By OCEANS11
Added: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 06:42:54 UTC

There is a topic by TheRationalizer somewhat related to what I am going to write, but I wanted to give a particular emphasis on the fresh water salt water problem. So I am creating a new discussion. I watched the youtube video of Prof Dawkins in Real time with Bill Maher and was shocked when I came to know this amazing theory taught in Islamic schools that fresh water and salt water don't mix. I consulted all the major translations of this Qur'anic verse (25:53) and also consulted the Tafsir. The verse is very very definite about it's claim. It says that there is a "forbidden partition" between fresh and salt water bodies. So there cannot be any mixing between fresh and salt water bodies. Hence the claim is like salt and fresh water bodies are immiscible (like water and oil), thus the interface acts as a forbidden partition.

There are two good things about this verse:

1) It's claim is very specific. 2) It's claim is the only case which nature doesn't support.

I was pretty sure that people like Harun Yahya will have a "miracle science" ready to corroborate this verse. No wonder, I found hundreds of sites with the same garbage. Being a physical oceanographer, it was simple for me to notice what game they are playing. So I prepared a detailed rebuttal. First, I refuted this verse, second I refuted the "miracle science" and third, I proved that a "layman" can make a better guess in this regard. It takes just commonsense and elementary science (like knowledge of diffusion, convection,etc) to refute this verse. It's a pure scientific blunder. For those who are interested in reading the detailed debunking can click here or here. NOAA's website has got cool graphics and easy text about mixing of fresh and salt water. Please click here.

TAGGED: CRITICAL THINKING, EARTH SCIENCES, ISLAM, RICHARD DAWKINS