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‘Why Christians and Muslims Can’t Get Along’
Why Christians and Muslims Can’t Get Along
What do I know?
Like most other American Christians, I can’t claim to know much about Islam. I took a two-month class on the religion in college, and learned a bit about it in high school, but other than that, I have had no immersion into the religion, and only see it through the lens of the war.
But let’s focus on what we do know. Muhammad was a normal and pious man, born around 570 C.E., married to an older woman, living his life when the angel Gabriel came to him and ordered him to recite. The Qur’an is the result of this recitation from illiterate Muhammad. The Qur’an is the living word of God, similar to how Christ is the living word to the Christian God. Muslims worship only God, Islam means “submission to God,” and Muhammad was a prophet, just as Abraham, Jesus, and all the Old Testament prophets were.
Out of the Qur’an comes the Five Pillars. They are 1) Confessing faith in one God, 2) Prayer five times a day, 3) Alms-giving, 4) Fasting at Ramadan, and 5) hajj, which is a pilgrimage to Mecca, a historically relevant city to the Muslim faith.
Sunnis follow Muhammad’s example. Shiites follow Muhammad’s example but also, long ago, chose to follow the example of Muhammad’s descendants, like Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law.
Jihad means “struggle.” It is not holy war, but it can be. It puts a name to the inner struggle each Muslim goes through to submit to God rather than follow their own ego.
Muslims believe that humans were created with fitra–a good framework everyone is born with, but that many people forget and get distracted from the true path. This negates the need for a Savior, unlike Christianity, which is a religion based on the saving blood of Christ. All one needs to do to be saved in the Islam faith is to follow the Five Pillars.
Treatment of Women
We look at Muslim women covered head to toe, living under strict rules and say the religion and culture is oppressing them. Muslims look at American women wearing next to nothing on TV and billboards, putting all their worth in their bodies, and say American culture and Christianity are objectifying and oppressing their women. Both sides argue that their women are better off.
These differences will always bother the modern, democratic West as well as the traditional, Islamic East. It overlaps into all the question both religions ask: do we move forward with our ideas and technology, or do we try to go back to the way things were in the Bible or in Muhammad’s time? No text or living example can tell us what to do about stem cell research. The ambiguity in both Christian and Islam doctrine create unanswerable questions and unnegotiable relations between nations.
But we look at the stories of Muslim men killing their sisters because they were raped, or seen with a man who wasn’t part of the family, and we Westerners cannot condone it due to cultural difference. How can two civilizations agree to disagree when innocent people die? It is difficult to know when to intervene with another nation.
Yet, many Muslim women feel hopeful that they will attain more freedoms as time goes by. Only a hundred years ago in the US, women weren’t allowed to vote. How can we rush other cultures to catch up to us?
Violence and Jihad
Another reason Christians and Muslims can’t get along is violence. The unforgettable attacks and counterattacks of the last decade have shown us that people will fight and die for their religion. Christians and Americans question Muslims: how is your religion peaceful when so much war and killing has happened since its beginning?
Muslims turn around and ask us the same thing. Christianity has a history of violence, too. The US has turned to violence to get what it has wanted.
But why did Islam extremists attack us? As Western thought and modernism spread, along with American culture, to almost every nation, Muslims cannot help but see these new ways of thinking and living as imposing on their religious tradition. When we try to make their religious governments into democracies, they don’t see it as a gift of freedom, they see it as an attack on their religion. When the World Trade Centers fell down and fingers were pointed to Al Qaeda, Christians too felt their religion was being attacked. Christians tend to tie up their religious conviction with patriotism, and freedom has become a synonym for the American way of life.
The majority on both sides want peace. But both sides are also called to spread their religion to all nations. Dedicated Muslims and Christians alike will fight for what they believe is right. This is the cause of the clash.
What Can We Do?
We have only dipped into this topic, and have already found material for endless debate. What can we do with this rising issue?
- For now, the best thing to do is to learn as much as we can about Islam. We must stay updated on what is going on in Islamic countries and we must hush our assumptions and listen for awhile.
- Understand and remember that there is fear on both sides. Western culture has become a force, a blind pillar of great evil to many other cultures in the world. Muslims also understand little about us. They fear us as much as we may fear them.
- Find the beauty in Islam. Instead of looking for its faults, look at it for inspiration for your own faith. How do Muslims find happiness? Looking for the positive aspects, we will have more than enough to love about this other culture.
- Talk about it with as many people as possible. Really listen to what other people are saying, and be respectful while still arguing your point. Communication is always the first step, and most of the time, we cannot even manage that. Let’s start the discussion.
The World Has Just Ended
Looks like that nutcase Harold Camping was right all along. Oh no! This isn’t looking good.
Crazy Lady Rebukes Devil at CVS Pharmacy
This is just ridiculous…
Crazy Lady Rebukes Devil In CVS – Watch more Funny Videos
Irreligious Logic vs. Religious Logic
I’m so sick and tired of arguing with religious fanatics across the Internet. Why do they resort to such deluded thinking? Here is a pre-written example of how debates usually start and end whenever I start one with a believer:
Skeptic: Cancers and other diseases are terrible. Why do they even exist?
Believer: It’s because of The Devil.
Skeptic: And why doesn’t Yahweh know about this?
Believer: He does — it’s just that He gave us free will.
Skeptic: So… we can choose what kinds of diseases to acquire if we wanted to? Are you suggesting that people “choose” to acquire diseases? That doesn’t sound very logical…
Believer: NO!!! You don’t get it!!! God gave us free will and Man perverted His creations by eating from the Tree of Life!!!
Skeptic: OK, then how come Yahweh isn’t doing anything to prevent “The Devil” from causing diseases?
Believer: AGAIN — it’s because He gave US free will! We chose to sin and this is our penalty for breaking His rules. God can do anything He wants, you know.
Skeptic: Sorry, but I believe Yahweh was supposed to be “omniscient” and “omnipotent,” correct? An omniscient deity is a deity that is supposed to have infinite knowledge beyond time and space. An omnipotent deity is a deity that is supposed to have an unlimited amount of universal power and authority. That said, if Yahweh is argued to be both an “omniscient” and “omnipotent” deity, doesn’t it make you wonder why Yahweh isn’t really doing anything to prevent “The Devil” from causing all the negativity in this world? By the way, animals and plants also can have diseases of their own — does this mean that there are “devils” for animals and plants, as well as “gods” for animals and plants? I don’t seem to understand where you are going with this.
Believer: *Rolls eyes* Seriously, atheist! You just don’t understand God or His Word! He works in MYSTERIOUS WAYS! Animals don’t have souls because we humans are the chosen ones! Humans and animals have NOTHING in common!
Skeptic: First, nowhere did I ever mention that I am an atheist; what I may or may not believe is irrelevant to this debate. Merely, I am questioning your position and reasoning for it. Second, I don’t see why you’re pulling the “You just don’t understand!” card while at the same time claiming to have knowledge of the mind of your deity. Third, how do you know that we humans have nothing to do with other animals such as apes, for instance? Are we not mammals? Don’t both species share likeness in body structure, personality, reasoning skills, etc.? We, just like the apes, are warm-blooded and have genitals that we use for mating with the opposite sex so that the female may bear one or more offspring. Females feed their young just like other female mammals do. Isn’t that what other female mammals do? The fact that we humans are warm-blooded vertebrate animals that have genitals (which are used for reproducing new life) and that our females carry milk to feed our young is a no-brainer that we DO in fact belong under the classification of mammalians. What do you have to say to these points?
Believer: *Rolls eyes again* Well… YOU have NO BRAIN! Seriously, you’re just an evolutionist trying to lure me into the path of unrighteousness so that I too may burn in Hell for all eternity with you… you… you… HEATHENS! You hate God! The Devil is making you say all these things because he knows that you are allowing him to come in and ruin your life! You need Jesus! Jesus died for us!
Skeptic: Wow, you need to remain civil. You are getting nowhere in this debate if all you’re going to do is brand me as a “heretic.” Seriously, this is the 21st century — more and more people to this day are coming to a realization that Christianity and Islam are simply archaic, primitive belief systems and that there are better attempts to explain how the universe works and why we exist that don‘t necessarily rely on most religions. For example, the Bible makes claims of such ridiculous things such as humans being able to live for 500+ years, an old man single-handedly building a boat and packing hordes of animals (all of which he was said to have captured by himself) on it to survive a 40-day flood, a rib-woman conversing with a talking serpent (to add insult to the injury, absolutely NO mention of “The Devil” possessing the animal is to be found — not even in the highly-acclaimed King James Bible), sticks turning into snakes, a man whose physical strength was equivalent to the length of his hair, and so many others. It really is a surprise to me that there are people who still take these stories in a literal sense. Come now, none of these things have ever been supported by science. Oh wait, science is controlled by “The Devil.”
Believer: Ha, ha! You have no idea what you’re talking about, evolutionist atheist! All these stories are PROVEN and HISTORICAL accounts as recorded in the Bible! We still believe in God because we don’t want to go to Hell! You do! And yes, science IS now controlled by The Devil and he started a religion called Darwinism. Sound familiar?
Skeptic: Look. If I told you that a unicorn was hiding in my backyard, would you trust me? If not, then why? What if I also told you that you have to believe in the “Unicorn God” in order to be saved? Wouldn’t that sound ridiculous to you? Of course it would! There is no validity to such an absurd claim, neither yours of how this world was created from Christianity’s perspective.
Believer: That’s because you don’t know Jesus. Once you know Him, you never go back!
Skeptic: …Except I used to have a belief in Christianity but I no longer possess it.
Believer: YOU NEVER WERE A TRUE CHRISTIAN IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!
Skeptic: Who are you to judge? I thought only Yahweh (and ONLY Yahweh) could judge us (if this particular deity DOES exist)? Doesn’t your book say that only those who may cast the first stone are the ones who never “sinned”?
Believer: Again, this is The Devil reaching out to you and feeding you lies so you can go and mock God! And stop calling Him ‘Yahweh’! There is only one TRUE God!
Skeptic: OK, I have to admit: I worship “The Devil” every night and I eat shellfish twice a week. Yes, I am mocking Yahweh.
Believer: *Smile* That’s more like it. So you admit you are possessed by The Devil! However, you can change! Come to my church! It’s the one TRUE church!
Skeptic: That would be LaVeyan.
Believer: FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
I have come to a realization that arguing with religious people about religion is a total waste of time. However, it is fun to stir the pot with the faithful whenever irreligious people correct them on their misused logic! Still, I am of the position that there are better things to do than get involved with religious debates. I have a life, and I can’t be expected to debate blind sheep 24/7. The difference between me and them is that I make a living for myself by being fully focused on REALITY and they make a living wasting their lives with such outdated and unscientific philosophies. We only get one life — don’t waste it away on things that have already been proven false by science and most of all — logic.
Online survey author alleges atheists have better sex lives
Online survey author alleges atheists have better sex lives
Psychologist Darrel Ray, who was raised in a conservative Christian household, conducted an online survey to determine the impact of religion on sexual satisfaction.
Ray set out to confirm whether his own experience- that his sex life vastly improved when he ditched religion- bore out among others. Ray, who authored the book The God Virus: How God Infects Our Lives and Culture, sought out 14,500 people who had once been religious or raised in a religious environment before becoming atheist or agnostic. What Ray discovered is that guilt seems to heavily influence sexual satisfaction in many specific subsets of Christianity.
The survey did not adhere to social science study guidelines, but Ray reported the results as follows:
Those who had been raised Mormon with their strict views about sex, showed the highest rating among those who had sexual guilt with an average score of 8.19 out of 10. Others with similar responses were Jehovah’s Witness, Pentecostal, Seventh Day Adventist and Baptist.
Catholics, on the other hand, rated their guilt at 6.34 and Lutherans came in at 5.88. Atheists and agnostics were the lowest in guilt at 4.71 and 4.81.
University of Texas at Austin associate professor Mark Regnerus dismissed the survey as biased and said Ray’s methods were “unscientific,” adding:
“It appears that it was a ‘fill it out if you want to’ kind of survey that is not random, not nationally representative, and relies entirely on self-selection,” he said. “In other words, they have data from people who felt like filling out a survey on atheism and sex. As a result, I am not surprised at their findings.”
Regnerus said the results were based on “hearsay or guesswork,” and opined:
“I don’t fault the author for running the survey he did, but it does display research methods which do not meet the standards of most published social science.”
Indeed, the results would have been a bit more interesting even just stacked against responses from religious folk who consider themselves sexually satisfied. Do you agree with Ray’s findings? Does religion or lack thereof significantly affect your view on sex?
Christian Responses: What good has Christianity done?
What good has Christianity done?
Quick-read this article:
While evolution’s philosophy of “survival of the fittest” has brought overwhelmingly harmful movements such as Nazism, Stalinism, and eugenics, Christians following Christ’s teaching of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” have established hospitals, welfare agencies, orphanages, charities, relief agencies, universities … and fought for prison reform, abolition of slavery, better education, and treatment for alcoholics.
Jesus Christ said: “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit” (Matthew 7:18).
The frightful evolutionary catchphrase of “survival of the fittest” has led to many harmful movements, such as Stalin’s murderous rampages, Francis Galton’s appalling eugenics ideas, and Hitler’s master race program. (See the article What harm can come from believing in evolution?)
Is Christianity any better?
Atheists and skeptics sometimes say that Christianity is no better — just look at the crusades, the Ku Klux Klan, slavery in the American South, etc.
Yet true Christianity is based on Jesus Christ’s Golden Rule — Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Matthew 7:12). None of the movements they mention — the crusades, the KKK, slavery in the American South, etc. — have been based on this principle or any other of Jesus Christ’s teachings.
In fact, if you want to compare the fruit, you will find there are no Skeptics’ or rationalists’ hospitals, charities, or aged-care homes, no evolutionists’ orphanages, welfare agencies, or relief agencies, or any other life-improving institutions such as those founded and funded by Christians who have followed Jesus’ teachings.
Christianity has always been humanitarian
The early church in Jerusalem appointed deacons and elders to care for widows and the sick (Acts 6:1, James 5:13), and churches still do this today. In the Middle Ages, the monasteries created hospitals. Burgeoning numbers of pilgrims to the Holy Land were cared for by the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem.
The noble nursing reformer Florence Nightingale received her training at the first Protestant hospital — at Kaiserwerth in Germany.
While Charles Darwin was finalizing publication of his Origin of Species in 1859, Swiss humanitarian and Bible-believer Henri Dunant was planning the Red Cross and negotiating the Geneva convention for the care and treatment of wounded soldiers. Dunant was co-winner of the first Nobel Prize for Peace in 1901, and his inspiring Red Cross committee later won the award three times.
It was the Bible-believing Christians in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries — not the evolutionists of the day — who tackled the illiteracy problem, adult education, abolition of slavery, prison reform, and treatment for alcoholics. The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was formed in 1844, the YWCA a decade later, and the Salvation Army launched its multinational welfare organization based on Christian ethics and precepts six years after the release of Darwin’s Origin of Species.
Care for those who are troubled
Christians have always offered pastoral care to those who are hurt, troubled, grieving or alienated. Christians set the foundations for education in North America, including the establishment of universites such as Harvard and Yale.
It is unlikely that the evolutionary world view would ever allow significant humanitarian causes to arise and flourish, because if you believe you are the product of purposeless evolution through “survival of the fittest”, there is little incentive or reason to help the weak. Hence we get monumental abominations under the likes of Stalin, Galton, and Hitler.
The concept of humanitarianism comes from Christ’s teachings. That is definitely not a “corrupt tree” or “corrupt fruit”.
History shows that it is the Christians who have made this world a better place for all — even for Skeptics, anti-Christians, evolutionists and atheists.
Christian Responses: 8 Really Good Reasons Why Christianity Is True
8 Really Good Reasons Why Christianity Is True
In a world of logic, reason and science, why do millions of people still follow a religion that is nearly 2000 years old? How can any faith compete with the collective knowledge and wisdom of modern society? Isn’t it time to start demanding that religions either stand up to the rigors of intellectual investigation or be discarded in the name of progress?
Mankind has had greater advances in education and science over the past 100 years than ever before. Once upon a time the horse and buggy were cutting edge technology, but now we fly around in jet aircraft. Our knowledge of physics, astronomy and other sciences has absolutely exploded. So why does anyone still listen to an ancient religion that is thousands of years old?
Everywhere you go on the internet today, and I mean EVERYWHERE, there are debates going on about Christianity, and these debates can get incredibly heated. Some of the best minds and some of the best educated people in the world claim to have the answers. Atheists, skeptics, philosophers, preachers, bloggers and other self-appointed religious experts are constantly battling for the intellectual high ground.
So who is right?
Do logic, reason and modern science have anything to say about religion?
Can religion survive in an era when most of the people are educated and when many people look at religious claims with skepticism?
When skeptics attack most religions, they DO indeed have the intellectual high ground. For when one closely examines such “faiths” as Islam or Hinduism one does find that logic, reason and real, hard evidence are directly contradictory to these religious systems.
However, Christianity is the one faith that is different in this regard. It is our assertion that there is absolutely no conflict between Christianity and the truth.
If you make the decision to actually investigate these matters objectively, you will find that Christianity has a MOUNTAIN of evidence to support it. Those who have actually studied these things with an open mind know the truth.
Dr. Simon Greenleaf (Harvard University – one of the greatest professors of Law in U.S. history) once said: “According to the laws of legal evidence used in courts of law, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than for just about any other event in history.”
Have you ever spent much time wondering if Christianity is true or not?
Perhaps you should.
We have studied these matters for over 20 years, and we have come to the conclusion that after you have asked all the questions, and after you have done all the research, the evidence does lead to an overwhelming conclusion:
Christianity is true.
But the sad reality is that the vast majority of Christians do not know how to defend the Christian faith. Why? Because the church has done an absolutely MISERABLE job of teaching people about the evidence for Christianity. So when Christians come up against atheists, skeptics and self-appointed, know-it-all “experts” they don’t know how to respond to their questions.
We would encourage all of you to investigate these matters for yourself.
The following are 8 really good reasons why Christianity is true…..
#1) The world around us reveals that God DOES exist. The following short videos were produced by an ex-atheist and ex-evolutionist who is a graduate of Yale Law School. These videos drive atheists and skeptics crazy, but for a more complete treatment of this topic, please read Strobel’s excellent book entitled “The Case For A Creator”:
http://www.leestrobel.com/Creator.htm
#2) The historical evidence reveals that Jesus Christ really did come to this earth:
http://www.grantjeffrey.com/article/historicalev.htm
#3) There is overwhelming evidence that Jesus Christ really did physically rise from the dead:
http://shatteredparadigm.blogspot.com/2008/05/resurrection-of-jesus-is-real.html
#4) All of these things about Jesus were prophetically foretold by God in the Bible with specificity:
http://www.xenos.org/teachings/topical/objections/daniel9.htm
(Click “Watch” to view the presentation)and
http://shatteredparadigm.blogspot.com/2008/07/do-you-know-about-all-messianic.html
#5) There is massive evidence that Jesus is doing miracles in our day:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2575536377261580026&q=Raised+from+the+dead&hl=en
#6) There are thousands of stories of Jesus appearing to people all over the globe:
http://prorege-forum.com/messages/407.html
and
http://www.amightywind.com/fastfood/dreams/040723muslimdreams.htm
#7) Jesus is coming again and the signs of the end times that were foretold in the Bible are coming to pass right in front of our eyes:
http://shatteredparadigm.blogspot.com/2008/05/did-you-know-that-there-are-ancient.html
#8) Credible witnesses have seen the afterlife and have come back and reported to us that it is precisely as the Bible describes:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=648912510964850987&q=hell&hl=en
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ElnQUVkWsQ
The truth is that the afterlife is very real, so make the right choice and give your life to Jesus Christ today:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8149875636555097567&q=Hell+and+Back&hl=en
If you have been persuaded by the evidence and you are interested in becoming a Christian, the following link is a place where you can learn more:
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1049/1049_01.asp