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Islamic cleric insists Sun orbits Earth

Islamic science: At student discussion on Sunday an Islamic cleric insisted that the Sun orbits the Earth.

Sheikh Bandar al-Khaibari told a student that the Earth is “stationary and does not move,” according to Al-Arabiya, justifying the statement with religious texts and statements. But then he tried to debunk the common knowledge about the Earth’s rotation using “logic,” in a visual demonstration that prompted the speech to go viral. “First of all, where are we now?” he asked. “We go to Sharjah airport to travel to China by plane, clear?!” Khaibari argued, confusingly, that the Earth cannot rotate because it would render air travel impossible.

Even if Islam was peaceful, which it is not, it remains a problem because it apparently also encourages this kind of ignorance.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

12 comments

  • BSJ

    Bob, What say you to the fact that so many Republican Presidential prospects refuse to say whether or not they believe the Earth is more than 6000 years old?

  • Please provide me sources for your claim.

  • Robert

    What does it matter? The real problem is how ignorant outsiders are to most Christian doctrine. Very few are of the literalist camp which doesn’t recognize that God, as Creator, can just as easily have set up the processes of evolution and similar theories. As a life-long Christian I am puzzled by the ideas others have about what Christian doctrine holds in relation to science.

  • wodun

    They view Christians as stereotypes and as such they tell you what you believe not the other way around.

  • BSJ

    I don’t have time to get more, right now, but here’s at least one.

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/11/age-earth-old-rubio-perry-rand-paul.html

  • BSJ

    On a similar line,

    Scott Walker won’t answer a question on Evolution. Tries to have it both ways with double speak…
    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wisconsin-gov-scott-walker-dodges-question-on-evolution/

    Mike Huckabee “doesn’t know” how long it took for live to evolve. Tries to have it both ways with double speak…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-BFEhkIujA

    Sarah Palin believes humans and dinosaurs co-existed http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/28/palin-claimed-dinosaurs-a_n_130012.html

  • Jake V

    Since the question has been raised, here’s how most Christians look at the creation of the word:

    1. The world and all that is in it was created by the Lord. Could the Lord God have created a world that is currently 6,000 years old and threw in a few dinosaur bones to play a joke on some scientists? Of course He could have. He is God and can do whatever he wants. But did He? That’s where science comes in. Science can ask the question on how the world was created. The theory of evolution makes sense.

    2. What about the seven day creation in Genesis? Well, consider that the Hebrew word for “day” can mean both a 24 hour day or just a long time. Ever hear an older person say: “Well, in my day we….” That person is likely speaking of the age he grew up in and probably not a specific date. [Yes, there are some Christians who insist on a literal 7 day (24 hour day) creation. Let them. They are not threatening to kill anyone over it.]

    As to the Islamic cleric, I don’t particularly care if he knows basic science. I’m more interested in knowing whether he is going to kill me because I would refuse to convert to Islam or pay the dhimmitude tax.

  • Edward

    The model of the world that you use depends upon what you need to do. If you are a farmer, it does not much matter whether the sun orbits the Earth or vice versa, or whether the Earth rests upon the back of a turtle (and it’s turtles all the way down). If you want to build an airplane, it matters whether the air rotates with a rotating Earth (so that the plane can stop in the air without China moving away from it, I guess, but I don’t know why the cleric would want to stop in midair during his trip, because, as he said, “the plane would never reach China”). And if you want to go to Mars, it is useful to model the sun as the center of the solar system (it can even be the center of the universe).

    I have noticed that, according to an objective that Bolden once said Obama gave to NASA, “to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science,” NASA has not yet told us what scientific contributions the Muslim dominated nations have made to feel good about. Maybe NASA is waiting for a comprehensive final report. Or maybe the thinking represented by this cleric, Sheikh Bandar al-Khaibari, has prevented much scientific contribution. Or maybe NASA has lost its way and become confused about its mission, under the Obama administration.

    Either way, I am glad that I don’t fly on any airplanes made by this cleric.

    I also note that we use a lot of symbolism in our storytelling. Just as the works of Shakespeare require annotations in order to understand them, books such as the Bible and the Koran are easily misunderstood using modern language and culture. If 400-year-old plays need annotation, then so do millennia-old writings. No wonder we are confused when trying to interpret ancient writings with modern scientific knowledge; original symbolism and language is lost and misunderstood. It is too bad that such (mis)interpretation must become political (as in “do you believe some old Christian’s literal-interpretation analysis that the world is six millennia old?”) or even violent (as in “convert, pay, or die”).

  • Frank

    I cant tell with great certainty how old the earth is but I’m pretty certain the earth orbits the sun.

  • Max

    I don’t know, we better get Bill Nye the pretend science guy. He can interview The thousands of clerics across The world to see if they all come to a consensus, that would make it a fact! We would have to teach it as the truth from then on and erase Galileo from the history books. We better get the Nobel prize winners Like Al gore and Michael Mann to revaluate their predictions of the future and the coming disasters at the end of the world that will usher in the 12 Eaman.
    Did any of you double the gas mileage by putting the correct air pressure in your tires like Obama asked? :-}

  • Max

    Symbolism is all through the Bible. Some books, especially revelations, is mostly symbolic. The number six for example in Hebrew means incomplete. (like Greek, every letter in the alphabet is also a number, and a symbol, and has its own name, and a spiritual representation as well as a physical representation… It can be very confusing and complicated) as Revelation says it is the number of man. 666 is the number of the natural man, the worldly, beast like in that he only seeks pleasure and his wants constantly. It is written in his head ( what he thinks and says) and in his hands (what he does and his works).
    Seven is the number of God, and is the purpose of Christianity to strive for. Being in the world but not of the world, loving your brother as you do yourself, Doing unto others, doing good works, letting your light so shine before men, loving those who hate you, turning the other cheek, these are all examples of those who have 777 written in their heads, and in their hands. By their fruits you shall know them.
    Lepers to wash themselves in the river seven times, seventh heaven, forgive your brother 7 x 70. These are all examples of symbolism of the higher order.
    Why is 666 used instead of adding it to make the mark of the beast 18? Or 6x6x6=216? Because the symbolism does not work. Repeating the number three times puts a special meaning to the number.
    This brings me to the number 10 which means complete or whole. (like 10 fingers) The Hebrew alphabet only has 26 letters so to represent 1000 you must combine other letters together and do the math.
    “One day to God is like 1000 years to man” would have been written as “10×10×10”! The translation is not incorrect, doing the math simply removed the symbolic nature of the number. The “millennium”, Christ rules for 1000 years. (he rules forever, his blood conquered Satan forever)
    This can be applied to nearly every place where the number 1000 is used.
    Psalms 50 verse 10, “The cattle on 1000 hills”( is god’s). It was never meant to be taken literal, it is symbolic. Everything is his.
    Is the earth 6000 years old? Only if you take it literal. But it’s not in the symbolic meaning of the scripture. Nor is it in the physical science. But with God, anything is possible. For all we know the earth and our memories was made last week… But what would be the point?

  • Edward

    > Did any of you double the gas mileage by putting the correct air pressure in your tires like Obama asked? :-}

    No wonder America has met its Kyoto requirement, and no wonder global warming has stopped. We all are now keeping our tires properly inflated.

    So … why are the seas still rising? And why aren’t they celebrating that the planet has begun to heal?

    [End sarcasm.]

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