An Atheist Comes Home
Tags: Christianity.
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Just another example of why we should never, ever give up on those who don’t believe – after all, God never does:
British intellectual A.N. Wilson, by his own admission, was a member for many years of the company of smug mockers of religion that dominates Britain’s chattering classes.
Not any more.
Writing in Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper, Wilson recounts why he has abandoned the trendy atheism of which he was formerly a prominent apostle.
Raised a Christian, Wilson’s faith weakened as he matured and collapsed completely by the time he was in his 30s.
And by the 1990s, he had authored a book, titled Jesus: A Life, that denied the divinity of Jesus and the miraculous aspects of his birth, life and death.
“Why did I, along with so many others, become so dismissive of Christianity?” Wilson writes in his Daily Mail article, Religion of hatred: Why we should no longer be cowed by the chattering classes ruling Britain who sneer at Christianity.
“Like most educated people in Britain and Northern Europe (I was born in 1950), I have grown up in a culture that is overwhelmingly secular and anti-religious. The universities, broadcasters and media generally are not merely non-religious, they are positively anti.
“To my shame, I believe it was this that made me lose faith and heart in my youth. It felt so uncool to be religious. With the mentality of a child in the playground, I felt at some visceral level that being religious was unsexy, like having spots or wearing specs.
“This playground attitude accounts for much of the attitude towards Christianity that you pick up, say, from the alternative comedians, and the casual light blasphemy of jokes on TV or radio.
It is very hard to cut through the morass of lies and nonsense which has been erected for the purpose of keeping people away from God. But the trick can be done – God is always calling to us, and if anyone who does not try to live by God’s will decides, even for a moment, to be still and listen, the call will become irresistible. I know that some of my “born again” brothers and sisters have it that a radical change was made, but I think that most of us who turn our lives over to God will state that it was a slow, at times halting, process. For me, it has taken years just to get to the point where I really consider myself a Christian, though one with a very long way to go before I’m worthy to stand with the least of Christ’s servants (this isn’t false humility – once one does turn towards God, one of the more stunning discoveries is just what a creep one has been…the atheists and agnostics don’t comprehend this; neither the fact of their creepiness nor the liberation which comes with understanding what one is, and what one is leaving behind). While the acceptance of Christ was the work of a moment, the act of becoming like Christ is a much longer process.
My fellow believers can speak for themselves here, but one of the things I’ve noted since turning towards God is that I have less and less attachment to – or, indeed, tolerance for – popular culture. I’m no longer even remotely interested in the nauseating parade of pop-culture glitz and glam. I understand there is a show called “American Idol” where people attempt to sing their way to fame while subjecting themselves to various forms of public humiliation…I’ve never sat and watched the show: the whole concept is a horror to me. Meanwhile, when a pop-culture event becomes so large that literally everyone has to hear about it – such as the case a year or two ago of Britney Spears’ meltdown – I’m moved to pity for the poor people involved. The people who get caught up in such social meat grinders could have had such wonderful lives and done so much good…but now they’re just the fodder for incorrigible gossipers.
And all of that is just the noise – the screaming shout of “look at me!” which distracts the human mind from family, home, Church…and faith. How can a pastor who is only a so/so speaker compete with the titillation of, say, some bottom-feeding celebrity show dredging up the worst behavior possible? How can a devoted wife attract the attention of her husband while he’s wrapped up in the day to day affairs of some Hollywood freak show? What chance has a troubled child to get parental attention form parents who spend their time discussing the vagaries of celebrity divorce and scandal?
But it can be got around, as Mr. Wilson has shown. There must have been, God be praised, some quiet corner where he could think undisturbed and where the example of real Christians could be pondered in opposition to the shallow anti-Christianity of modern pop culture. Our greatest hope, as believers, will have to be in our ability to convince people to shut off the TV, and listen to the call of God.
Thank you for visiting Blogs For Victory. If you enjoy our content, please consider making a donation to help us cover the costs of our servers.Mark Noonan is co-author (with Matt Margolis) of Caucus of Corruption: The Truth About The New Democratic Majority. He also blogs at Nevada News and Views. Follow Mark on Twitter.
37 Responses to “An Atheist Comes Home”
Caucus of Corruption
This man describes the leftist culture that is responsible for the surge of atheists. The leftist culture that leaves these people so miserable they hate life and those not a part of their ignorant ways.
Their culture does not give them hope. The hope they require and seek come from politicians that promise everything and gives very little. Sounds like the present usurper of the White House.
How can anyone participate in a culture that does not allow hope and does little to encourage those that they can achieve for themselves. Instead, it teaches them that the politicians who foster this culture and government are the only ones that can provide them with the hope they need.
They provide a similar service as drug pushers do. Deny them what they need unless they PAY!
Just curious, Mark, but if he said he had come to accept Islam instead of Christianity would you still consider him as coming home?
Ahhh that grinding music of the Grim Reaper sharpening his scythe has brought many a man back to organized religion on Terra. No harm, no foul.
kmg1 says:
April 18th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Come, come kmg you know full well the faith of Muhammad is not the “one true path to Salvation.” Shame on you.
kmg,
Certainly the stately and reverent heresy of Mohammed is better than the vapid, inhuman popular culture we are afflicted with. Better, in the end, to be a devout Shintoist than to be among the dregs of a decayed civilization.
But would you have considered him to have come home to God?
look at the way a man walks…if his lips cry that he is a christian…yet his deeds are not those of a christian…what they would anybody believe…
the only people who will be fooled with be those who dont know what a christian is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miULdI-qocg&feature=player_embedded
Agree or disagree?
Agree or disagree?
That you’re an idiot? Damn, I sure as hell agree…
I’m glad that Mr. Wilson came to his decision. I hope that many others are able to make the same decision.
its pretty feeble to take a halfwitted statement and surround your beliefs with it…if you dont matter to God…it says…you dont matter to anyone…with the picture of a child pointing a gun, cocking the trigger…
agree or disagree? why would anybody even debate the stupidity of it…except some dumb mutt that doesnt know any better…
agree or disagree? why would anybody even debate the stupidity of it…except some dumb mutt that doesnt know any better…
Consider the source, js. AF suffers from brain-freeze, and lack of intellect, so he/she has to rely on some moron’s YouTube video. Hell, he/she probably created the damned video…
kmg,
Yes, the God of Mohammed is the God of Abraham, and thus the one, true God…Mohammed’s heresy was essentially the Arian heresy, that of denying Christ as being True God.
Mark Noonan says:
the God of Mohammed is the God of Abraham
Mark,
No. The god of Mohammed is not the God of Abraham.
Mohammed and the Moslems come from the lineage of Ishmael, a line of warring tribes to this day who sought after their own gods rather than the true Creator.
The promise was given to Abraham, not Ishmael.
Mohammed’s god teaches to kill. God does not teach to kill.
So sayeth jeremiah, God’s voice on earth.
Now this is quite interesting. I’m wondering if this fundamentalist Christian video is to “far out” for 1luv2hate and JS02. After all, this is a really fundamental Christian organization from what I can tell looking at their website.
So all of a sudden, you and your friends have even gone so far as to suggest *I* made the video! Certainly you don’t seem to want to be associated with it, even though the group behind it proclaims how Christian they are.
And that’s the problem. The Christian God DOES teach to kill, several times, particularly in the old testament, there are lots of references. Suffer not a witch to live, for example. But a lot of people want to “cherry pick” from the Bible, and however much they say it’s all the Word of God, they don’t like to be reminded of the darker instructions within it. But, fundies, either the Bible is the Whole Word of God – in which case you have to follow ALL it’s teachings, or it’s not, in which case by what criteria do you decide which teachings to follow and which to ignore?
Arctic Fox,
Your problem is that you’re deliberately taking the advertisement and Scripture out of context.
First of all, the advertisement of the boy with the pistol is exemplary of the world … if you don’t care what God thinks, then what do you expect from the world? This world is sin wrecked, my friend, and Satan has captured thousands of souls into believing that they can do it “on their own.” Life is not that easy, or simple … but you could make it a lot easier by simply trusting in God, and thanking Him for everything that you have and will ever have, in the rough times as well as the good alike. Don’t be like the Israelites, who grumbled and complained, “Why are you sending us through the wilderness God?” But in the end, they were amazed at what God can do, and they trusted God more than ever.
The Christian God DOES teach to kill,
No He doesn’t. But for everyone that is killed by the hand of man He requires a reckoning of no less than the death of the murderer.
several times, particularly in the old testament, there are lots of references. Suffer not a witch to live, for example.
Sorcery, the attempt to determine and influence the future through occult means was strongly condemned (Deut. 18:9-13; 2 Kings. 21:6; Jeremiah 27:9-10; Micah 5:12; Nahum 3:4). The future is in God’s hands and God’s alone (Deut. 18:9) … Deuteronomy 18:9-14 … When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divinations or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.’
what criteria do you decide which teachings to follow and which to ignore?
You don’t ignore any of it … you follow all of it. The Bible is a spiritual book, and unless you have the Holy Spirit, you can’t understand it.
But a lot of people want to “cherry pick” from the Bible
There is no cherry picking the Bible. Like I say, you must have the Holy Spirit to understand it in order that you may interpret it correctly.
I will just say this, though, the Devil and his demons understand it well, and he and they knows those who are weak in their faith and those who are strong, Acts 19:11-20. Showing the difference in mocking and truly believing filled with the power of God – Paul whom God was working extraordinarily through and those who tried to mock Paul.
We need more Holy Spirit filled men like the Apostle Paul.
Do you believe, then, Jeremiah, that to read the Bible and to attempt to interpret and follow it yourself is pointless, even counter-productive, and that unless you have the help of the Holy Spirit in interpreting it, you’re likely to fall prey to your own human limitations in interpretation?
(this is a genuine question of interest, not a loaded attempt to trap you – I’m genuinely interested in your opinion on this)
Kudos, Mark.
Arctic Fox says:
Do you believe, then, Jeremiah, that to read the Bible and to attempt to interpret and follow it yourself is pointless, even counter-productive,
Reading the Bible is not pointless, but reading the Bible desiring your own interpretation of it will not succeed, as the ways of man’s heart are evil from childhood. So, the Bible won’t help those who don’t seriously desire the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit.
Everyone should want to read the Bible … but they should want God to come in and help them apply it to their hearts. And they you do that, is by asking for God’s grace through repenting of your sin and asking Jesus Christ to come in, truly seeking a new direction in life. And God will then give you wisdom and understanding.
We have to understand, that our mortal minds are so feeble … even the collective knowledge of all scientists and theologians past to the present are so small in comparison to the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth … yet, we do not discredit them as their knowledge is God-given, and yes, sometimes used in ways that are displease God, such as instruments to destroy unborn human beings … Instead of using them the way God would have them, they use them for their own purposes to murder … how pitiful!
and that unless you have the help of the Holy Spirit in interpreting it, you’re likely to fall prey to your own human limitations in interpretation?
Well, you don’t fall “prey” per se, because as mere mortal humans under the weight of sin, we are born with limited capacity of knowledge … that’s why the Bible was not meant as just some-other-book to read, it is not only meant to be read, but lived out daily … The Apostle Paul says – ‘I die daily’ … meaning we should give each day to God in order that He might grant us the strength and wisdom to carry through, and to fend off the schemes of the devil … Ephesians 6:11.
That’s what it all comes down to, is striving to God’s Will, even though we may be imperfect, Jesus Christ is our only hope whom we should do everything to be like, in the likeness of Christ!
Jeremiah,
Its good to keep in mind that Mohammed made it up as he went along – he was a merchant who had long contact with then-Christian Palestine, which was rife with Arian heresy; that Jesus was a created being and thus was inferior to God and not part a Triune God. Mohammed took this as a starting point and then cobbled together a theology which mostly revolved around how Mohammed could do pretty much as he pleased because God said so – though the bits about frequent prayer and alms giving were worthy aspects of his thinking.
Because Mohammed’s teaching was based upon Christian truth the theological edifice he constructed was durable provided nothing changed. And this has been what Islam did for more than a thousand years – it didn’t change. It picked a few things, but the fundamental structure of society didn’t change and as long as Islam was strong enough relative to everyone else to keep outsiders at bay, this worked fine – but just as soon as Islam became fundamentally weaker than Christendom (right around the start of the 17th century), the crisis hit. The Islamists we deal with today are the direct theological and ideological descendants of those Islamic thinkers who felt that the challenge of the West was best met not by emulating the West, but by adhering more strictly to Islamic ways of doing things and thus allowing God to smite the infidels, as he surely would once Islam was purified.
What we’re fighting against is not Mohammed’s theology so much as fighting against people who take it way too seriously – but the God who Mohammed claimed to talk to was, without a doubt, the God of Abraham.
It’s actually a bit more complicated than that. Remember, in Genesis 17:20-1, God says:
The “twelve princes” may be a reference of some sort to the Twelve Imáms.
Another possibility is Progressive Revelation, which we discussed in detail some time back.
You may want to reread the Book of Joshua.
To the best of my knowledge Muḥammad never left the Arabian Peninsula (except for the Mi’ráj). Most (though not all) of His contacts were with Jews.
Actually, it changed spectacularly. Remember, when Muḥammad died the “Islamic Empire” was basically just a coalition of semi-savage Arab tribes. Within a generation, it had become one of the two mightiest states on the planet (the other being Tang China). This required a certain amount of adjustment, which was accomplished through the elaborate development of Islamic jurisprudence (something of which the Salafists are woefully ignorant).
js02
its pretty feeble to take a halfwitted statement and surround your beliefs with it…if you dont matter to God…it says…you dont matter to anyone…with the picture of a child pointing a gun, cocking the trigger…
agree or disagree? why would anybody even debate the stupidity of it…except some dumb mutt that doesnt know any better…
BINGO………..
Stoogery at it’s finest!!
leadeconomist says:
April 18th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Come, come kmg you know full well the faith of Muhammad is not the “one true path to Salvation.” Shame on you.
Carlton Pryor
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About Me
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Sergei,
Actually, the Moslem empire wasn’t very strong – it covered a lot of ground because it entered into a politico-military vacuum, but it was never able to overcome serious resistance.
What we’re fighting against is not Mohammed’s theology
Mark,
Mohammed’s “theology” is of the devil, the Moslem lineage comes from a 6th century paganistic culture.
so much as fighting against people who take it way too seriously
The Moslems whom we fight aren’t taking anything serious except the devil’s ways. They aren’t following Jesus’ teachings, therefore, they don’t know Abraham … for if they had known Abraham, they would know Jesus also, as the covenant of Abraham was continued into the New covenant with Jesus.
- but the God who Mohammed claimed to talk to was, without a doubt, the God of Abraham.
Now, the Moslems are part of Abraham’s offspring, but they do not follow Abraham’s God. Again, they follow after pagan gods. Allah is the devil, or Satan.
The separation of Abraham’s offspring was done by God to show the difference. The Covenant that said Abraham’s descendants would be “as the sands of the sea-shore” was representative of Abraham’s faith…if we have Abraham’s faith, we are included in the Covenant with Abraham.
Sergei says:
It’s actually a bit more complicated than that. Remember, in Genesis 17:20-1, God says:
And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
The “twelve princes” may be a reference of some sort to the Twelve Imáms.
With Isaac, it says. By His own soveriegn counsel, God elected Isaac, not Ishmael. Isaacs miraculous birth signifies that the people of God result, not from mere natural generation, but from the promise and the supernatural grace of the Holy Spirit.
The twelve princes signifies the genealogies in blood relation to Abraham, but not a spiritual bond of relation, as Isaac was Abraham’s only son of promise.
The promise that has the most significance, is the Covenant of all who accept Christ as their personal savior and they would number as “the sands of the sea.” Thus, the promise was given to us all, if we’d only believe in the name of the Only Son of God, Jesus Christ. Working to win the lost at every opportunity.
Jeremiah,
Not all Moslems are descendants of Ishmael, however. And Mohammed did listen to Christ, he just rejected bits of Christ’s teachings and thus became a heretic.
Dante’s Inferno gives a truer reading of Mohammed than we are likely to get in our political correct age:
Christians of the Middle Ages understood readily what Mohammed was all about – how he had corrupted Christian teaching in order to create a social organism which allowed him to rule absolutely while he lived. Since he set up his regime outside of Christian control, it became as if it were a unique religion – but can only flourish when other religions are prevented from open competition. And thus the battle we are engaged in.
Not all Moslems are descendants of Ishmael, however.
Mark,
All Arabians are descendants of Ishmael, and the majority of Arabians are Muslims.
And Mohammed did listen to Christ, he just rejected bits of Christ’s teachings and thus became a heretic.
Yes, Muhammed did listen to, but he didn’t listen very good, as he rejected Christ and His teachings … and anyone who denies Jesus Christ as the Son of God is the anti-Christ … John 10:10 … ‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.’
Mark 13:22 – ‘For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect.’
Matthew 7:15 – ‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.’
1 John 4:1 – ‘Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone into the world.’
So, you see, not only is Mohammed in opposition to Christ, but all who follow the Quran and Mohammed’s teachings are in opposition to Christ, therefore, any teachings that are in opposition to Christ are of the Devil, the father of all lies.
True Christians will understand Mohammed, because they are led of God’s spirit that shows them right from wrong, and that it is a spiritual war, not one outwardly like Mohammed proclaimed, because one who fights a literal physical battle is led by the carnal nature of the flesh, due to sin, which is the devil. You see, Satan wanted Muhammed to fight a literal battle and that’s what he done. Had he known Christ, there would not be hundreds if not thousands dying daily at the hands of the devil’s followers, Islamists. Not only would there not be thousands who’ve died to the hands of Muslims, but Mohammed would not have been a Muslim, but a Christian, sharing in the same good works that you and I believe. Islam is a term of the devil…it means to submit against free will, to force to submit, and if no submission is met then the Muslims kill.
So it’s important to let Muslims know that they have a different way, and that way is through Christ, and Christ alone if they want true happiness. Mohammed was and is very bad news.
and anyone who denies Jesus Christ as the Son of God is the anti-Christ
Jews are the anti-Christ too?
Jews are the anti-Christ too?
kmg1,
1 John 2:22-23: ‘Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the anti-Christ, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.’
Thus, it stands, anyone who says he knows God, but denies the Son is lying, and so, does not know either.
John 14:6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to he Father except through me.”
Jeremiah,
I would be wary of the path your are on – even if we wished to supposed that Mohammed was working for the enemy and knew it, that doesn’t indict those who are sincere believers in his teachings. Our Lord is the way, the truth and the life, but if someone hasn’t had the chance to hear his message, or who hears it distorted in various ways, that person cannot be responsible for not being Christian…and as such a person would put himself in opposition to the enemy, we can’t say that when he kneels in the direction of Mecca he’s kneeling towards anyone other than the one, true God.
It is my view that, in a certain sense, the Islamists are right – Mohammed’s religion is under attack…not a deliberate attack, but an attack based on the fact that Mohammed’s teachings, being a heresy, are incomplete and cannot provide that universal moral code which Christianity has. Moslems do very well (probably, man for man, better than we do) with family; they do very well with charity; they do very well with prayer…they lack that which would give them real hope, and thus would fall easily to Christianity if it was ever given the chance of a fair hearing in Moslem lands. This is one of the things I keep trying to drill in to our liberal friends and they just don’t grasp it – the Islamists hate us for what we are, not what we do. If we could promise not to convert them to Christianity it still wouldn’t do the trick…our very existence is a threat to the Islamist way of life.
It is my view that, in a certain sense, the Islamists are right – Mohammed’s religion is under attack
*Chuckles* Oh, my! Mark, Mark! … how can you say that?
In Canada, Britain and most of Europe, free speech is being shut down to accommodate Muslims. And it will soon come to America if Mr. Obama has his way!
I would be wary of the path your are on
Well, I would suggest the same in kind … don’t let those filled with the devil trick you into believing that Islam is anything other than from the devil.
And I don’t say that to discredit you, but to show you the importance of differentiating between what the truth is and the other false systems of thinking are.
- even if we wished to supposed that Mohammed was working for the enemy and knew it, that doesn’t indict those who are sincere believers in his teachings.
Mr. Mohammed didn’t know that he was doing the devil’s work, because God had already turned him over to a reprobate mind. And we can’t say that Mohammed didn’t know God’s Word … he did know them, but he was like all too many we see in the world today who don’t want to live by the Law set forth in His Word, which can be described as: Antinomianism. Thus, Mohammed did not want to personally acknowledge the authority of God’s Word, because the moral law of God’s Word exposes the counterfeit love that does not accept its responsibilities toward God and neighbor, you see.
Islamists have been murdering long before they struck the twin-towers (Commenter’s Note: Don’t take me wrong, now, try to understand what I’m saying here), and they have continued to kill, so we did not simply go over there to start a war for spite, but to show them that their way of thinking is wrong … wrong as wrong can be. Not only that, but that justice might be served as God’s Word states in Genesis 9:6 – ‘Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.’ So, God gave us the authority to make it plain to those people that their murdering is not and will not be acceptable … because Christ came to take away that which is the foundation of Satan’s plan in deceiving with the intent to murder, and thousands of little Arabs are being raised and taught to murder.
Born-again Christians have what no Islamist has, and that is the spirit, which gives Christians the power to observe the Law in order to make us more and more like Christ – Matthew 5:7.
You won’t find the ways of Matthew 5:7 among the Islamist community.
So it’s easy to see why they (Islamists) don’t grasp the more infinite ways of a Christian. Christ’s love has been made known to them, but when they do not accept it, there’s nothing we can do except take it to the Lord in prayer and allow the Holy Spirit to take it from there.
Regardless of whether or not this is right or wrong, what does it have to do with my point?
But the majority of Muslims are not Arabian.
This is a very important point. Most Christians, even the most ludicrously misinformed of the wingnuts, know more about Islam than most Muslims know about the People of the Book.
I know this is quibbling, but Muḥammad was His first name. If you were to use “Mister”, it would be something like “Mr. bin ‘Abdu’lláh”.
Sergei,
Your assertion is that there was a great deal of change as Islam went from a local, Arabian thing to an imperial thing – but I point out that Islam merely walked into a vacuum…as soon as they met anyone with the spirit to resist, they were rather easily beaten back. Given that their conquests were easy, there was no need to modify the Islamic way of doing things as it became a large physical entity.
Its good to keep in mind that it was quite a long time after the initial Moslem conquest before even a bare majority of the population became Moslem – the Moslems weren’t keen on conversions as certain forms of tribute could not be levied on Moslems. The deal was also struck rather early between the guardians of Islamic theology and the State…as long as the State would enforce a strict version of Islam, the religious elite would preach absolute obedience to the State. The religious elite became a self-perpetuating oligarchy and even as the State fell to one conqueror after another, all of them found it expedient to keep making the same basic deal – enforced Islam in return for preachers telling people to obey.
All of this, of course, caused the area the Moslems retained control over to stagnate – inheriting what was arguably some of the richest and most advanced areas of the world, the Moslems just lived off it while the population, in order to escape the subservient role non-Moslems performed, slowly converted to Islam. Each new generation was placed on the treadmill and one became like another with nothing changing until Europeans, who had advanced, started to force it on Islam in the 18th century.
Jeremiah,
Of course, I’m not a Calvinist, so I can’t support a premise that a person or group of person was rejected by God. Moslems are just like us, just living under a different cultural paradigm.
Are you seriously claiming that the Romans and Persians just sat there and let themselves be conquered? They were exhausted from fighting each other, but they were not exactly pushovers.
Of course there was. Empires don’t just run themselves, and imperial armies don’t work the same way tribal raiding bands do. In the Qur’án, for example, it says that booty is to be divided up equally among those taking part in the raid. However, as one of my professors once asked, how are you going to divvy up the Persian Empire? If each soldier was given a town, they’d be too preoccupied with running it to fight, and the army would cease to exist. Another problem was that the empire expanded much more quickly than the supply of Qur’áns and Reciters, which made practicing conventional jurisprudence rather difficult. Jurists solved these problems by viewing Muḥammad’s praise of adl (reason) as a fundamental legal principle. Thus, Islamic Law, when interpreted by people who actually know what they’re talking about, is in fact extremely flexible. The problem with the Salafists is that they have no legal education (Dr. Zawahiri’s degree, for example, is in medicine), and the problem with the Wahhabis is that they love power more than they love professionalism.
The reason that the Europeans had advanced was that the Muslims had forced it on them.
Sergei,
Well, they were push overs; it was a 20 year long war which was fought out to an exhausting finish. The Romans won, but only barely…and when the Moslems started to attack, there just wasn’t the physical strength to resist in Palestine, Syria and Egypt…once the Moslems started to hit the heartland, however, resistance stiffened. I am impressed you are aware of that war between Rome and Persia – so, two points for you.
It is also a myth of the so-called “enlightenment” that Moslems were the spur to Christiandom’s rise to power – a few books were given back to Europe after being retranslated into Greek and Latin from Arabic translations of the originals, but vastly more was preserved in Constantinople and the monasteries of the West. It was Christians who invented the University in order to educate men – initially mostly for the Church – up to the standards of the ancients…and it was this infusion of advanced knowledge, nearly all of it available even if Islam had dropped off the face of the Earth, which sparked the glories of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. St. Thomas, for instance, wasn’t greatly indebted to Islamic though – and he was a highly educated man who greatly advanced human understanding.
Actually, both the Persian and Roman Empires did have the strength to repulse the Arabs — especially since the Arabs invaded them both at the same time immediately after a civil war of their own. In most of the major battles the Arabs were badly outnumbered (though this was not the case before the Roman Empire realized that there was indeed a war going on and it should probably send some troops). The reason that the Arabs won was that their tactics were vastly superior. (Out of curiosity, do you happen to know if a lot of generals were killed during the last Perso-Roman War?)
There’s no need to be insulting.
What was or was not contained in Constantinople is about as relevant to Medieval Western Europe as what was contained in Tula. As to the monastaries and universities, my memory is unfortunately a bit too fuzzy in this regard to debate you in detail. I do remember, though, that the Arab influence predates the appearance of the Universities.