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To: Alex Murphy

The similarities have been noted for hundreds of years, but in all likelihood Muhammad got his fatalistic/deterministic view of God from the same place John Calvin did: St. Augustine. Remember that the Koran was assembled using Christian and Jewish texts in the Arabian Peninsula where Christians and Jews had been living since at least the first century. Their kingdoms in the Arabian Peninsula were the high tech cultures and the builders of the first permanent cities while the Bedouins were still running around the deserts, periodically hiring themselves out as mercenaries both to the Romans and to the Persians. By the time Muhammad was to have had his first vision (610), St. Augustine’s works had already been around for over 180 years. And Muhammad tailored his initial messages to appeal to the Christians and Jews, both of whom rejected him, leading to the destruction of the Arabian Christian and Jewish kingdoms.


18 posted on 12/12/2011 5:40:08 PM PST by aruanan
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To: aruanan
Recent archaeological work by the Saudi government revealed the Kaaba to have been an Hindu temple. They've even figured out which god(s) were originally worshipped at the site.

More likely the Moslem theologians behind the Koran got much of their beliefs from that tradition (which also has a full array of stories stemming from the days of Noah).

30 posted on 12/12/2011 6:10:45 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: aruanan
The Bedouins are not central to the Arabic identity, but peripheral. The very first semites the Sumerians encountered were far from being wandering herdsmen.

In fact, the Sumerians were the ones who had been wandering herdsmen when they built the first cities along the banks of the Euphrates, invented writing and most of the features of civilization.

Some say the term "arab" meant, in Sumerian, or maybe Dravidian, "thief" ~ it goes back that far.

37 posted on 12/12/2011 6:20:26 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: aruanan; rzman21
his fatalistic/deterministic view of God

Only I would use the little "g" god.

It is a regression: back to "the fates". At the mercy of a capricious god tossing dice to see who suffers eternally and who does not.

It's as if both Judaism and Christianity never happened.

88 posted on 12/12/2011 7:38:10 PM PST by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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