A
Abyssinia
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Says Secularism a Bigger Threat Than Islam
MERRIMACK, New Hampshire, DEC. 19, 2010 (Zenit.org).- In a lively debate held last month on the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, two renowned speakers on theology met to discuss the topic “Is the only Good Muslim a Bad Muslim?”
Peter Kreeft, a professor of philosophy at Boston College and well-known Catholic apologist and author of over 45 books, engaged in a two-hour debate with Robert Spencer, an internationally known scholar and major critic of Islam.
Both men shared their common and opposing views on Islam before a full audience of spectators. While the men seemed to agree that strict adherence to the Muslim faith can, for some of its 1 billion followers, lead to violence and the mistreatment of women, Spencer likened the peaceful Muslim who does not follow such thinking to a lax Catholic who “practices birth control or support legal abortion. They are defying their religion, because they do not have the authority to reform to it,” he said.
In the debate, as well as in his book, Between Allah and Jesus, Kreeft focused on the “theological essence of Islam, which is a radical submission to the will of God.” He compared the devout Muslim’s readiness to serve God to the “humility and obedience displayed by Christian saints.”
He also commented that this example could serve as a lesson to today’s Catholics, “who all too often treat the demands made by their own faith as mere suggestions, to be taken or rejected by the self-directed individual conscience.”
Kreeft followed his assertions by adding that Muslims have high birth rates and they reject both abortion and pornography: "[Muslims] postpone gratification, and pay forward the gift of life to new generations – something far too few Christians are doing in our time.”
zenit.org/article-31287?l=english
Here is the debate between Kreeft and Spencer: youtube.com/watch?v=UMtqCapeVRA
MERRIMACK, New Hampshire, DEC. 19, 2010 (Zenit.org).- In a lively debate held last month on the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, two renowned speakers on theology met to discuss the topic “Is the only Good Muslim a Bad Muslim?”
Peter Kreeft, a professor of philosophy at Boston College and well-known Catholic apologist and author of over 45 books, engaged in a two-hour debate with Robert Spencer, an internationally known scholar and major critic of Islam.
Both men shared their common and opposing views on Islam before a full audience of spectators. While the men seemed to agree that strict adherence to the Muslim faith can, for some of its 1 billion followers, lead to violence and the mistreatment of women, Spencer likened the peaceful Muslim who does not follow such thinking to a lax Catholic who “practices birth control or support legal abortion. They are defying their religion, because they do not have the authority to reform to it,” he said.
In the debate, as well as in his book, Between Allah and Jesus, Kreeft focused on the “theological essence of Islam, which is a radical submission to the will of God.” He compared the devout Muslim’s readiness to serve God to the “humility and obedience displayed by Christian saints.”
He also commented that this example could serve as a lesson to today’s Catholics, “who all too often treat the demands made by their own faith as mere suggestions, to be taken or rejected by the self-directed individual conscience.”
Kreeft followed his assertions by adding that Muslims have high birth rates and they reject both abortion and pornography: "[Muslims] postpone gratification, and pay forward the gift of life to new generations – something far too few Christians are doing in our time.”
zenit.org/article-31287?l=english
Here is the debate between Kreeft and Spencer: youtube.com/watch?v=UMtqCapeVRA
