The Big Bang in the Qur’an?
There are three main problems with what’s said here:
- As with most scientific miracle claims in the Qur’an, A LOT is read into a vague text. All it says is that “the heavens” and “the earth” were once together and that God separated them. It’s a BIG jump from this basic statement to the Big Bang Theory (a theory first suggested, not by a Muslim reading this Qur’an, but by a Catholic priest).
- The idea of God (or the gods) separating and organizing creation isn’t unique to the Qur’an. If this is a proof, then many other religions of the world are vindicated.
- Most importantly, the Qur’an says that EVEN UNBELIEVERS recognize that the heavens and the earth were separated. If this was common knowledge among unbelievers, what is exactly is the miracle of the Qur’an?
The strange challenge of the Qur’an
I’ve always found this to be a very strange argument…
I can’t write a poetry like Shakespeare – does that mean his poetry is divine revelation? Of course not.
In fact, when I read the Qu’ran, I found it very erratic and stilted, so producing something equal or better doesn’t seem hard. I think I would submit in response to this challenge the poetry of Kahlil Gibran.
However, the challenge is impossible to meet because by what standard would one judge one better than the other? The Qur’an doesn’t say…
The Qu’ran on The Gospel
Deuterocanonical Books by Church Father
There’s a post written by Joe Heschmeyer which neatly lays out which Church Fathers used the which Deuterocanonical books. The problem is, I keep forgetting where it is on his blog, so I’m linking to it here, and copying over the key collection of data:
| Es. | Tob. | Jud. | Lam. | Bar. | Wis. | Sir. | 1 Mac | 2 Mac | Esdras (Gk) | Ps 151 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amphilochius | N | N | N | ? | ? | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| Athanasius | N | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| Augustine * | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| Carthage | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| Cyril | Y | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| Jerome * | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| John Dama. | Y | N | N | ? | ? | ? | ? | N | N | ? | ? |
| Laodicea | Y | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| Melito | N | N | N | ? | ? | N | N | N | N | Y | Y |
| Origen * | Y | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | ? | ? | N | N |
| Rufinus | Y | N | N | ? | ? | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| Synopsis | N | N | N | ? | ? | N | N | N | N | Y | Y |
| – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Catholic | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| Protestant | Y | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
* Denotes that the Father described widespread use of the Deuterocanon in Church.
Fr. Pavone
Yesterday I saw the unfortunate news that Fr. Frank Pavone had been laicized. I’ve already seen some Catholics on Social Media immediately posting “I stand with Fr. Pavone”. Their loyalty to Frank Pavone is touching, but the sentiment of such posts is unclear. I can see three possible interpretations:
- They believe the reasons for his dismissal to be false
- They believe the reasons for his dismissal are true, but they think the penalty is excessive
- They believe the reasons for his dismissal may or may not be true, but they just don’t care
Unfortunately, I have a suspicion that most people fall in the last camp…
Earlier echos…
When Fr. Altman was in the news about a year ago, we saw lots of people posting similar sentiments because they saw him as bastion against “liberal” Catholicism. Unfortunately few of his supporters would acknowledge the authority of his bishop or try to address his words and actions. In their minds, the very fact that he stood up for “conservative” Catholicism gave him a free pass. However, just because someone does great good, doesn’t make it impossible for that same person to have done something incorrect or wrong.
We’ve seen a very similar phenomenon in recent years among some Trump supporters. While some Christians who voted for President Trump acknowledge that they didn’t like some of the things he has said and done, others don’t seem to give such behaviour a second thought as long as he continues to “own the Libs”.
Balanced criticism
Now, one might ask why it seems that “conservative” priests appear much more likely to be disciplined than “liberal” ones. It’s a good question and I agree that discipline does seem to slant in one particular direction. However, that doesn’t mean we can just ignore ecclesiastical law, and just because one bishop fails in his duty to correctly discipline his priests doesn’t mean that all bishops must cease to do so.
Required Watching
I would invite anyone vocally asserting Frank Provone’s innocence or complaining about the unjust nature of his punishment to first reading this Catholic World Report article which outlines the main facts, as well as this one from The Pillar.
Next, I suggest watching this video by a priest who previously worked with him:
I would also invite you to read the article referenced in the above video:
Here is one of the tweets which seems to have got him into trouble:
Since disobedience was was of the charges against him, it’s probably worth noting that the video below was posted the day after he claims to have first discovered the ruling from the Catholic News Agency. I hope that the video was recorded prior to confirmation of his laicization, otherwise it doesn’t bode well regarding his future obedience to this ecclesiastical ruling:
Finally, as always, watch this video from Michael Lofton where he offers some level-headed commentary on the situation:
…and I would strongly recommend reading the article referenced which on How St. Padre Pio responded when the Vatican silenced him.
Qu’ranic Claims about Christianity
This is a placeholder as I collect together the various claims about Jesus and Christianity in the Qur’an:
Surah 4: Jesus wasn’t killed
Surah 5: The Trinity
Surah 5: Mary worshipped
Surah 9: Pay the protection money
Surah 19: Aaron and Mary were siblings and Surah 21: Mary is daughter of Amran, father of Aaaron
Surah 19: Jesus was born under a palm tree and speaks (Gospel of Pseudo Matthew and Gospel of Thomas)
Surah 19: Jesus speaks from the crib (Gospel of Thomas)
Surah 21: Abraham destroys idols and is thrown into a fire (Genesis Rabbah)
Surah 34: Solomon could fly on a carpet (Explained in Tafsir by Ibn Kathir)
This one isn’t quite a claim about Christianity, but the Christian source can be seen:
Surah 18: Retells a variant of the story told by Gregory of Tours