as are actions and words in the here and now..
You have to give up this clangorous need for self-righteousness, and
humbug ... It is almost as if you wish to proudly display your ignorance.... someone who is simply unread !...
Our book is transcendent.......
Its miracles are for all ages...... in fact from that very chapter..... someone sought to find out what it is exactly in Joseph's shirt that made Jacob regain his sight back ... an Egyptian doctor! And what do you know he has found a secret in sweat that might cure glaucoma! truly its wonders never cease!
The provided link just gives a glimpse at a few of the miracles from our "antique book" that weren't even appreciated in Shakespearean time, nor the height of renaissance!..... written by a former priest... Dr Gary Miller.
http://thetruereligion.org/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=90
There was an ancient Greek who established using geometic principles and some simple measurements of the shadow cast by vertical fence posts in Athens and Alexandria an estimate of the Earth's circumference that was within 1% of being correct! Truly an impressive feat of insight to have been achieved some 2200 years ago...
That doesn't sound nearly as impressive as the water clock given to Charlemagne. by Haroun al-Raschid in 802 that marked the hours by dropping bronze balls into a bowl, as mechanical knights — one for each hour — emerged from little doors which shut behind them. The presents were unprecedented in Western Europe and may have influenced Carolingian art. Sent Chalemagene's court men affright ... thinking it witch craft.... such as one of the many things the Muslim Empire gave the west which dwelled in the dark ages only to bite the hand that enlightened it later down the line...
that along with many other Islamic inventions can be found in
http://www.1001inventions.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.viewSection&intSectionID=309
http://www.bsn.org.uk/view_all.php?id=11433
That plus the ancient Egyptians were still far more impressive than the Greeks... the Temple of abu symbul for example is so mathematically accurate as to allow the sun to shine on the face of the king only twice a year! So come impress with something.. well more impressive... I know you think we sit in a madrassa all day learning how to make bombs because we hate your "freedom".... it is good not to under estimate the intelligence of your cyber counterparts...from the wealth of abbasids empire, to Rimbaud's drunken boat, to Proust, to Rumi to Carrvagio, to Correggio, to Rothko, to Behcet's Disease, to the latest technique replacing fundoplication, to your own congenital adrenal hyperplasia..... I have never read anything, that has impressed me, touched my heart, or captured my soul..... as our Noble Quran!...No human life and achivement more impressive than God's messangers especially the seal of the prophet peace be upon all of them!
I would suggest to you that, the lesson which this scholar should provoke in we contemporary cyber-dwellers, is one of INSPIRATION to think critically, to explore intrepidly, and to keep an open and peaceful mind, not to worship or venerate Eratosthenes. I eagerly follow Eratosthenes _method_, procedure, or principles for striving toward englithtenment. But I draw the line when someone might suggest to me that blind adherence strictly to the way of Eratosthenese and only to Eratosthenes, or some form of worshipping of the man himself as some sort of a diety, is requisite to be a meritorious human. There have been MANY great humans throughout our natural history, and to fixate one's appreciation on any single one of them is a slippery slope toward ethnocentrism, fear and hatred.
I would suggest you stop making suggestions.....read a little about islamic history, islamic science, civilization
http://www.cyberistan.org/
.... Whom exactly we worship....whom we honor (messengers) wise before you strut your stuff with pompous vocabulary to hide the heaps of fluff that lurks beneath!.... There is that sliver of a chance we have seen and heard and read it all and still Muslim by choice!
Just because your current climate doesn't foster grounds to educate you on Islam the world's 2nd largest religion, and you deem yourself well learned man at the zenith of his craft with decorated words meant to deny us our achivements throughout history and our accolades.... don't think I don't read what is dished out there, but it doesn't mean that Islam wasn't a force to be reckoned with and Inshallah shall be again!.......
If the world has seen the mountains it is because they stood on the shoulders of Giants........
Before for instance suggesting to a woman to take off her head scarf as in your previous infamous posts..... because it is uncivilized or denying her right to self expression in nakedville....
suggest that same wisdom to
cancer patients
surgeons
Orthodox Jewish women
Nuns
people who take a dive into the pools
those who are making a fashion statement....because otherwise we would deem you a hypocrite....
Before you point out the ills of our culture or religion ... be well versed in yours...... and ours ..... and then again ... come here grab our primitive hands and lead us with your ever noble altruism, into the 21st century from the cesspools in which we collectively dwell.
in closure..... I leave you with this, from the noble Quran....
"And when the heaven splitteth asunder and becometh ROSY LIKE RED HIDE - (The Noble Quran, 55:37)"
Note: The Noble Verse in Arabic says: "Fa-itha inshaqqati alssamao fakanat wardatan kaalddihani" "Wardatan" is derived from the root word "Warda", which literally means "rose" or "flower".
our messanger wasn't an astronmer, nor was he a sea captain, nor was he a pulmonolgist, nor was he an embryologist.... yet all is mentioned in that book you deem primitive....... they accuse people on various blogs that we don't think for ourselves..... yet that is exactly what our noble book tell us to do..... contemplate our creation, the universe around, and seek knowledge, from the cradle to the grave! He Mohammed (PBUH) is the seal of the prophet and a mercy to mankind....... Islam isn't a monolithic religion.... and we don't worship men.... we worship God... creator of heaven and earth ...... that will stand ... even after the industrialized world bombs itself in a big mushroom cloud..... it will stand if this earth collapses upon itself...... it will stand when democracy gets replaced by a monarchy or an oligarchy, or whatever the pseudo- enlightened illuminati decide is hip for the century.....
peace
