Casual fellowship

[Terry_Sampson]

That and kicking someone for thanking you for something you’ve done isn’t kosher, is it?

[MarkD (A Whateverist, not a Christian)]

It’s just bad manners.

[Terry_Sampson]

It is with profound misgivings that I announce my conclusion that there is one God and was one Abraham and that the one God has a divine multiple personality arising from a cosmic-size dissociative personality disorder.

That conclusion is forced on me by my bias in favor of a monotheistic theism and the theophanies and revelations to the Jews, Christians, Muslims, Baháʼí, Latter-Day-Saints, and any other Abrahamic religions that claim theophanies.

Testimony for theophanies and revelations to Jews and to Christians can be found in the Old and New Testaments with which some, if not all biologos.com members may be familiar. God’s
revelation to the Muslims can be found in the complete, Arabic text of the Qur’an; God’s revelation to Baha’u’llah (1817-1892) can be found in the “Kitáb-i-Íqán” (The Book of Certitude") and among his prolific writings.

The theophany and revelation to Joseph Smith over a period from 1828 to 1844.

• Notes regarding the revelations of the Qur’an to Muhammad:
  • Muslims believe that the Quran was verbally revealed from God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel gradually over a period of approximately 23 years , beginning on 22 December 609 CE, when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632 CE, the year of his death.
  • I have doubts when casual believers affirm that all Abrahamic religions seriously affirm that one and the same God is worshipped, especially if He suffers from a multiple personality disorder. It seems very risky to affirm that the God who gave Muhammad the Quran is the same God who appeared to Abraham and to Moses, when there are eventual and long-term negative consequences for failing to take seriously the very words of Allah Himself and slighting the Five Pillars of Islam. And even more consequential is the anti-Islam disrespect of believing that Muslims don’t even take their own religion seriously. I know that I, personally, would be offended if some naive person tried to tell me that all Abrahamic believers worship the same God, when Allah Himsef [or at least part of him] draws distinctions.
• Are the Multiple personalities of the God of Jews and of Christians more forgiving? Hopefully so. But the personality of the God of Muslims? I think: not so much.

[Terry_Sampson]

Youtube presentation by a Jewish theist Who Wrote the Quran? What Sources Were Used?

• 00:44 So, first of all, you have to understand that the Quran is not simply the Muslim equivalent of the Bible. If you want to make a more accurate comparison, it would be better to say that the Quran is the Muslim equivalent of Jesus. Here’s what I mean by that: Both groups believe that God revealed himself to humans in many different ways during ancient times. However, Christians believe that God chose to reveal himself in a final, universal way through Jesus. Not through the New Testament but through the person of Jesus. So, for Christians, the Bible is NOT the ultimate revelation. It is simply the story of the ultimate revelation. Well, Muslims also believe that God chose to reveal himself in a final, universal way. But not through Jesus. For them, Jesus was a just another human prophet, as was Muhammad. Muslims believe that the final, universal revelation was not a person but rather a written text – the Quran. So, for Christians, the Bible is important but it is not as important as Jesus. For Muslims, it’s the reverse. Muhammad is important but he is not as important as the Quran. What about Jews then? Isn’t the Torah the Jewish version of God’s final, universal| revelation? Well, no. Because, for us Jews, there is no such thing as a UNIVERSAL revelation. According to Judaism, the Torah was meant for the Jewish people only, not for all of humankind. So, Jews don’t actually have anything that’s the equivalent of either| Jesus or the Quran.
• 02:26 Now, there’s another major difference between the Bible and the Quran that must be made. This chart represents various ways in which a religious text can be viewed, ranging from 100% divine authorship to 100% human authorship. For Muslims, the Quran is all the way over here. They believe that their holy book was literally dictated to the Prophet Muhammad, WORD FOR WORD, by God, via the angel Gabriel. Very few Christians or Jews view their scriptures in this way. Although a very small minority| believe something along those lines, the vast majority would simply say that their holy books were “inspired” by God – meaning that both God and human authors played a role. Now, when it comes to how big of a role that God played versus how big of a role that the human authors played, there are several different positions.
• 04:14 However, the main point I want to make through all of this is that the Muslim view of the Quran is very different than the average Christian or Jew’s view of the Bible. Therefore, if you’re a Muslim, the answer to the question, “Who Wrote the Quran?” is pretty straightforward: Allah (aka God) wrote the Quran. Sure, Allah may have revealed it through the angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad, but neither Gabriel nor Muhammad is its ultimate author. God is the ultimate author of the Quran and God alone. This is something that, for Muslims, must be taken on faith. So, if that’s what you believe and if you’re likely to be offended by hearing any alternative theories, you should stop watching this video now. However, if you’re wondering how secular academics might answer the question or how people from other religions might answer the question, feel free to keep watching.