11-10-2006, 10:43 PM
Honestly, I’m concerned when people take liberties with reading into certain ancient, spiritual texts and presuming there is “science” in those books. There is not. Not to mention, it would give humans no room for any further development. Please don't take this personally but when practitioners of religion try to extend the reach of their holy books beyond the spiritual, it tends toward a backward society.
We've got a big old stretch across the center of the U.S. where literal interpretation of their Bible is the norm. It's called the "Bible Belt." The people are backward; they exult in their ignorance of science; they despise education. They think the Bible is the only book they have to read.
That's not to say that the spiritual message of holy books is inappropriate, or anything less than positive. But take, for instance, the verses from the Quran that are most often used to shoehorn in on science. They're nonsense. Lamps in heaven, planets as ornaments mountains as “pegs”. That's absurd. It holds back science. It gives reasons to those who would pillory scientific progress without investigating it in anything other than a holy book.