Restless Pilgrim

One of the arguments I have always found extremely bizarre is the argument for the divine origin of the Qur’an based on “mathematical miracles”. Numeric patterns are found in the Qur’an and it is argued that this proves it could have only have come from God.

I recently saw this post and response on Reddit which perfectly explains why this argument doesn’t work…

Your very post is a mathematical miracle. If you count the number of characters without spaces, you get 380, which is 19 x 20!

The first part of your comment has 19 words. The second sentence that mentions the 19 code has 19 words if you count 1% as a word. The sentence inbetween them is also 19 words!! How could this be a coincidence?!

If you count the number of words between the first mention of code and the last mention of code (inclusively), you get 38, which is 19 x 2!

If you count the number of characters (spaces included), you get 209, which is 19 x 11! Amazingly, if you add 2 + 0 + 9 = 11, a clear hint at the factor 😉

There are 38 (19 x 2) monosyllabic words in your comment.

Notice the constant reoccurrence of 38 (380, 38, 38). Surely this indicates deliberate intention. The odds of this happening by chance are in 1/38 * 1/38 * 1/38, which is 1 in 4,332!

There’s more! Up to the 19th word ‘even’ there are exactly 114 (spaces included) characters (19 x 6). Amazingly, till the very end of your comment after the 19th word are 266 characters (spaces included), which is 19 x 14! Interestingly, if you add 2+6+6, you get the factor again: 14. Same goes for the 114, 1+1+4 = 6 – and it’s 19 x 6.

Between the first mention of ‘code’ and the second mention of ‘human’ are 23 words, a clear hint at a code underlying human chromosomes.

can’t be done by a human being, or something..

need I go on?

now think about this very carefully: if this can be done so easily with your comment, couldn’t Rashad have done it with an infinite amount of varied counting methods till he got what he wanted? And we KNOW that he tried many different counting methods, this is not disputed.

While speaking to Qur’an-only Muslims, they often say that the Qur’an is clear and fully-detailed and, since they can’t draw upon hadith, it is even more important that this be true. In a recent conversation, I listed a few reasons why I don’t think it’s always fully-detailed or clear:

• The Qur’an says to pray, fast, do hajj etc. but gives precious few instructions as to how this should be done.
• Dhu al-Qarnayn is mentioned, but the text doesn’t say who he is.
• Likewise, the Qur’an references lots of figures from Israelite history and assumes the reader knows about these people and events. This becomes far more problematic if one thinks that that earlier revelation has been corrupted.
• Surah 66 gives precious few details about the dispute to which it refers. All you can really tell is that Muhammad denied himself something to try and please his wives and Allah is displeased.
• In 17:1, who travelled and to where did they go?
• After reading the account of Isa’s crucifixion, I’ve still got no idea what actually happened. Was Judas swapped out? Someone else? Why didn’t Allah just visibly save Isa, rather than convincing everyone that the crucifixion happened and thereby beginning Christianity? It describes Jesus as “Messiah” but doesn’t explain what that means or why he alone has a virginal conception.
• The Qur’an says that Isa/Jesus is the “Messiah”, but what does it mean to be the Messiah?
• What does Alif, Lam, Ra mean?
• The Qur’an repeatedly singles out one particular brother of Joseph (“Yusuf”). Who is it? What was the name of his bother?
• With how many women did Jacob (“Yaqub”) have children?
• Name the twelve tribes of Israel mentioned in 7:160
• Where was Jesus born?
• Where and when did Jesus conduct His ministry?
• Can you name Jesus’ disciples?
• Are Israel and Jacob the same person?
• What Scripture did Moses bring?
• Can Muslims marry Christians? Some passages seem to suggest “yes”, but other passages say Muslims can’t marry polytheists, and that is the charge against Christians which would mean the answer would be “no”.

Many more could be added… One ultimately has to assume that none of this is important, which is just another way of saying that not everything is clear or fully-explained.

I’ve come across quite a few Muslims recently who champion the “mathematical miracle” of the Qur’an. It’s not impressive at all and this can be demonstrated by doing something very similar with the Book of Mormon:

The 19th word of the 19th chapter of the 19th book in the Book of Mormon is the word “I”. How many times does that word appear in the chapter? It appears thirty-eight times, which is 2 x 19! That chapter has 5,586 characters, which is 294 x 19!

Key phrases regarding Mormonism also appear in multiples of 19 throughout the text. For example, if you know the story of Mormonism, you’ll know about the importance of “engraved plates”. Well, would you like to guess how many times those words appear in that chapter? Nineteen! Other phrase counts include:

• “Record of the prophet” appears 209 times (11 x 19)
• “His prophet” appears nineteen times
• “By God” appears nineteen times
• “Written by our Lord” appears 76 times (4 x 19)
• “Nephi, prophet of the engraven plates” appear 228 (12 x 19)
• …

Okay, but what about structural miracles in the text?

• From the first mention of the plates to the second mention of the plates are 304 characters (16 x 19).
• From the first mention of the plates to the last mention of the plates, there are 1,102 words (58 x 19)
• …

Believe me, if we threw a computer at this and had more people diligently searching for numerological miracles, we could find plenty more. Weird Christian groups have done the same thing with the Bible and it’s not impressive when they do it either.

I came across this video and thought I’d offer a few comments on these reasons to believe Islam is true…

00:30 This is not a good reason. The Book of Mormon claims to be the Word of God. Does that mean Mormonism is true?

01:05 This is demonstrably false, even from some of Islam’s own sources. Yasir Quadi admits that there are “holes in the narrative”.

01:38 I don’t see what’s amazing about this verse. For a start, it’s very vague, and it’s also behind embryonic knowledge of the time.

02:36 Lots of people memorized a text… Why does that make the faith of that text true?

03:05 Matter and anti-matter are not “pairs”, but opposites. Electrons and Protons…okay, what about Neutrons? Everything is clearly not in pairs. Once again, the verse is very vague and at first glance would seem to refer to the binary of sex, which obviously is complicated by organism which reproduce asexually.

04:13 This one is really strange. There is lots literature I’d point to which is better than the Qur’an (the poetry of Shakespeare, Kahlil Gibran, …), but who is to say that the Qur’anic challenge has been met? By what standard does one judge? 04:55 What’s meant to be amazing about this verse?

05:37 Islam has a lot to say about how someone should live their life. Why does that make it true? That’s even before we ask whether that advice is *good* advice…

06:12 This is generic proof for God, a poorly stated Cosmological argument, but that doesn’t prove Islam is true. It is compatible with most religions.

06:58 A prophecy about usury isn’t very impressive – didn’t everyone except the Jews embrace it? Also, strictly speaking, if 2 billion Muslims aren’t involved in usury can we really say that this prophecy came true? Regarding “the hour”, I’m pretty sure that there are variant readings on this, one of which suggests it’s within the lifetime of the Muhammad’s hearers. Even if we take the reading presented, is it really fair to say that a *descendant* of someone who was a shepherd *is* a destitute shepherd? Also, what would make this specific to Mecca? Even if we accept all that, this prophecy can’t be proven to be true until the event itself happens and thus far, “the hour” has not come…

The Lesser-known Lewis Podcast recently discussed this essay, and it’s still one of my favourites from Jack: