bart said:
One last note: On the qoran or koran, whatever your preferred spelling. It is interesting to note that all of Maohammed's teachings fell right into line with the teachings of Christianity (turning the other cheek, tolerance, love of neighbor) until Mohammed was run out of Mecca by the merchant's. It was then that he began teaching of jihad, and allied with the Jews, took Mecca by force and murdered the merchants that had run him out.
Very true.
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Guess God changed his messages to Mohammed when things didn't go his way.
I of course do not know if God changed his messages to Mohammed. Personal beliefs tell me that God
never changes His messages but we humans often interpret them erroneously.
If we choose to use Mohammed's behavior as an analogy, it begins to jet interesting. Would we equate the Palestinians to the merchants or would we equate the Jews to the merchants (in the case of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict)? Perhaps the "merchants" are neither the Jews nor the Palestinians, but the Europeans and Americans that promoted the plan to run the Palestinians out of Palestine and replace them with the Jews, thus triggering the jihad.
Regardless, violence and murder, no matter the perpetrator, has to date never truly resolved disputes among mankind. That is why we have been at war with each other for centuries, with no end in sight.
Your remarks bring to mind the biblical story of the Christ entering the temple and overtuning the table of the money changers and running them off. He was angry and took action. Notably, He did not resort to killing or murder. One might say that He, unlike Mohammed, did not misinterpret God's message.
Perhaps the world might be a better place for all of us if the Jews had recognized the errors of Moses' law (an eye for an eye) and embraced the teachings of the Christ. Mohammed might also have faired better had he done the same.
In my perhaps controversial view, religion (in whatever form or doctrine) is the creation of man and more often than not misinterprets the message of God with alarming frequency.
Regards. Nice exchange.
