Christians and Muslims clash in Egyptian capital

Associated Press ^ | 3/8/11 | Hadeel al-Shalchi

[Springfield Reformer]

It started with Hagar:

Gen 16:11-12 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

[little jeremiah]

There have been Christians and Jews in India for many hundreds of years without any intolerance.

[Springfield Reformer]

Actually, LJ is most likely correct. There is a body of evidence suggesting not only that Thomas visited India early on but that Hinduism contains doctrines which reflect and early Christian influence

http://www.indianchristianity.com/html/chap4/chapter4a.htm

http://www.orthodoxsyrianchurch.com/st-thomas-apsotle-of-india?showall=1

There is also an excellent article detailing the evolution of Hinduism that accounts for the influence of Christian theology, but at the moment I am unable to locate it. As time permits, if I find it I will come back here and post it.

Peace,

SR

[MeganC]

Thomas. Doubt. Joke.

[Springfield Reformer]

Now realizing I missed the /sarc notation, I plunge boldly forward, having found the article on Hinduism of which I spoke earlier. Here is the link (but beware, it is a pdf and is big, so the link may be slow):

http://www.oration.com/~mm9n/articles/PDF/Emergence%20of%20Hinduism.pdf

[little jeremiah]

Sorry, without /sarc or tone of voice, hard to tell sometimes.

[little jeremiah]

Thank you.

Although I would posit that since the Vedas - Hindu scripture - predate Christianity, it is likely the other way around!

:-)

[MeganC]

My apologies, too. I put a :-P instead of the FR-friendly /sarc tag

[Springfield Reformer]

LJ,

But that is precisely the good professor’s point in the “Emergence of Hinduism” article, that hard, physical evidence of Hinduism as it now is, even of the Vedas, even of Sanskrit per se, is weak or non-existent before the Second Century AD, that Hinduism is in fact a divergence from Christianity.

I know it seems rather shocking, but roughly the same phenomena has occurred with Christianity’s relationship to Mithraism, as well. The popular mythology is that Mithraism predates and was a “content supplier” to Christian belief, whereas the hard, physical evidence appears to dry up right around the first or Second Century AD, strongly suggesting the possibility of a reverse path of influence, with Christianity being the predecessor to key ideas in both systems.

The read in the pdf is long but fun, and at least it is interesting to ponder the question of which really came first, based on the physical evidence.

Peace,

SR