Pericles

Thank you for taking up the cudgels on my behalf. I am afraid however that a certain proverb involving a deceased equine and a whip come to mind.

I shall not bother to defend myself against grateful’s wild accusations.

Grateful wrote:

“Steve, I presume from your reaction that Qasem has given an accurate description of the Einstein's theory.”

From reading Mohamed Qasem’s blathering he seems to have grasped that we now understand that time is not an absolute ON THE MACRO SCALE*. However his essay is too superficial for me to determine whether he understands the implications and under what circumstances you might have differences in time measurement.

THAT IS NOT THE POINT.

The point is his attempt to use relativity to explain inconsistencies in the koran.

This is pure BS

To repeat Pauli’s words.

Not only is it not right, it's not even wrong!

See also Ziauddin Sardar’s comments on this “pestiferous fad”.

*NICNOTO wrote:

>>Although if a new theory emerges in 50 years time, I'm sure it is possible that THAT theory can then be applied to explain another inconsistency in specific religious teachings.>>

No need to wait 50 years. A theory of quantum gravity by Petr Horava is gaining much attention. See:

Space—New Quantum Theory Topples Einstein's Spacetime
Buzz about a quantum gravity theory that sends SPACE AND TIME BACK TO THEIR NEWTONIAN ROOTS

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=splitting-time-from-space

On the quantum scale, as opposed to the macro scale, time may be Newtonian after all.

Just as Einstein showed that Newtonian gravity was a special case of general relativity, so Horava may have shown that general relativity is a special case of quantum gravity.

What we may have is a hierarchy:

Horava gravity & space-time contains Einsteinian gravity & space time contains Newtonian gravity & space-time.

That’s the way physics progresses. Better theories subsume rather than replace existing ones. On the macro scale we shall continue to use general relativity just as we use Newtonian dynamics for most ordinary purposes. But on the micro scale probably not.

BIG OOPS

Back to the drawing board for Mohamed Qasem?

LOL

Note to Mohamed Qasem re my previous post.

Try this for next time

Hah, you stupid infidels. Those Jewish sons of apes and dogs and their Jewish controlled media have deceived you yet again. You should have stuck with the honest Christian Isaac Newton rather than follow the teachings of the deceitful Jewish Albert Einstein.

Of course time is absolute. How could you think Allah would have it otherwise?

As for the apparent discrepancies about time in the holy koran, there is a simple explanation. Following the teachings of the good Aryan physicist, Werner Heisenberg, we know there is an inherent uncertainty* in the measurement of physical quantities including time. The differences noted in the holy koran merely reflect these uncertainties.

This proves yet again that the holy koran is a verbatim message from Allah. How could an illiterate seventh century prophet know about the uncertainty principle when science only discovered it in the 1920s?

IT’S A MIRACLE!

*See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle

Thanks Steve,
the information is useful, the insults not.

Also Nicnoto makes a valid point.

Stevenlmeyer (or any other scientist):

So are these verses inconsistent with what we understand about the universe?

Here they are again:

"He arranges [each] matter from the heaven to the earth; then it will ascend to Him in a Day, the extent of which is a thousand years of those which you count."(32:5)

"The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day, the measure of which is fifty thousand years." (70:4)

They could have been written about the Post Office.