Some things to consider for my Muslim friends Meeting the challenge of the Quran concerning the Deity of Christ Islamic theology confirms that both Jesus and his followers claimed that he is God! Jesus’ Divine Claims and Islam An Examination of Biblical Christology In Light of the Quranic View of Allah’s Attributes
Granted, the part about the trinity is true. THOSE are what the trinity really is, regardless of whether or not you believe the final two paragraphs.
In order for the process of life to continue, the feminine has to yield to the masculine. The most obvious example of this is sex, not only in that (short of rape) a woman has to be still as a man thrust his junk at her but it's usually men chasing and pleading with women to sleep with them and not as much the other way around (though that's changing some in the modern world).
My point in bringing up ideas like this is that there are far more interesting and deeper ideas outside of the constricted space of organized religion that actually make sense. Actually, some can be found inside organized religion if people stop taking everything so literally. It's why I moved on from religion years ago, I wasn't growing enough spiritually and mentally.
Certainly not convincing. You can post all kinds of links to all kinds of religious sites misinterpreting old texts much in the same way Christians interpret the Bible to have it explain anything they want explained. You basically have some vague references certainly translated from other languages and thats your proof. This is from the folks who don't believe in evolution. How crazy is that.
The burden of proof? This isn't a courtroom. Believe. Don't believe. This is a question of faith, and faith alone. Proof doesn't, can't, and never will enter into the equation.
bob, this website has been outed as deceptive and full of false information several times on this board. The translations are poor and the source selection only has a semblance of coherence to those not familiar with Islamic texts. The Quran explicitly rejects the trinity and the divinity of Christ, a simple google search will reveal countless sources telling you that. If you need an overview of Islamic texts, feel free to ask I'd be happy to explain the structure so you can do your own independent research. To understand exactly what is wrong with the website you are using, have a look at www.answering-christianity.com which is distorted in exactly the same way. The arguments, sources and hypotheses are identically flawed. This should not be a surprise to you. While you appear to have tremendous faith in supernatural ideas, this should not extend to your research on texts. You should apply the same level of objectivity to others as you should to your own. If you were working with any amount of objectivity, you would not go to consider any of those two websites to be objective sources of information. For the exact same reason, you would not be able to use any of those websites as sources in any respectable academic institution for any worthwhile research project - unless you were listing out examples of websites with the highest potential for bias in the world. The goes for the christian and muslim one. It doesn't matter. If you believe in God, then you believe God is going to decide in the end, and he is not bound by his own rules. So even if he said no Muslims in heaven, he may decide to put Muslims in heaven. Even if he said no Chrisitans in heaven, he may put Christians in heaven. Even if he said atheists are going to hell, he may forgive them. You don't know. You simply don't know. All you/I know is our best guess as to the accuracy of texts compiled in a period where it was easy to corrupt people's message after they died. If you tried to write a story about me 100 years after I died, in spite of all our technological advances with computers and video/sound recorders, you would fail in depicting what I stood for in a way that I would approve. Imagine you are trying to do that for someone thousands of years ago. It is actually insane to think you can do that. No one faults you for trying or believing in your best guess. But dude, don't forget what it is in the end - you, like every other religious person, are relying on error-prone humans to transmit and interpret the wishes of a supernatural creator of things you can never fathom. To think your understanding is significantly different/better than someone else trying to do the same thing through a different human in a different time is ludicrous. The chances of getting it right are so remote that the difference in attempts has to be miunscule. If the difference is so minuscule and God is going to save one and punish the other.... well, that's a lot to think about, but you get the idea. There is a lesson to be learnt in the fact that Islam/Christianity are monotheistic. There is a sort of perfection in the concept of ONE. I know you believe that if we were all Christians then we would be closer to ONE. But reality is that if we were all Christians then we would all be different branches, and there would be more/new branches of Christianity. That's not becoming ONE. Becoming ONE means becoming ONE in spite of differences in belief, rather than through centralized belief. Jesus and Muhammad both fought against the absorption of their beliefs into one single belief - even though that may have resulted in more peace. They claimed to want peace with their enemies, in spite of differences in beliefs. That's what connects their journeys, and what can connect people. Not arguments about the level of scientific evidence for different faiths which require no evidence whatsoever. So forget the labels and remember.. One Love.
Why do I need one? This text from Tacitus was written in 64 AD or some point after, what 31 years after the supposed death of Jesus. Really? Tacitus was born in 56 AD, 23 years after the death of Jesus? Your text here from Pliny, written in 112AD, just a mere 79 years after the death of Christ. How is that convincing of anything? Christians start a myth, people repeat the myth and that somehow is evidence of the myth?
I apologize if I have used bad sources. Though it is no excuse, I was trying to quickly produce some kind talking points for a conversation which took place after midnight.
When it comes to Answering-Islam.com and Answering-Christianity.com both use the Bible and Qur'an to try and show deficiencies and inconsistencies with the opposing Book. All the copy and paste points you posted all have a counter argument with evidences and supporting verses. It's pretty much: Punch>Counterpunch>Punch>Counterpunch>Punch>Counterpunch. The way I see it: Believe what you will, do the best you can, continue to seek knowledge and follow what you feel is right. In the end, it'll be made crystal clear what path was the path to follow and will all be sorted out.
