Posted on 01/19/2008 2:38:36 AM PST by america4vr
Islam watchers blogged all weekend about news that a secret archive of ancient Islamic texts had surfaced after 60 years of suppression. Andrew Higgins' Wall Street Journal report that the photographic record of Koranic manuscripts, supposedly destroyed during World War II but occulted by a scholar of alleged Nazi sympathies, reads like a conflation of the Da Vinci Code with Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail.
The Da Vinci Code offered a silly fantasy in which Opus Dei, homicidal monks and twisted billionaires chased after proof that Christianity is a hoax. But the story of the photographic archive of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, now ensconced in a Berlin vault, is a case of life imitating truly dreadful art. It even has Nazis. "I hate those guys!" as Indiana Jones said.
No one is going to produce proof that Jesus Christ did not rise from the grave three days after the Crucifixion, of course. Humankind will choose to believe or not that God revealed Himself in this fashion. But Islam stands at risk of a Da Vinci Code effect, for in Islam, God's self-revelation took the form not of the Exodus, nor the revelation at Mount Sinai, nor the Resurrection, but rather a book, namely the Koran. The Encyclopaedia of Islam (1982) observes, "The closest analogue in Christian belief to the role of the Koran in Muslim belief is not the Bible, but Christ." The Koran alone is the revelatory event in Islam.
What if scholars can prove beyond reasonable doubt that the Koran was not dictated by the Archangel Gabriel to the Prophet Mohammad during the 7th century, but rather was redacted by later writers drawing on a variety of extant Christian and Jewish sources?
(Excerpt) Read more at thirdeyeconcept.com ...
yes they do
Every Evil Scheme requires a pretext, we know that, and we also know that the Evil Doers are not at all interested in discussing the merit of their pretexts.
war costs money. only elements with lots of money have the means to make war. you may be assured that those with the means to make war will not engage unless there is value to be recovered.
I'd love to know when this picture was taken but would surmise merely by the look on their collectively cantankerous pusses it was probably very near the end of the war.
I want my 72 raisins.
Thus it's an act of irreverence for a Muslim to study the Koran the way we study the Bible- digging jewels, revelation, understanding, renewed thought out of the text. The top down heirarchy of the imam's oral tradition and teaching is the power structure of Islam, not the personal relationship we have with the Author of the Bible.
Islam is so fragile and vulnerable to the Spirit of God, if only we can get past the veil of violence and fear that protects their deception from an invasion of light and truth.
Yum Yum! Welcome to Paradise, sucka!
>>I’d love to know when this picture was taken but would surmise merely by the look on their collectively cantankerous pusses it was probably very near the end of the war.<<
Judging from the fact that they don’t look very emaciated from being fed “water soup” for two or three years, I would tend to disagree with you on that.
“I want my 72 raisins”
Done Deal
A few months ago I read an article about faith and reason; a couple points follow.
The scholarly arguments that the Koran had nothing to do with the Archangel Gabriel are vast, and easily available. The scholarly arguments contend that the Koran consists of a much later hodge-podge of poorly edited and contradictory material, much of it cribbed from easily-identified Jewish and Christian sources.
If the Koran is a 9th-century redaction rather than a 7th-century revelation, of course, Islam has a serious problem.
It would make Islam a variant on the Arian heresy.
Islam has not had the equivalent to the 21 Ecumenical Councils held by the Catholic Church over the centuries (to clarify and resolve its own inconsistencies). Thus Islam is full of contractions, and may, in fact, be standing on a shattered foundation.
On the other hand, the diversity of Christian sects are all over the place in connection with literal or not literal interpretation of the bible. Many Christians are far from intellectual, they use many versions and interpretations of the bible (Mormons have their own bible). But few indeed translate from the original sacred script; in short they are uneducated and satisfied that they need not more. Perhaps they do not need further elaboration because they are comfortable in their faith. Perhaps many Muslims are also comfortable with their faith because it serves their purpose.
The Islamic scholars have yet to contend with reason or even have their first equivalent “Ecumenical Council” to identify and resolve contradictions in their faith and foundation.
That picture of the Muslim child with the bomb is truly tragic. Presumably it is a fake bomb but someday he will be issued a real bomb. What kind of parent sees his children as vehicles for bombs? How can a culture reform itself when a certain percentage of its people are that fanatical?
You sir, have no idea what you are talking about.
Christians of all types try to come to terms with their seeming contradictions because Christianity is influenced by Greek thought. Christians carry with them Plato and Aristotle whether they realize it or not. I suspect that an Islamist, when confronted with a contradiction, would just say that it is a trick of the devil and there would be no effort to examine and try to logically refute the contradiction. The Islamist “logic” would be, “You said something I don’t like, therefore you are a heretic and you must die!”
All these different opinions and translations are a result of interpreting a spiritual book with Aristotelian logic, rather than Hebrew style thinking. The Greek mindset (intellectualism, in which we are steeped) has fractured a cohesive communication of love from our Father into all kinds of manmade interpretations and opinions.
Is it the one that sold for 2.3 million?
Of course there are other versions, the simple act of all the years that copies were made by hand, would include a few changes.
Why not?
Look how many want to re-write the Bible.
Ping.
There is nothing wrong with being comfortable with one’s faith at whatever intellectual level. And mankind is characterized by many intellectual levels. A problem occurs when there is deliberate and willful violation of God’s Commandments.
Yes, but those materials never made into the Bible that we know today in the first place, and I’m not aware if the church leaders ordered them to be destroyed (hidden, perhaps). The Bible is like an edited book with God as the editor (through the Church Fathers), so no doubt that there are many ‘gospels’ didn’t make to the book, and Christians know this. Muslims believe that the Koran was given to Muhammad in the Nuzulul Quran night as a complete book. So, IMO, Christians shouldn’t be surprised nor confused if there are other materials that are similar to the Bible. That’s not the case with Muslims and Koran.
What about the 28 little boys that are promised to the true believer? Are they really cantaloupes?
“Only Church establishment approved Gospels made it into the Bible.”
Yes, but for very sound and strict reasons, which are still defensible to this day, if we were just starting the same project.
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