It's kind of cool.
But those journalist ( digitaljournal just lost a credibility I never gave them) , are really pushing the sensationalism a tad too much.
Ok it's written on a parchment older than Muhammad birth. Parchment were a rare and precious commodities. Pretty normal to write on old parchment.
That the same argument for the forgery of Voynich manuscript. Having an old vellum does not mean it was written at the time the paper was created.
But for that dumbass journalist, it's an older parchment therefor it's written before Muhammad. I prefer considering that Brian Booker fellow as dumb, than mean-spirited. But.. oh ...
This is easily the most I've learned from an internet forum post as far back as I can remember. The production of C14 and the ratio of C12/C13 in plants was all new to me. Thanks for typing that all out.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3j51hw/carbon_dating_suggests_worlds_oldest_koran_could/cumcu6m Basically, yes, they only tested the paper and also carbon dating isn't laser accurate, especially for newer items being tested.
Decay rates are statistical averages, correct. In this case 5700 +/- 50 or so years. For those who don't understand this, if I had a bucket of C14 that weighed 10 pounds, in roughly 5700 years I would have a bucket that weighs very marginally less than 10 pounds (E=MC^2 converts a very, VERY small amount of mass into energy during radioactive decay) but would be 1/2 C14 and 1/2 Nitrogen-14 (N14) If we sit and count the atoms at this point we should expect to be close to 1/2 and 1/2. This is why there is an error bar on any radiocarbon dating.
I thought this was pretty sensationalized, too: This shouldn't shock any but the most devout Muslims. It need not invalidate anyone's faith, though. Prophet or not, their faith need not be supported by scholarly study in the same way that scholarly study should not be made to conform with faith.Some scholars believe, however, that Muhammad did not receive the Quran from heaven, as he claimed during his lifetime, but instead collected texts and scripts that fit his political agenda.
When you believe the entire world is based on something, on the existence of a single omnipotent being that created the world, lack of this being showing up in any study but your faith should be quite a sign. While I agree that you can believe whatever you want, it gets to the point that you have to be very willfully ignorant of reality to continue to have faith.Prophet or not, their faith need not be supported by scholarly study in the same way that scholarly study should not be made to conform with faith.