T
TheAtheist
Guest
From a Historical Perspective - you’ll find that Muslim leaders have in fact stated that you and the Jews do in fact worship the same God as they do.I have no idea. I have heard of at least one muslim saying we do but I do not know what their leaders teach. I am sure some say yes and some say no, just like among Christians. It does not matter to me even if the majority say no because I believe The Catholic Church.
…Its just that you do so deficiently (hey Catholics, does this argument sound familiar?
Specifically, the arguments that i’ve read/get presented to me by Muslim colleagues revolves around the nature of your Holy Books.
The Muslims had a debate during the era of the Abbasid Caliphate about the nature of Koran - was it something that was Created by God at some particular point in time in History? Or was it Uncreated and Co-Existed with God since well… before Time I guess.
It sounds like a pretty arcane argument, then again we are viewing this from outside their religious faith - I mean, to me at least, the arguments regarding the nature of Jesus of Nazareth that you folks had with the Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox seem just as arcane.
The “Uncreated/Coexisted with Allah” group won the debate. The implications then being that their Holy Book is without error.
The Secondary Implication is that the Holy Books of Judaism and Christianity ARE in Error… That you somehow lost the True Meaning of the Will of Allah because of an imperfect message.
So, you know how you Catholics like to say your Bible is Divinely Inspired? To the Muslim point of View, that’s a major weakness. The Koran is Certain, to them at least, because of the aforementioned theological argument.
The Jews get hit with the same accusation - which is actually utilized by the Orthodox Christians as well.
Specifically - you know how there are 2 recensions of the Hebrew section of the Bible - the Septuagint written in Greek and the Masoretic stuff written i guess in Hebrew.
On the rare occasion I interact with an Orthodox Christian (i’m just not in a position to meet them frequently), the ones who are…shall we say Strident about their faith… tend to hurl the accusation at the Jews for changing their texts to make it “Less Christological” (whatever that means - sorry i don’t really understand the issue here) - arguing that the Septuagint is the better translation which affirms the theology of the Orthodox Church.
To my understanding, you folks in the Catholic Church follow the Masoretic texts. Always wondered what the larger community of Protestants out there do…
But to the Muslim eye… “2 versions of the Old Testament” = “Someone didn’t do their Job Properly and Preserve the Will of God accurately”
Hence…to them at least… you have an Incomplete Faith in their God…
From my own Non-Religious Perch, I prefer to identify this on 2 Psychological Trends:
Whether you are a Christian/Muslim/Jew/Buddhist/whatever
1.) There is a wing in each religion that likes to think that whatever Creator deity is in charge of the Universe wouldn’t necessarily leave every other person who isn’t born into a specific faith out in the cold so to speak.
So this produces the attitude of, “Well… if the Christian/Muslim/Jew/Buddhist had the whole truth, they would would join my religion…but that doesn’t mean that some measure or portion of the Truth isn’t present in their own.”
This line of argument maintains the Truth of your individual faiths and the conviction that life would be better for those who aren’t part of your faiths to join your religion…yet acknowledging a person still has the action for moral capacity even if do come outside of your faith.
2.) The other end of the Spectrum in every religion thinks the previous viewpoint is a Cop-Out. You are somehow shirking your duty to the Deity by promoting such a viewpoint Ie:- you are a fence-sitter, you don’t love Jesus enough, you are a Corruptor of the Buddha’s dharma, you are a Kaafir…etc…etc…etc…
This Behavioural pattern demands proselytization of their respective religion, and views any attempt at even hinting that a person coming outside of a faith might be correct on a few matters is somehow undermining the whole project of (Insert Religion).
To them, regardless of what religion we are talking about, their co-religionist who don’t take a stronger stance are being wishy-washy and bear the risk of confusing people.
Group 1 Above tends to answer back that that Group 2’s stance has a habit of leading to…shall we say less than neighborly conduct when taken to an extreme…