Islam is another story. Muslims make numerous claims about the Quran's scientific veracity. They claim that the Quran contains numerous scientific facts which are confirmed by current science. They also claim that Muhammad could not have known about the scientific "facts" in the Quran since he was an ignorant peasant. These claims, if true, would be stunning.
One of the most popular examples advanced for this is the Quran's statements about embryology. The following verses are proposed as divine knowledge :
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Verily We created man from a product of wet earth;
Then placed him as a drop (of seed) in a safe lodging;
Then fashioned We the drop a clot, then fashioned We the clot a little lump, then fashioned We the little lump bones, then clothed the bones with flesh, and then produced it as another creation. So blessed be Allah, the Best of creators!
This is more similar to the nonsensical creation story in the Bible than anything resembling science. The foetus is not made of clay, neither is the sperm transformed into congealed blood, or developed into another creature. Bone development depends on bone-producing cells - flesh. Bones in the human foetus do not begin to form until the 40th day (Cell and Molecular Biology of Vertebrate Hard Tissues, Caplan and Pechak, 1988). This is all basic embryology which was available to the ancient Egyptians, and therefore the desert dwellers of the time, and obviously to Allah. So either Allah is a lying or stupid god, or the Quran is not inspired.
Likewise, the Quran's idea for where the sperm comes from, exhibits more ignorance :
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So let man consider from what he is created.
He is created from a gushing fluid
That issued from between the loins and ribs.
For those of you who did not follow in Biology 101, the sperm does not come from between the loins and the ribs. Ancient medecine did say that, but we know now that sperm comes from the testicles.
