This is my response to ThereIsNoClash’s line of argument:
The understanding that science provides is a moving target. Scientists make constantly new empirical and theoretical discoveries that change or improve the understanding of a given problem.
The methodology of ThereIsNoClash seems to be: take the latest level of understanding that has been achieved by science, and go look in the Qur'an for words or phrases that can be interpreted to match that level of science (including errors). And every time science changes its views, ThereIsNoClash changes its interpretation of the Qur'an to match that new view.
They can’t use the Qur'an as a primary source of explanation, because with the range of interpretations that it allows for, it can mean almost anything. One can’t predict or explain anything concrete using the Qur'an, because at any given moment its interpretation can be changed.
Only scientists can do discoveries. Theologians can only say: “Wait! Our text didn’t mean literally seven heavens! We got it wrong it must mean [fill in the latest science that can be made to fit seven heavens]”.
The big difference between science and scripture is that a scientific explanation can be wrong, and can be discarded or improved, while scripture by definition always is correct.
Reading scripture, theologians have no sure way of knowing what it means. They have to interpret their holy text, but need science to come with the “correct” interpretation, and have to change the “correct” interpretation each time science progresses. Scripture is therefore completely useless to science. Scripture is always victim to interpretations that believers argue about.
My favorite example of how believers can make their holy text say anything is slavery. The text can have pages and pages on how to make and treat slaves, but since in modern times (most) believers have come to realize that slavery is immoral, all those instructions have to be erased with some interpretive trick. The most popular interpretation seems to be to suggest that it was impractical to abolish slavery instantly and that God “tolerated” it for the time being. However, the only way to know when to abolish an immoral practice described in a holy book, is to apply modern morality to the text. In other words, true knowledge arises outside of holy texts.
