Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Answering Islam

Just some quick argumentative strategies to use against Muslims:

1. The Qur'an makes no claim that Muhammed performed miracles to verify his message.  This is a basic requirement for new prophets.

The "splitting of the moon" is often taken by Islamic interpreters to refer to the end of the age.  The  Qur'an itself attests that Muhammad was only a "warner."

Some Muslims will make a reference to the Hadith to show that Muhammad performed miracles.  But the Hadith are much later tradition and are not universally accepted by Muslims (see: Quranism).  Plus, they'd seem to conflict with the Qur'an's teaching that Muhammad was merely a warner.

2. The Islamic claim that the Christian scriptures have been corrupted through history is demonstrably false given the manuscript evidence. 

Taken from ReasonableFaith: Of the approximately 138,000 words in the New Testament only about 1,400 remain in doubt. The text of the New Testament is thus about 99% established. That means that when you pick up a (Greek) New Testament today, you can be confident that you are reading the text as it was originally written. Moreover, that 1% that remains uncertain has to do with trivial words on which nothing of importance hangs.

3. Islam makes historical claims that are very likely false, like the claim that Jesus did not die on the cross.

4. Christianity (and Judaism) insists that all new revelations of God must be consistent with prior verified revelations. The Qur'an is not consistent with prior revelation, and thus should be rejected. 

Implicit in this is the idea that God's revelation cannot be corrupted once made.

5. Muhammed misunderstood the nature of the Trinity, thinking that Mary was God's consort.

6. We can motivate the doctrine of the Trinity on independent philosophical grounds.  Swinburne's method.

7. The Qur'an itself has severe manuscript corruption.  The Sanaa manuscript demonstrates this, as well as the order by Uthman to destroy alternative versions of the Qur'an.

8. The Qur'an has internal inconsistencies.  For instance, its treatment of the Injil is inconsistent, both calling them the Word of God, claiming that the Word of God cannot change, and then claiming that the Injil have been corrupted.

Surah Al-E-Imran (3) 3 and Surah Al-Maeda (5) 68 for claims that the Injil are divine revelation. Surah Al-Anaam (6) 34 and  Surah Al-Kahf (18) 27 for the claim that Allah's words cannot be changed.  Common claims by Muslims that the Bible has been corrupted.

 For more: https://jonathanmclatchie.com/a-simple-reason-why-the-quran-cannot-be-the-word-of-god/

9.  The Satanic Verses objection is strong.  See here: http://www.wall.org/~aron/blog/comparing-religions-viii-honest-messengers/

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