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To: VRWCTexan
The answer to that question is simple. Insofar as they are human, and they approach God the Creator by the light of their nature reason, they worship the same God that Jews and Christians worship. If you would read Aristotle's Ethics, Politics, and Metaphysics, you would find that he indeed worshiped God, and knew many of His attributes, solely by the use of right reason. In fact, Aristotle stands out as a singularity of how close the reason can get to knowing God without the aid of any revelation. This science is called “natural theology”. When you add to reason the gift of revelation, starting with the Old Law, and continuing with the New Law of Grace, you have what is classically known as “sacred theology”, which uses revelation for its first principles. Jews and Christians indeed worship the same God of revelation, albeit the Christians benefit from knowledge of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and Redemption.

What a Muslim knows through his source of “revelation” is where the road forks. For the revelation received through the false prophet is at odds with the Way, the Truth, and the Life. While Islam mimics true religion in many aspects, it is an obvious counterfeit, inspired by hateful jealous spirits who are insane with the envy of our redemption and salvation.

So in summary, a Muslim does indeed worship the same God as Jews and Christians through natural theology, through the right use of his reason. While what he knows of God via false revelation is indeed false, and stands in contradiction to everything we know to be most true and beautiful about God.

13 posted on 05/10/2009 8:38:47 AM PDT by blackpacific
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To: blackpacific

Excellent summary!

I think this was essentially what the Pope was saying and why he was inviting them to consider reason. Interestingly, the Muslims seem to have realized this, and many of them are furious with his speech - they wanted an “apology,” which of course he would not and did not give them, and in fact he repeated much of the essence of the Regensburg lecture.


19 posted on 05/10/2009 11:39:28 AM PDT by livius
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To: blackpacific

Where does revelation come from, and how can it be false?


21 posted on 05/10/2009 1:35:11 PM PDT by stuartcr (If the end doesn't justify the means...why have different means?)
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