Still Talking About Logic
Seriously? I almost feel bad for what I’m about to do here. So on the one hand you’re speaking about a God that is unchanging and has no likeness (Jeremiah 10:6, Isaiah 46:9). Then later you talk about the divine nature, which is infinite and unchanging, adopting the nature of humanity, and thus the divine nature having at some point an end to its old nature without humanity and therefore can’t really be called infinite and unchanging anymore. Then you assert that in taking up the nature of humanity, it included everything that comes with it including being finite, all the while having the divine nature maintaining its infinity. — Mr. Mohamed Ghilan
I take it he’s not a fan. (more…)
Talking About Logic
Reason, is quite the wonderful thing and used properly, it is one of the most potent gifts that God has bestowed on us. Now reason is directed towards, and finds its end (i.e. its telos) in, truth. Hence why, man being a rational animal, ought to use this faculty above all else to guide his life choices. For if the end of reason is truth, then the end of truth must be God, for God is truth (John 14:6). So it is always with great pleasure that I tend to read works of the religious sort which place a stringent emphasis on logical thinking. Whether these works favour a Christian viewpoint or not, I must say that I quite enjoy the intellectual stimulation.
This then is how I found myself reading the blog post entitled, Talking About God, by one Mohamed Ghilan. The article, as one would expect, discusses the subject of God from an Islamic perspective and in the course of the work, touches on many things—one being Christianity and its alleged incompatibility with logic. Now, longtime readers of this blog will know that I have already shown how this is not the case and refuted the various examples that Muslims (and other non-Christians) will invariably bring up here (I would certainly recommend this article to Muslims seeing as it features a discussion between myself and Muslims on a Muslim forum), here, here, and here. I intend to make reference to the aforementioned posts and more throughout this article. It goes without saying that reading each post on its own would certainly prove beneficial as well.
The blogger, Mohamed Ghilan, seeks to pit Christianity against logical thinking and by such a manner attempt to prove how vastly superior Islam is. The fact of the matter is that it is precisely Islam that is contrary to reason and the general Muslim position that is unschooled in the proper use of thought. Granted these words can be deemed hurtful and for this fact I must apologize. We will go nowhere if our intent is to willfully denigrate the beliefs of others and this is sincerely not my intention. I say the things I say not because I want to anger Muslims, but rather because I honestly think them to be wrong and their beliefs false. At this time, let us examine the claims of Mohamed Ghilan and see who actually misconstrues logic—whether the Christian or the Muslim. (more…)
Something Different: An Exchange
This post will be very different from those I’ve written so far. I’m not too sure how well it’ll work so I’d greatly appreciate some feedback. Anyway, it is no secret that I’m not a prolific blogger. I write maybe one or two blogs per month—and this is at my best. Most of the time, many months go by without any update on my part. I do apologize for this but updating a blog with quality content on a regular basis is no easy task. That said, in those months when I haven’t been posting, I haven’t exactly been doing nothing either—well I’ve been doing nothing for the most part—but as I was saying, I was at least somewhat productive. The following is just a small part of what I’ve been up to when too lazy to update this blog. More particularly, I took the time to test out some of my arguments and the results were so well that I got banned in the space of a little less than 2 months. I’d like for the reader to follow the exchange between Sol Invictus and whoever he is discussing with (there are quite a few participants who come and go). The subject of the discussion is the Holy Trinity (although the participants move on to different topics as the discussion goes on) and what I would like the reader to note is how it is defended repeatedly without any refutation by the opposition.
(I know that I ended up misnumbering but it would be a pain to change the numbers now. Also, clicking the picture will increase its size and make for an easier read.)
1, 2a, 2b, 2c, 3a, 3b, 3c, 4, 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 8, 9, 10, 11a, 11b, 11c, 11d, 11e, 11f, 11g, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18a, 18b, 18c, 18d, 18e, 18f, 18g, 19a, 19b, 19c, 19d, 19e, 20, 23, 24a, 24b, 24c, 25, 26, 27,
Of Mistakes and Honesty
Readers of this blog will recall that I once wrote a response to an individual going by the name of landsway concerning whether or not the Christ is himself God (and as such equal to the Father)—particularly when this came to his use of 1 Cor. 8:6. The author acknowledged having read my article yet himself did provide no reply to what were serious problems with his position. Personally, I would have loved to have him continue discussing the subject with me yet he made it quite clear that he did not have the time to do so. I, on my part, respected this and for almost an entire year, this was the end of the matter.
Recently however, I have browsed through this individual’s blog again and found that the author is again reiterating the same viewpoint I had claimed to be faulty. Now, before being misunderstood, I should say that I am emphatic of the fact that every individual has the right to express their own opinion. Yet what I do take issue with, is the fact that in writing a post solely to defend his viewpoint and presenting once again the very same arguments—which to the best of my knowledge I have already refuted here (scroll down towards the comment section), here (once again make your way to the comments), here (within the comments) and in my “On (Christian) Unitarianism and 1 Corinthians 8:6” post (the first link within this post)—he is ignoring what I claim to be insurmountable problems with his understanding of the Bible. Moreover, in providing no reply to my argument and yet continuing to present the same points to his audience (as if no challenge to his understanding of theology has been presented) he risks being accused of intellectual dishonesty (not that I am accusing him of such) and failing to take to heart the very dictum he quotes in his post:
“I recently read that an honest but mistaken man; when show the truth, ceases to be mistaken; or he ceases to be honest.” — landsway
All this to say, given that landsway has taken it upon himself to defend his position as biblical truth, then at the very least he owes that post of mine that specifically deals with 1 Cor. 8:6 a response. It is likely that he has forgotten all about our past exchange yet due to his unprompted decision to make a post solely to promote his reading of scripture, he must in all honesty defend his methodology and conclusion from criticism.
Does the Bible Teach the Divinity of Christ? Pt. II
Recently, 6sman has made a rejoinder to my response towards his initial article, Decisive Biblical Evidence Against Christ’s Divinity. In a similar vein to what I had noted earlier, once again we find that he is thoroughly restrained and quite courteous in his reply to me. It must be admitted that he elucidates the Muslim position quite well and though it may very well be the case that we will not come to an agreement on the matter of what God desires for us to believe, it has been a pleasure discussing with him all the same. That said, insofar as he has defended the Muslim position yet again, I am compelled to give the reason for the hope that is within me. I will not say that my response will be short but it will certainly be worth one’s time. Once again, the general theme of my post will be consistency vs. inconsistency and I hope to show how the Muslim understanding is thoroughly inconsistent with the text in question—the Bible—and in particular, the New Testament. (more…)
The Holy Trinity in the Qur’an
Without a doubt most Muslims believe that the Qur’an actually speaks against the Blessed Trinity and it is my experience that when broaching this topic, one will invariably be presented with a series of quotations from the Muslim holy book which express, in one form or another, a condemnation of what is supposed to be the Christian Trinity. Let us waste no time in saying that although the Qur’an believes itself to be condemning the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, in every instance it undertakes this task it fails to do so and in fact condemns various heresies that adherers of the Trinity themselves have condemned hundreds of years prior to the advent of Islam. (more…)
Allah, and Why I am not a Muslim: Another Look
It just so happens that Hasan took issue with my initial article, to which he then wrote a partial rebuttal and this led to our engaging in a brief discussion on his blog. Eventually, it seemed fit that I dedicate another post on the subject of the Muslim deity and Islam in order to deal with the questions that were brought up in the course of our comments to one another. I strongly recommend for the reader to have at least viewed my original article before reading this one and encourage them to read Hasan’s partial response to it in order to have the best understanding possible of the matters being discussed because I may not necessarily explain things to the extent that one who has read neither of these will need. (more…)
Re: Sin and atonement [Part – 5]
Here’s a post on quite a number of things related to the atonement and Christ’s passion. It is a reply to this article written by one Hasan. The author in fact has an entire series dedicated to questioning the Christian understanding of these concepts and having browsed through most of the articles in this series, I must commend him for thinking critically about the Christian scriptures but I should mention that the outcome leaves much to be desired. Unfortunately his resultant product suffers from severe mistakes and errors in logic which will become all too apparent the more one reads this article. That said, this article is long. (more…)
On (Christian) Unitarianism and 1 Corinthians 8:6
edit: for some odd reason I had misspelt the individual’s name.
I have recently been engaged in a series of discussions concerning the issue of whether Jesus is God or something other than God, namely the Son of God. While your average Christian would see no contradiction in affirming both statements, the individual with whom I had the pleasure of discussing with seemed to have a vastly different understanding of what these terms meant. It was clear that to him, it denoted some inferiority in ontological being yet since I never actually asked him to expound on his understanding of this title, I won’t go into a discussion of it either. Now before I continue with the subject proper, I should mention that this post should be read in unison with these other two as well. Anyway, let us begin. (more…)
Allah, and Why I am not a Muslim
At this time, I would like to focus on the concept of God and how he is understood in Christianity and Islam but before that, I would like to present the reader with two scenarios, and once read, I would like for them to simply think about the contrast between the two. Now, if it follows that I have gone beyond what Islam teaches then I sincerely ask to be corrected. Please, I only wish to say what Islam says of itself so if it is that I have misrepresented it, don’t hesitate to inform me. (more…)
Re: Is Jesus God?
Here is an interesting article by one Mushafiq Sultan. The author seeks to prove from the Bible that Jesus is not God himself. What follows is a succession of half-quotes, blatant lies, faulty logic and all around contextual bastardization in a bid to show the Christian position to be incorrect. Now I realize that those were in fact some rather strong words but I am quite confident that by the time the reader finishes this article, they will have seen that I was actually quite reserved in my opinion of the article. Furthermore, no matter whether they believe Christianity to be true or not, they will agree with the statement that the Bible teaches the divinity of Christ. Now as it comes to evidence for the divinity of Jesus Christ, I have always known that eventually I would have to write such a post and in one respect sincerely dreaded the thought. There is just so much to cover and even in trying to cover just the “important things” I know quite well that I will fail in doing the subject any justice. So with that caveat, let me begin to explain from scripture why in fact Christians consider Jesus to be God. (more…)
For Ruwayda, Whenever I Find Her III
Surprisingly enough, Ms. Ruwayda has already provided me with another reply to address some of the points that I had brought up in my latest post. But before I continue I would like to make clear that if I came off as needlessly competitive and if it appeared that this discussion was little more than a game for me then I sincerely apologize. It was not at all my intention. I realize that I have made the claim more than once that Ms. Ruwayda had not refuted me yet this was in no way done out of pride but rather it was simply a statement of fact given that she had brought up certain points which as I have shown did nothing to present my argument as having been incorrect. Now this response on my part will most likely be fairly short (in comparison to my previous posts) given that this time, there is far less that she is objecting to. (more…)
For Ruwayda, Whenever I Find Her II
edit: Ms. Ruwayda has been kind enough to also provide her response to this article in the comments section below.
It seems that there has been a response to one of my previous posts coming from Ruwayda herself. I would encourage anyone with the time, to read it because it is well-written and touches upon some of the most important difficulties that Muslims have with the Christian doctrine. I will state once more before I proceed to prove it, that the doctrine of God taking upon himself the punishment of the sins of the world is perfectly logical and a display of the highest mercy and love. Furthermore, that she has once more misunderstood Christianity and that her very argument, as much as she would like to hope otherwise, actually works in favour of the Christian position when it is examined properly. Anyway, enough of this preamble, let us dip right into the matter.
Of Gods and Men
This post stems from the abundance of misinformation and subterfuge that is passed off as Christian doctrine around the internet by Muslim apologists. I would rather believe that they just sincerely lack the basest understanding of the Christian religion than to think that they, with full knowledge, lie and mislead their Muslim audience in such a fashion. I say this because I have yet to hear or read of any Muslim apologist that can state, for example, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the incarnation, the idea of the Christian liberty, etc. as Christians themselves believe these and then attack it with any semblance of logic to show that, as Christians believe these things to be, they are wholly unintelligible (Here’s looking at you Ahmed Deedat, Zakir Naik, Shabir Ally, Joshua Evans etc.) and just plainly wrong. What’s worse is that I find the same lack of understanding from Christian converts to Islam, to the point where I have to honestly wonder whether it was their lack of knowledge which led to their apostatizing (Hosea 4:6) or whether all their prior knowledge on these matters is somehow dissolved in the process of their recitation of the Shahada? Therefore this post is dedicated to help dispel some common myths on the matter of Christian doctrine. (more…)
Forgiveness, and Why I am not a Muslim
I have already spoken on the subject of love and how Islam, by it’s own admission (or more precisely, by the ramifications of its philosophy), generally considers Allah himself unworthy of the highest and most supreme form of love. Indeed it encourages a type of subpar worship towards God on the part of the Muslim and, in praising, absolutely denigrates God. Yet enough of that, this post has to do with the matter of forgiveness in Islam (and Christianity by relation). A common charge levied against Christianity by Muslims is that Islam paints a superior picture of God seeing as Allah does not require sacrifice but will rather simply forgive sins. I must admit that at face value Islam does seem to be the superior religion on this count yet can this belief be sustained after one has worked through the implications inherent in the concepts of sin, forgiveness, and the divine nature?
Love, Jesus, and the Qur’an
I just came across the following video and felt that I just had to share it seeing as the resemblance between it and some of my posts is uncanny. The speaker touches upon many things I have mentioned throughout this blog (even to the point of using the same examples that I had used). Anyway the video itself is rather short but very much to the point.
For Ruwayda, Whenever I Find Her
edit: Ms. Ruwayda has been kind enough to also provide her response to this article in the comments section below.
It’s exactly midnight and like all other good Christian boys I am deeply engaged in plotting the downfall of Islam one blog post at a time. That; was my attempt at humour (a lame attempt, but an attempt nonetheless). I don’t actively plot the downfall of anything; much less at midnight soon to be one in the morning. Anyway, this particular post is going to be a little different in that for one thing, I don’t at all know too well what I will be talking about and that—perhaps due to it being so late (and myself not thinking straight) or the fact that I’m listening to Coldplay’s “Fix You” (and hence myself not thinking straight)—I mean this post to be for Ruwayda (who left me a comment in the previous post) in particular. So Ruwayda, if I may be so familiar with you, this is for you. (more…)
Love, and Why I am not a Muslim
Discussing the subject of God with Muslims is absolutely amazing. They possess such a devotion to God, they believe so firmly in his goodness, so strongly in his beauty—it truly is a wonderful thing. In our love for God we are like brother and sister; the Christian and the Muslim. The manner in which the Muslim loves God more than life itself so completely resonates with me. It’s as if they speak the very words I feel in my heart. Often this common ground we share is overlooked, but with all honesty, this is something that both Christians and Muslims should make a point of appreciating more fully. (more…)
Re: Was Muhammad Inspired by God?
edit: Three times now I have left a nice, respectful comment to the author of whose post to which this reply is aimed at and three times now he has deleted my comments. They claim to wish to be let known of any holes in their argument and yet when I completely refute their argument, they are quick to hide this from their Muslim audience. It’s telling that they’d want to lie not only to themselves, but fellow Muslims as well—telling indeed.
On perusing the internet, I came across this article which claims to prove that Muhammad was neither a madman nor inspired by Satan. Now the article divides itself between a section aimed at a general audience and another to refute a specific Christian claim—namely, that Muhammad was inspired by Satan. I would encourage all Christians to read it in order to see how gravely most Muslims misunderstand the Christian message and YHWH—the only true God. (more…)
Joshua Evans: Ex-Christian Pt. I
This is the first in what I hope to be a series of Christian responses to our critics. I choose to focus on Joshua Evans’ lecture entitled “How the Bible led me to Islam” (which can be found here). Joshua himself is an ex-Methodist who used to be a youth minister and then subsequently left Christianity at age 17 (?). The previous link leads to a different video in which Joshua gives a brief explanation of his journey to Islam and his misgivings with Christianity. Not that I wish to focus on this video too much but I should mention that he is presented as an expert on Christianity so it does come off as a great surprise that he does not know what it is that Methodists actually believe. (more…)
God Omnipotent 