And who wrote the Quran?
Joseph Smith ‘wrote’ the Book of Mormon through ‘divine inspiration’ he had translating golden plates while looking through a piece of crystal…he claimed it was divine inspiration and so should I take him at his word? If I have a mystical experience, how do I know it’s not the evil one misleading me or my own wishful thinking?
The New Testament of the Bible (the part about Jesus) was put together by witnesses who saw the miracles and had first-hand experience of living and knowing Jesus in the flesh. Muslims love to say that since some details in the 4 Gospels differ, that we should disregard them and that they are ‘corrupted’…like ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’…
If you and I were both eye witnesses to a miracle but in recounting it I said that it occurred 6 months ago in front of a school and you recalled it happening 8 months ago on a Tuesday in front of 24 people, does that mean it never happened?
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
The
First approach’d the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!”
The
Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, -“Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”
The
Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”
The
Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he,
“'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!”
The
Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”
The
Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Then, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
MORAL.
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
*Not one of them has seen! *
