As the thead diminishes,and the comments fade into the internet ether,Fred writes:
“. . . the Qur’an is the eternal, uncreated, perfect, literal words of Allah.”
and
“Islam is a cult and a heresy. Its prophet was a false one. . . .”
Yes, it’s important to keep examining Islam.
As John of Damascus pointed out to the new Muslim guys in town in the 7th century, if you affirm the first statement regarding the koran, above, God is no longer ‘one,’ since there was another one (the koran) with the one (allah)at the beginning. Christians don’t have a similar problem, openly acknowledging the paradox, calling this uncreated word “the Word” and the outpouring of the mutuality of God and the Word “the Spirit.” Muslims deride Christians as “polytheists.”
As a result of the Islamic doctrine regarding the koran, you get the situation noted in Fred’s second statement, i.e., a religion that most resembles a cult, relying on self-referential justification. (“Sock puppet deity” really is a pretty good term.)
And Bob Murphy wrote:
“I wouldn’t go back too far with Christianity,Fred.
what’s the biggest difference between Christianity and Islam?
’bout 500 years.
It was not that far back that people regarded the Bible as the undisputed word of God and burned people at the stake if they had a different take.
When it actually was, as with the Koran, the work of religious bureaucrats with their own spin on things.
And it was in my own youth that I was told I would go to everlasting damnation if I ate meat on Friday.
Perhaps the main moral difference between Christianity and Islam is reason/volition and its nominal importance in Christianity and total irrelevance in Islam.
As in that rather interesting dialogue between the Eastern Roman Emperor and the “Learned Persian” spoken about by the current Pope that cause so many Muslims to riot. Again.”
As Bob notes at the end of his comment, there really is a big difference between the two religions. So why begin the comment by entertaining the notion that there may not be a big difference?
Bottom line: Christians make a fundamental distinction between the “Word of God” and the “word of God” (scripture).
People perhaps need to get over their bad experiences with the nuns and parish priests. That was another time.
