i hope you will understand that this slander, convenient and pat as many muslims seem to believe it to be, is in fact the precise opposite; a sword that you are picking up by the blade that will hurt you as well, you need to understand why that is. it makes me sad when muslims smugly drop this into conversation without understanding the implications for their own beliefs.
Blame the Internet. What is worse than the horror of knowing what people are thinking on the other side of the world, however erroneous? It is like being stabbed in the heart a hundred times even though you're a hundred thousand kilometres away!
bananabrain, see this? I'm pointing a gun at the phone! Bang! Sorry mate, you're dead.
Many biblical scholars admit that Bible has undergone a lot of 'transformations.' Without me typing up a book here, you can research it yourself.
Well, at least they are honest. It is, however, argued that the differences in manuscripts are not significant enough to imply changes in meaning.
New Testament, even without the Holy Qur'an stating that the Bible (meaning OT and NT together) is corrupted to some degree, is a contradiction in itself as compared to the Old Testament the way it is (the biggest contraversy being the concept of trinity).
The Trinity is not even mentioned in the New Testament. Many Christian churches simply accept the idea of the Trinity. They didn't change the texts to prove that there was a Trinity. Instead, they found verses to argue that there was one and this happened a very long time ago in the third and fourth centuries. The decision to make the doctrine of the Trinity
official didn't arise out of alterations to the sacred Christian texts. No, it happened without them.
It is very important if you want an accurate understanding of Christianity and if you are a Muslim thinking that the Christian texts were altered to support the doctrine of the Trinity, to understand that this never happened. If it did, why are there so many divisions in Christian communities around the world over the correctness of the concept of the Trinity? All of these communities use the same text. You would think that if they altered the text that everyone would agree.
But they don't, with the reason being that most Christian communities around the world use a text that doesn't even mention the Trinity. We simply have some of them accepting it as official doctrine.
If the concept of the Trinity is wrong, the least you could say is that the official doctrine is wrong. Official doctrine comes from an
interpretation that has become collectively established in a particular community. The least you could say then is that
Christian teachings have become corrupted. But considering that the texts weren't even altered to support it, it would be a gross misunderstanding to assert that the texts were corrupted just because a large number of Christians believe in the Trinity.
But whether it's the accusations of corrupted texts or Jews rejecting a true Messiah, there is something about all these "fault-finding incidents" that really makes me uncomfortable about those making them. Several years back I would have agreed with people who asserted that Jews rejected a true messiah, but back then I believe I was ignorant.
It is not that I don't consider Jesus a messiah-figure. The problem is not in the statement of Jesus being a messiah, but rather in it not being socially constructively on a large scale. The problem with asserting that people have corrupted texts or rejected a messiah is that these assertions often come from people who aren't interested in a socially constructive agenda with the religious communities of the people they target.
You can assert that a person has mistaken beliefs, but if you're not prepared to fix the problems in that religious community or get involved, you're not doing much good. Instead, you're doing something to destroy and disrupt that community and I think that is disrespectful.
I think what Jews, Christians and Muslims (less often true of Jews) all need to understand is that you may think that you are doing God a favour by correcting people's beliefs, but it could be that God was involved in making that community grow. You would then be disrupting something God helped create.
Christians and Muslims can have an outrageous arrogance and overblown confidence in the correctness of their beliefs, especially in comparison to adherents of other faiths. Personally, however, I am finding that it is more likely that people can find justification for their own beliefs than for there to be any such thing as a "uniquely correct belief." I find that what a lot of people think is a "uniquely correct belief" is a belief born out of ignorance of another religious community. Ultimately it means that it is less likely for the other community to be wrong in their beliefs because what one considered to be "uniquely correct" and superior to the other's beliefs came from ignorance rather than correct knowledge and understanding.
For this reason, I no longer consider it constructive to tell another religious group their beliefs are wrong because if I am not prepared to get involved in their community or to try to understand their beliefs, I obviously have no idea how I could solve the problems in that community. Even worse, I would probably have more interest in destroying the integrity of that community.
The Holy Qur'an does not state that all of the Bible is corrupt, but Muslims are warned to approach it with a caution.
Considering what I have just said, if you have no interest in participating in a Christian community (this could be any Christian community you might find out of all those in the world, many of which are vastly different) and solving the problems in that community, anything you say about a corrupted text isn't very meaningful. A religion isn't just a set of beliefs. It is a life. It's an experience. It's a relationship with God. But if a religion has a life, then it must also have a soul. That soul manifests itself in community and if you are not interested in living in that community, what benefit is there in telling those people that what they believe is wrong? Have you demonstrated that you know and understand those people?
