User talk:Aatefbaig

Mountains
Hello. I noticed that you made a recent addition to Mountain. Although I like the Qur'an verses, and I do think that they might have a place in this article, I don't agree that you've made the case that the Qur'an verses are "in perfect agreement with modern geological data." It may be that they are, but there seems to be only the vaguest relationship suggested in the verses you have provided. What you'd need to back up such an assumption would be some published research (not of your own) that specifically suggests such a relationship, and you'd also need a source that suggests that mountains stabalize the earth's crust in the way that you describe. I've left the verses in the article and added a paragraph explaining them in relationship to mountains, but I've removed the rest. Be glad to discuss this with you in more depth. --Pgagnon999 (talk) 23:23, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Aetefbaig, thanks for your response. I think you are onto something exciting here. I guess the problem that I'm envisioning is the idea that "mountains stabalize the surface of the earth" when mountains are, in fact, geologic processes that are inherently regarded as the result of unstable processes of the earth. For example, how are mountains formed? Either by volcanic activity (which usually includes earthquakes) or by continental plates being crushed together (which also involves earthquakes). Although I can't read the actual text passage you wanted to quote with regard to mountains being wedge-shaped and that shape somehow offering a kind of stablility to the earth, I don't doubt that what you are saying is true. So, it is true that while mountains are the result of unstable processes such as plate tectonics, they offer stability in some other way. The problem is in how that can be conveyed, and then how can you realistically link it to the Qur'an. I think you'd need to show three things:


 * Tell the reader exactly in what manner to mountains stabalize the earth and also balance this by showing that this stabalizing process happens despite unstable forces associated with mountains and other tectonic processes such as earthquakes and continental collision.
 * As for comparing it to the Qur'an references, I think it will be okay to do that, but you'll want to remove absolute language and instead say that there are "strong similarities" between the scientific ideas and the Qur'an verses you mention. Saying that they mean the exact same thing is really impossible to prove (as you can't ask the author of the Qur'an to explain the intent of the verses to you and the verses themselves do not specifically say so), although if you could find a reliable published source that suggests such a connection between the science you mention and the verses you mention, you could certainly say so in the article, for example, "Mr. xxxxx, in his book xxxxx, suggests that the Qur'an supports modern geologic theories. . .". does that make sense?
 * Finally, you'll want to make sure that you add reference material in the reference section at the bottom of the article to back up what you are saying.

Again, thank you for your contributions. I think that your addition of the Qur'anic verses certainly adds important material to this article. I had been hoping that someone would expand the section "Mountains and religion." On the same note, the section might also be a good place to mention if there are certain mountains that are important to Islam and why. I know that the mountain that Allah spoke to Moses on is important to Islam, Judaeism, and Christianity, and then there's the mountain--Ararat, I think---that Noah left his ark on after the great flood--also perhaps important to all three religions. And I'm sure that there are mountains that may be important to just Islam. There's an old saying, and I'm not sure exactly where it came from, but maybe you do, "If the mountain will not come to Muhammed, then Muhammed must come to the mountain." Have you heard that saying before?

Hope that helps, --Pgagnon999 (talk) 01:28, 21 January 2008 (UTC)