Does God = Allah

No, the only thing I'm being adamant about is the fact that when it comes to knowledge of God NOBODY has has all the answers. Not even you. If that's your personal belief, then fair enough! I just find it rather unfortunate that you seem so driven to prove other faiths "incorrect" in order to bolster your own. The wealth of religious writings, music and art that have been produced by humanity over the ages shows that this is exactly what it is!In any case, at least my "bigoted" concept of religion seeks to exclude nobody from a path to God.This message has been edited by RickJB, 04-28-2006 02:33 PM

Its not really an update of the prophets per se, its more of an errata in regards to the writings about the prophets. For example, from the point of view of Islam, Jesus was a prophet of Allah and what he said was inspired by God. However, what was subsequently written about him was either wrong to begin with or changed by corrupt officials or whatever. In this instance Islam is not contradicting the earlier prophets at all, just what people wrote about those prophets.

Faith,Using your definitions of worship I would say about 80-90% of christians are worshipping a false god/idol under your rules.That includes a large number of christians on this forum.

sorry you see it that way,
All I'm trying to do is understand why you hold the position you do.
I can't rationalise things the way you or buzsaw (and other xians) do.If I point out contradictions in your thinking, it not an attack, I want you to explain how you can hold two such different positions..
i.e. giving people who have supernatural revelations the benefit of the doubt, while blindly disregarding a scientist who has studied and theorised to help support his position.
I suggested this was the result of an extreme prejudice on your part, if this is not the case maybe you can provide a different explanation?I am asking how you judge what actualy happened and what did not.
You have previously said that as a result of the fall, our ability to reason is flawed.
So, i am asking you in what instance and for what reason you can trust this reasoning to discern actual happenings from myth.
(a little off topic maybe but still related to the mohamed/gabriel encounter mentioned in the OP).I am not attacking you, merely trying to get you to tell me why you are so sure your reasoning is correct

If I may answer for Faith, since she is fending off about 20 swordsmen/women... and since I believe Faith has more of basis for her beliefs than those other self-proclaimed Christians who rationalize the Bible and pick and choose what to follow
You are correct. But what makes you think that 90% is worshipping correctly? And who are we to know how demanding God is of us?If God communicated to Man a written expectation of behaviour (of which there are 3 main candidate documents), and if 90% are marching to their own interpretation instead of what is written, then maybe 90% are indeed wrong.For all we know, God may be a sports fan and has created a playoff system for a small number of us to make it to the next round. If that is true, then I am way way down on the list as an agnostic. But, maybe Faith can establish a line of reasoning to convince me.

That is what I am trying to establish.. a line of reasoning, what I am presented with is "it is my opinion" and "I tend to believe..."that is not, in my view a line of reasoning.
I will not subscribe to the "poor faith.. fending of 10 or 20 swordsmen" type view. It is her choice to address all these people or not to, and no-one's fault that she is in the minority here.If someone, anyone presents a view that I disagree with, and that I think i can argue against.. I will. that is the purpose of this forum.

The trouble with religion in this world is that there are many lines of reasoning... therefore, I would call it spaghetti line of reasoning.
Unlike science, where knowledge builds on past empirical data and arguments are supported or not, the religious community as a whole does not have or even want something similar to resolve differences. I guess that is because differences cannot be resolved (maybe that's why many radical Islamists feel that they need a sword). That means there are no clear-cut conclusions that rate one line of belief over another.The web offers such an opportunity to debate and build a tree of knowledge about what the Bible (and Quran) means and who is right on specific topics. Is there a web site where Baptists, Catholics, etc. can argue and settle differences of interpretation? No? Then, what does that tell you about the "inerrant" basis? OK, I know, I know,... it's not meant to be crystal clear in some areas...keep studying all your life and maybe God made some things nebulous to get Christians to study until death.Therefore,
A fundamentalist arrives at a conclusion that the Bible is inerrant.
Later after some studying, some "apparent discrepancies" are discovered. However, the commitment that there are no discrepancies (inerrant) does not mean there really is a discrepancy, it just means you have to find an explanation that is possible (not plausible).For example: What were Jesus's last words?
"Why hast thou forsaken me?"
or
"It is finished"I would like to hear if Faith's explanation is the same as what I have heard.

"Bolster my own?" Have you ever heard of debate? Isn't the point to defend your own point of view and prove the other guy's wrong? I guess not if the subject is *shudder* religion.However, where am I even out to prove anything about my belief on this thread? I don't think you've grasped any of what's being argued here. Aren't you the nice guy. But what if it turns out in REALITY that there IS a God and He's provided a way to get to Him but people have made up lots of other ways that can't get to Him?This message has been edited by Faith, 04-28-2006 03:27 PM

Mod, I am familiar with Islam's notion about the "errata" as you put it. It's what I was calling PC. Again you seem to be only stating the standard PC POV. I've pointed out that it is ridiculous to claim that it was a mere mistake to say Isaac was Abraham's heir if it was "really" Ishmael, or a mere mistake to say Jesus is the Son of God when he was "really" a mere prophet. The "errata" rationalization doesn't wash. What we have is in fact direct contradictions among the religions.

1) Could be. So?
2) I have no idea what you think I'm saying.

Reread your Message 194. For starters you said I've called geologists liars or some such thing which I never have done, and I've been very clear about that. That's what I mean by an attack. That was nothing but an off topic underhanded slur.

I'm not sure how it can be considered PC. Nobody is saying it was a mistake. Its more common to think of these as deliberate corruptions that occurred between the event happening and the records we have today.

If they are deliberate corruptions according to Islam but not according to Christians then what we have is CONTRADICTIONS, don't we?And yes it is PC to take the Islamic line. Christ is hated but Islam is very PC these days.

Then I'd hope that unless he's a cruel, petty, vindictive fool he'd understand that the will was there even if it was misdirected in practice!If God created the world then perhaps he should be able to comprehend its complex mixture of cultures?Furthermore, if Christianity IS the "correct path", how exactly is a poor child born in Pakistan to Muslim parents going to find it? By climbing into a Hummer and driving down the freeway to the nearest Megachurch?This message has been edited by RickJB, 04-28-2006 04:11 PM

And if God didn't communicate a written document that 100% are wrong!
Or given the state of the documents after 100's of years nobody can be sure of all the details and are at least part wrong.What never ceases to amaze me is that all these documents reflect human thinking of various time periods. We have the premise of a being who is supposed to have created a universe that we know uses numbers like pi and e and has these relativistic phenomena and all sorts of complexity and then we he writes the manual there is a lot of political talk about who is right and wrong, gets into heaven, loses favor and although gravity and the various phenomena of the universe work all the time the book it's self is subject to all sorts degradation of signal, impostition of noise leaving proud humans quarreling over it's meaning with no way of settling the disputes short of death.Well, maybe that is the divine sense of humor?lfen