Islam / Muslim : Misconceptions in Reason and History

At the Islamic Center, we quietly waited in the place of worship for the chanting prayers to conclude. We were then ushered into a small office, as soon as we sat to converse with two men, a third man opened the door for a moment and handed over a thermos filled with a most delicious tea for us to share.1

The Muslims said that they respect all the prophets. They answered in the affirmative when asked if that included Jesus. We asked where we could find the teachings of Jesus. They said that they are found in the Qur’an because the New Testament has been corrupted and therefore, not reliable. In other words, the books that make up the New Testament, which were mostly written before 70 AD (Jesus died circa 30 AD) are not reliable, but the Qur’an, which was written after 500 AD, is a reliable source for the truth of Jesus’ life. With the exception of Luke and Paul, the men who wrote the New Testament knew Jesus, lived with Him, traveled with Him and heard Him teach. On the other hand the Qur’an was compiled about half a millennia after Christ.

The Qur’an was pieced together “from pieces of papyrus, flat stones, palm leaves, shoulder blades and ribs of animals, pieces of leather, wooden boards, and the hearts of men.”2 Hearts of men refers to memorization, of course, some of those men died in battle before recording the Surahs they had memorized. It is also admitted that sometimes animals would eat the leaves and other materials on which the Surahs had been recorded. Apparently neither Muhammad nor his followers had the New Testament in their own language and so they learned about Jesus from the tales of travelers and apocryphal books, we find allusions to such works in the Qur’an.

For example in Surah 5:110 the Qur’an makes reference to the apocryphal, Gnostic book entitled The Infancy Gospel of Thomas 2:3-5. The writer of this gospel does not even claim to be the Apostle Thomas but identifies himself as a philosopher. This gospel is a shameful work that contradicts the New Testament and has the child Jesus using His divine powers, His miracles, in a capricious and malicious manner. This results in some very odd and contradictory teachings in the Qur’an, such as stating that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin and yet teaches that it is blasphemy to believe that Allah could have a son. And so apparently someone born of a virgin and conceived by the Holy Spirit can be one of many prophets, just a man. Note that a qualification must be made, according to Islam the Holy Spirit is not God, this title refers to angels, usually to Gabriel.

isl0002-1877886Thus the Qur’an affirms the Virgin Birth in 19:19-22;

“He said: ‘Nay, I am only a messenger from your Lord, (to announce) to you the gift of a holy son.’ She said: ‘How shall I have a son, seeing that no man has touched me, and because I am not unchaste?’ He said: ‘So it will be: your Lord says, ‘That is easy for Me: and (We wish) to appoint him as a Sign to men and a Mercy from Us’: it is a matter (so) decreed.’ So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a remote place.”

Also in 3:45-47;

“Behold! The angel said: ‘O Mary! Allah gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary_She said: ‘How shall I have a son, when no man has touched me?’ He said: ‘Even so: Allah creates what He wills: when He has decreed a Plan, He but says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is!”

The Qur’an denies that God would have a son in 19:88-92;

“They say: ‘(Allah) Most Gracious has begotten a son!’ Indeed you have put forth a thing most monstrous.”

Also in 4:171;

“_Allah is One God: glory be to Him: (far Exalted is He) above having a son_”

The Qur’an claims that Jesus is a mere man in 4:171 & 5:75;

“_Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) a Messenger of Allah…”

Also note 5:72-73;

“They do blaspheme who say: ‘God is Christ the son of Mary.’_Whoever joins other gods with Allah, Allah will forbid him the Garden, and the Fire will be his abode. There will for the wrong-doers be no more help. They do blaspheme who say: God is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except Allah. If they do not desist from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them.”

The Muslims said that they base their beliefs on rationale and common sense. One of them said that once he went to a class and whispered “the sun rose in the east this morning” into a person’s ear. That person then whispered it to the next and so on, until it went through fourteen people. By the time it got back to him, “the east” was not even mentioned, this is the game called telephone.
Therefore, he reasoned we could not know what Jesus taught from the New Testament because Jesus said something and someone heard it and repeated it and so did the next person etc., etc., and so by today how are we to know what he really said? In other words, if the transition of the words of Christ were passed on in a linear manner to one single person, then it is evident that according to degeneration, somewhere along the way mistakes and errors would creep in and distort the teaching to the point of complete unreliability. The Bible we have today would be nothing but revisions and errors. This theory is illustrated below.

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We pointed out that we had touched upon a very common misconception. This is not a rational argument, nor is it common sense. Jesus did not just speak to one person who repeated it to one person, etc. Sometimes He spoke to one person, sometimes to a small group and sometimes thousands. Neither did one person write the New Testament. The New Testament is twenty-seven books written by some eight people (seven Jews, one Greek Doctor) and it draws from the accounts of many eyewitnesses.
The way that the teachings of Jesus were handed down is that one or more first hand eyewitnesses, who heard and saw Jesus, wrote down what happened and what was said. In the case of Dr. Luke, he traveled around and interviewed eyewitnesses. These writers sent the eyewitness accounts to many churches in many cities. Each church made copies and sent them to other believers who would in turn make copies (as illustrated below). The Bible tells as much, “After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea” (Colossians 4:16).

Dr. Craig Blomberg, Ph.D., being interviewed by Lee Strobel, explains why the game of telephone is not a good analogy for how oral traditions are passed on:

“‘When you’re carefully memorizing something and taking care not to pass it along until you’re sure you’ve got it right, you’re doing something very different from playing the game of telephone. In telephone half the fun is that the person may not have got it right or even heard it right the first time, and they cannot ask the person to repeat it. Then you immediately pass it along, also in whispered tones that make it more likely the next person will goof something up even more. So yes, by the time it has circulated through a room of thirty people, the results can be hilarious.’ ‘Then why,’ I asked, ‘Isn’t that a good analogy for passing along ancient oral traditions?’_

‘If you really want to develop that analogy in light of the checks and balances of the first-century community, you’d have to say that every third person, out loud in a very clear voice, would have to ask the first person; ‘Do I still have it right?’ and change it if he didn’t. The community would constantly be monitoring what was said and intervening to make corrections along the way. That would preserve the integrity of the message,’ he said. ‘And the result would be very different from that of the childish game of telephone.'”3

There were in fact errors that crept into the manuscripts. However, when we take the 5,664 Greek manuscripts that we have today and compare what is known as the families of manuscripts (the manuscripts from different cities) we can draw out the errors and by corroboration come up with an accurate record. Moreover, the errors or differences in translation are differences in style and never distort important doctrine. In addition to the Greek manuscripts, there are 8,000-10,000 Latin Vulgate manuscripts, 8,000 Ethiopic, Slavic, Armenian manuscripts. For a total of about 24,000 manuscripts of the New Testament which is the most well documented ancient writing and far more reliable than any ancient work of fiction or history, certainly more reliable than any ancient work which is used in attempts to discredit it. “The New Testament, then, has not only survived in more manuscripts than any other book from antiquity, but it has survived in a purer form than any other great book. A form that is 99.5% pure.”4

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Realizing that they had been proved wrong by rationale, common sense, and historical evidence they said that the New Testament had indeed been passed on without error but only up until church councils started meeting, corrupting the text and making up various doctrines that Jesus never taught. Since the first church council met in Nicea on 325 AD, we pointed out that we have manuscripts for the New Testament that date back to centuries before any church council met, and so we can see what, if anything, was changed. Oddly enough, in order to account for the Hadith, the traditions, which are second in authority next to the Qur’an, a line of witnesses is relied upon. Oral tradition, word of mouth, from one person to the next is employed both to discredit the New Testament and in order to give authority to the Hadith. This is not reasonable rather; it is to believe in two contradictory things. How can the same argument be appealed to in order to discredit one document and in order to accredit another?

Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (a.k.a. Maimonides or Rambam) was born in 1135 AD. He is a well-known and respected physician and interpreter of the Bible and Jewish Law. Regarding the Muslim claim that the Bible was corrupted, he explains:

“Inasmuch as the Muslims could not find a single proof in the entire Bible nor a reference or possible allusion to their prophet which they could utilize, they were compelled to accuse us saying, ‘You have altered the text of the Torah, and expunged every trace of the name of Mohammed therefrom.’ They could find nothing stronger than this ignominious argument the falsity of which is easily demonstrated to one and all by the following facts. First, Scripture was translated into Syriac, Greek, Persian, and Latin hundreds of years before the appearance of Mohammed. Second, there is a uniform tradition as to the text of the Bible both in the East and the West, with the result that no difference in the text exist at all, not even in the vocalization, for they are all correct. Nor do any differences affecting the meaning exist. The motive for their accusation lies, therefore, in the absence of any allusion to Mohammed in the Torah_”5

The beauty of our meeting with the Muslims is that our conversation was not our beliefs against theirs (my faith can beat up your faith). Nor did we have to water everything down and say that both sides equally valid, both sides just as true, as far as subjectivity is concerned. We were presented with faulty reasoning and history and our faith was strengthened by this realization. The fact is that reason and history are on the side of the Judeo-Christian faith and Scriptures, according to the manuscript evidence, archeological evidence, prophetic evidence, scientific evidence and statistical probability.

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”
-Colossians 2:8

Bible prophecy – Jesus in Exodus 15

After His resurrection, Jesus met up with a couple of His disciples and “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24).

With that in mind, consider Exodus 15:

So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.

And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

Amazing, is it not? Get it? No? Well, consider that for centuries this was merely a story about something that occurred after the Exodus from Egypt. However, once we learn about the Messiah, His life, His ministry, etc. we realize that this record was also metaphorical; consider the following key points.

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What do these texts have in common?:

…they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water… …where were twelve wells of water…

…and threescore and ten palm trees… (FYI: this means 70)

They each contain numbers: 3, 12 and 70.

The other key text is:
…the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet…

Here is how to draw out the metaphor.

Being three days in the wilderness without water essentially makes you a dead person.
Jesus was dead in the grave three days.

The undrinkable, bitter, water is healed by that casting of a tree into water.
Jesus was crucified for our healing upon a cross that is made of wood that is cut from a tree. In fact, a succinct way to refer to the cross is simply by referring to tree such as we are told about how Jesus became cursed for us (see Galatians 3:13).

The water is turned from a cursed bitter water into living water as Jesus put it, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7).

Now, why would anyone bother counting, recording and preserving the fact that there were twelve wells of water and 70 palm trees. Well, Jesus had twelve Apostles and when He first sent out His Disciples, He sent out 70, “the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two” (Luke 10).

Thus, we find that an odd story about lacking water, bitter water, living water, days, wells and trees; we can see Jesus.

Nephilim in The Book of Adam and Eve, also called The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, 1 of 2

A. C. Malan, trans., The Book of Adam and Eve, also called The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, Book III, chap IV (brackets in original) which dates to circa the 6th century AD:

Certain wise men of old wrote concerning them, and say in their [sacred] books, that angels came down from heaven, and mingled with the daughters of Cain, who bare unto them these giants. But those [wise men] err in what they say. God forbid such a thing, that angels who are spirits,[1] should be found committing sin with human beings. Never; that cannot be.[2] And if such a thing were of the nature of angels, or Satans, that fell, they would not leave one woman on earth, undefiled. For Satans are very wicked and infamous. Moreover, they are not male and female by nature; but they are small, subtle spirits, that have been black ever since they transgressed. But many men say, that angels came down from heaven, and joined themselves to women, and had children by them. This cannot be true.[3] But they were children of Seth, who were of the children of Adam, that dwelt on the mountain, high up [or suspended], while they preserved their virginity, their innocence and their glory like angels ; and were then called “angels of God.”[1]

But when they transgressed and mingled with the children of Cain, and begat children, ill-informed men said, that angels had come down from heaven, and mingled with daughters of men, who bare them giants.

Footnote [1] reads, “The Ethiopic construction is not quite correct here. The Arabic reads ‘Angelic spirits.’” This is due to the fact that it was translated from the Ethiopic. Thus, the Ethiopic translation should have read something like “Angelic spirits” which is why it was translated into English as “angels who are spirits” and “angels of God.”

Before getting to the other two notes, let us review. It is admitted that “Certain wise men of old” took the Angel view of the Genesis 6 affair, as I term it. Yet, it is stated that this is in error but the premise for considering it an error is itself an error and one that the text merely asserts without evidence—and I would add that such evidence does not exist in the Bible. But what is this premise?
The text actually seems to center it on the idea that God forbids Angels to sin with human beings. We can safely assume that this is correct which is why those who did sin with human beings are known as fallen. However, there is yet another, underlying, premise and it is this to which I was referring as being erroneous and that is the assertion that Angels “are spirits.” This is something that one can only derive it from the one single text (or, two). Psalm 104:4 states, “Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire” this seems to be reiterated in Hebrews 1:14 which reads, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” I note that it is in one single text (or, two assuming that Hebrews was indeed reiterating it) because we ought not build doctrines based on one single text.

Now, if we conclude that Angels are spirits based on Psalm 104:4 then we must, by the very same logic or theologic, conclude that they are also flaming fires. I would submit that 1) Psalms are poetic by nature and 2) spirit within the Psalm’s context denotes something like that which Jesus states in John 3:8, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” I appeal to that due to the fact that in both Hebrew and Greek there is a correlation between breath and spirit.

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In any case, the Bible does not envisage that which so many people seem to merely assume which is that Angels are spirits who take on human physicality when they interact with us. Rather, the Bible simply portrays Angels as being physical beings who look just like human males. They inhabit unfallen bodies (think of the concept of resurrection or glorified bodies) and so can do much as Jesus did after His resurrection when He was physical and yet could walk through a door, appear and disappear, etc.

Thus, the premise seems to fail and so the argument against the Angel view goes along with it.

Now, after asserting “that cannot be” the author speculates that “if such a thing were” done then “they would not leave one woman on earth, undefiled.” However, that, at least in a manner of speaking, they did not leave one woman on earth, undefiled is what the Bible states. Genesis 6 begins with the sons of God having offspring with the daughters of men and ties this directly to the reason for the flood since “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.”

Now, this does not mean that the fallen sons of God Angels went about impregnating every single woman. It seem that their offspring, the Nephilim, had offspring who had offspring who had offspring, etc. until “all flesh had corrupted.” With Genesis 6’s timeline beginning at “when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them” and ending with the flood this may include a period of roughly one and a half to just over two millennia if the starting point is as far back as when Adam and Eve’s children first started to “multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them.” Also, keep in mind that this is whilst humanity still lived in relative geographical proximity to each other.

Thus, this is somewhat related to that “they would not leave one woman on earth, undefiled” which they, the sons of God, did not do but they, the Nephilim, did do in a roundabout way.

Now we get to another statement much like the Angels are spirits one considered above and that is that “Satans are very wicked and infamous” with the “nature of” either “angels, or Satans” being referenced just before that. The author seems to be stating that fallen Angels are can be referred to as Satans after their fall. “Satans” is a term that comes about due to the Bible’s usage of it as meaning the “adversary” of anyone for any reason. This term then came to be used to identify the being aka “the Devil,” as well as serpent, dragon, etc.

So are “angels, or Satans” really “not male and female by nature”? Well, I have already dealt with them being spirits. Taking these two as references to Angels then biblically they are male and as male as human males are male. You will find winged women in the Bible but these are not Angels since they 1) are not delivering a message, 2) are not called Angles (and are thus, not angels which means messenger), 3) are not male and 4) have wings. These winged women are exclusively seen within a vision and mentioned only once (Zechariah 5:9) like Seraphim (Isaiah 6) whilst Angels and Cherubim being seen within visions but also in “real life.”

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Michael Savage wants violent statements removed from holy books

Radio show host and author Michael Savage wants violent statements removed from holy books.

He stated as much within his June 3, 2015 AD radio show The Savage Nation. He came to this conclusion, and demand, by circuitous means.

He regularly refers to Muslim terrorists as vermin who should be eliminated from the planet. He is also right in noting that, both, Islam’s written scripture the Qur’an / Koran as well as their traditions the Hadith actually prescribe violence against non-Muslims and even certain Muslims such as Muslim husbands beating their Muslim wives (see what Muhammad and Jesus: Regarding Wives).

Now, he is also quite right that the very moment that anyone brings up such documented and historical facts, the instant reply is to run screaming from the issue and desperately turn towards attacking Christianity. Thus, the Pavlovian response to the fact that Islam’s scripture and traditions prescribe violence in general is to claim, in a logically fallacious tu quoque manner, that the Bible does likewise.
This is one reason that we cannot have one of these supposedly great national conversations on this subject; because US culture and politics would have to admit some inconvenient truths.

Besides countless “individual” terrorist acts, the fact is that the Encyclopedia of Wars was compiled by nine history professors who spent decade chronicling what they reckon to be 10,000 years of war (8000 BC to 2003 AD). Out of 1,763 wars a mere 123 wars (6.98%) are categorized as being “religious wars.”
Now, the contextually relevant fact is that Islam has been involved in half of history’s religious wars even though they are one of the youngest world religion; this did not happen by accident.

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Video: PBS misrepresents Islam’s Qur’an / Koran on ISIS beheadings:

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Now, Michael Savage’s ultimate answer to dealing both with Islam’s prescriptions to violence as well as his reply to those to take the tu quoque approach to avoiding reality is to demand that, at least in the USA, all references to violence should be removed from all “holy books.”

Well, such a demand can be attention getting emotive rhetoric, it could be a gedankenexperiment yet, ultimately, it can be a small step on a slippery slope towards a new secular world order—how knows?

The fact is that references to violence were not all created equally. For example, Savage claimed the reason that Jews, today, do not stone homosexuals to death is that they do not texts such “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination” (Leviticus 18:22) as literally.
Speaking as a Jew I can tell you that the reason that I, a modern day Jew, do not do not believe in stoning homosexuals to death is because of the fact that I do take the Bible literally.

You see the cultural context, the historical context, the grammatical context, is that someone could have been a homosexual all they wanted just not in a particular place, at a particular time, under particular governance.

The Tanakh / Old Testament specifies that when YHVH built up a nation from the ground up, as the Jews / Hebrews / Israelites were liberated from their institutionalization after slavery in Egypt, he gave them certain laws and, here is the key, they agreed to uphold them.

Thus, in essence, just as is the case with any law of any land; if you want to do that which is against the law then you have to go elsewhere or reap the consequences of your actions.

Now, once that the Jews no longer lived under YHVH’s theocratic (monarchically administered) kingdom; those laws no longer applied. In fact, Rabbinic Judaism came about as an attempt to figure out how to still be Jews whilst having no priesthood, sacrifices, Temple, etc.

Now, some claim that Islam needs to have a reformation much like the Christian reformation.
However, the Christian reformation was away from manmade tradition and towards the written text of the scripture. On the other hand, if Islam has such a reformation it will have to be away from the written text of the scripture and towards manmade traditions.

Muslims can rightly, logically and theologically justify their violent actions.
However, Jew could not rightly, logically and theologically justify their violent actions because they are not living at the aforementioned particular place, particular time and particular monarchically administered governance.
Christians could not rightly, logically and theologically justify their violent actions because of the same reasons as pertain to Jews and additional New Testament statements regarding loving and praying for our neighbors as well as those who persecute us.

Thus, Michael Savage’s statements and demands may be emotive, bombastic, thought provoking, etc. but they are premised upon a great number of fallacies.

VIDEO: Living fossil coelacanth: to evolve or not to evolve?

Bellow is attached the first video of a playlist which contains the following segments:

Living fossil, part 1: coelacanth unchanged over 400 million years

Living fossil, part 2: coelacanth evolved into humans

Living fossil, part 3: coelacanth as evolutionary Victorian Era Darwinian tall tale

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A plea: I have to pay for server usage and have made all content on this website free and always will. I support my family on one income and do research, writing, videos, etc. as a hobby. If you can even spare $1.00 as a donation, please do so: it may not seem like much but if each person reading this would do so, even every now and then, it would add up and really, really help. Here is my donate/paypal page.

Due to robo-spaming, I had to close the comment sections. However, you can comment on my Facebook page and/or on my Google+ page. You can also use the “Share / Save” button below this post.

Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens

VIDEO: Christopher Hitchens – God in the hands of an angry sinner

Sex slavery

beheadings