The Moon (Part 2)

Tim the plumber wrote: Abu,Did you see the super-moon eclipse?APOD: 2015 September 27 - Tonight: A Supermoon Lunar EclipseHow do those scientists manage to predict such things? They can predict them extremely accurately, to the second many centuries away.

That's cheap animation. LOL

Tim the plumber wrote: Did you see the Lunar eclipse?

NO.

Narrated Abu Bakr:
In the lifetime of the Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) (p.b.u.h) the sun eclipsed and he went out dragging his clothes till he reached the Mosque. The people gathered around him and he led them and offered two rak`at. When the sun (eclipse) cleared, he said, "The sun and the moon are two signs amongst the signs of Allah; they do not eclipse because of the death of someone, and so when an eclipse occurs, pray and invoke Allah till the eclipse is over." It happened that a son of the Prophet (ﷺ) called Ibrahim died on that day and the people were talking about that (saying that the eclipse was caused by his death).

Reference      : Sahih al-Bukhari 1063
In-book reference      : Book 16, Hadith 22

Tim the plumber wrote: So if an eclipse is a sign what is it a sign of?Given we can predict them how does it happening add any information to or understanding of the world when it happens?

An eclipse is a sign that these heavenly bodies are created by Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala.

If you observe something for long enough you can predict it's actions to a certain extent.

I can predict that the Moon will be full in the Arabian Peninsula on the 13th, 14th and fifteenth of the Islamic Calendar.

Abu Loren wrote: I can predict that the Moon will be full in the Arabian Peninsula on the 13th, 14th and fifteenth of the Islamic Calendar.

Science can predict the phases of the moon accurate to within a couple of minutes for the next hundred years.

It can also predict that the next total solar eclipse will be on March 8/9 next year (crossing the International Date Line).  However, it will mostly be visible only over the Pacific Ocean.  Unless you live in northwest Australia, southeast Asia, or an island in the Pacific or Indian Ocean, you won't even notice it.

The next total solar eclipse visible in North America will be on August 21, 2017.  It will only be a partial eclipse in Canada, but the line of totality passes right through the middle of the United States. I plan to start making my travel plans now to see it.

That's why I believe in science.  It makes real prophesies -- not like religion, which can only manage vague generalizations about thoroughly unsurprising military victories, which happen five years late.