I’ve already written about the bible not understanding what stars are, so I’m not going to harp on that. This is a post to highlight the hilarious scientific ignorance about stars in the Quran. Behold:

And We have certainly beautified the nearest heaven with stars and have made [from] them what is thrown at the devils and have prepared for them the punishment of the Blaze. – Surat Al-Mulk 67:5

Get that? Let’s analyze this verse. First, the verse makes reference to the “nearest heaven” (in Islam there are seven heavens, not just one). But that’s not the funny part. Next the verse claims that stars are missiles that Allah uses to launch attacks against devils. Read the verse again. You’ll see what I mean. How does Allah punish devils? He plucks a star from the heavens, loads it into a rocket launcher, aims it at his nemesis, and blows him to Kingdom Come.

I can imagine some 7th century Islamic scholar looking up at the sky at night, seeing a shooting star, and saying, “There goes Allah killing devils!” Of course, shooting stars aren’t actually stars.

The Quran doesn’t stop there. Shall we read on?

And that we sought to reach heaven, but we found it filled with strong guards and flaming stars. – Surat Al-Jinn 72:8

Silly, silly Quran! You might’ve tried to reach heaven, but you weren’t prevented by powerful guards and flaming stars (“flaming stars?!!). You were prevented because your technology had not yet enabled you to reach the earth’s escape velocity. And even if you could, you’d still have to contend with an environment that doesn’t correlate well with life. Furthermore, we’ve been to space. And there are no powerful guards up there. And space is relatively void. The odds of running into something that can burn you are astronomically remote.

By now I hope that people who take the Quran seriously will realize the Quran is scientifically illiterate and ignorant. It got wrong the nature of the universe’s celestial bodies. If the Quran gets this wrong, what else might it get wrong?