Archive for April 2014

God is Uncaused

Surah Al-Ikhlas Chapter 112 Verse 3

He [Allah] begets not, nor was He begotten.[1]

The Qur’an confirms the rationally derived attribute of God – that of being uncaused.

 


[1] Surah Al-Ikhlas Chapter 112 Verse 3

Why not Christianity?

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Christianity was founded by Prophet Jesus on whose teachings the beliefs of Christians are based.

Christianity is now made up of three main denominations:

  • Roman Catholicism
  • Eastern Orthodoxy
  • Protestantism

The Christian Bible

The purported teachings of Prophet Jesus are codified in the New Testament. However, the Christian Bible, which is the foundation of their belief, also includes the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible.

The New Testament is made up of four books, all originally written in Greek, not the language of Aramaic which is believed to be the language of Prophet Jesus:

  • The Gospels
  • Acts of the Apostles, which is the history of the early Christian Church and work of the Apostles, the twelve followers of Prophet Jesus
  • Epistles, which are letters that contained Gospel interpretations, solutions to local problems and advice on how to live Christian lives
  • Revelation, which has to do with the end of the world and the events that take place before the end comes

The Gospels

The Gospels are testimonies of belief about Prophet Jesus and each Gospel is believed to have been authored by one of the Apostles, the twelve followers of Prophet Jesus, or by one of their disciples.

There are four Gospels:

  1. Mark
  2. Matthew
  3. Luke
  4. John

The first three are collectively called the Synoptic Gospels, because they are very similar in form and content. The Gospel of John differs materially from the Synoptic Gospels because it contains information not found in the latter and presents a different history of the ministry of Prophet Jesus.

The Epistles

Epistles are letters that contained Gospel interpretations, solutions to local problems and advice on how to live Christian lives. They were mainly written by Paul and given such names as I and II Timothy.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Why not Judaism?

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According to Biblical tradition, Judaism was founded at least 3,000 years ago when the nation of Israel was formed by Prophet Abraham and his descendants in the land of Palestine in the Middle East.

The Hebrew Bible

The beliefs of Judaism are based on the Hebrew Bible which consists of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings and on the teachings of Prophets Abraham and Moses.

The Law

The Law or Torah narrates the story of creation, God’s covenant with the descendants of Prophet Abraham and the creation of the nation of Israel as an example to all other nations.

The Law is made up of five books:

  1. Genesis
  2. Exodus
  3. Leviticus
  4. Numbers
  5. Deuteronomy

The Prophets

The Prophets or Neviʾim reports the interpretations of the Law and frequent condemnations and declarations of divine punishment by ancient Israelite prophets of their nation’s behaviour.

The Former Prophets include:

  • Joshua
  • Judges
  • Samuel
  • Kings

The Latter Prophets include:

  • Isaiah
  • Jeremiah
  • Ezekiel
  • The Twelve or Minor Prophets such as Malachi

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Which God? Which religion?

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Since God can only be One, the only valid religion(s) must be monotheistic.

Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one god, polytheism is the belief in the existence of many gods, and atheism is the belief that there is no god.

There are purportedly only three monotheistic religions in the world today:

  1. Judaism
  2. Christianity
  3. Islam

To evaluate the compatibility of each religion with our rational understanding of God, I suggest a Nature of God test.

Nature of God test

The stated belief in God must be compatible with the deduced nature of God.

 

The deduced Nature of God

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After deducing the existence of One God, we can now finalise our rational understanding of His Nature. However, the initial deduction of His Nature is arrived at by negation, that is, we know what God cannot be, and, therefore, by implication what He must be. I call these attributes of the first-order.

First-order divine attributes

God is:

  • the Creator, because He is the Uncaused sole Cause and therefore cannot be caused or created
  • eternal, because He created time and cannot be temporal
  • immaterial, because He created matter and energy and cannot be material
  • transcendent, because He created space and cannot be spatial

Second-order divine attributes

From these first-order divine attributes, we can further deduce second-order divine attributes that God is:

  • one, by Ockham’s Razor, absence of immaterial conceptual differences and finite regression
  • self-sufficient from all material causes, because He created all material things, and from all immaterial causes, by finite regression
  • is not immanent, because He would then cease to be immaterial
  • is all-powerful, because the universe was created without a material cause
  • is personal with an independent Will, because He chose to create the universe at a particular time
  • is all-knowing, because He created matter, energy, space and time, and therefore must know everything about them before He created them

Eternality

We can now elaborate further on eternality. Eternality can be defined as:

  • infinite-omnitemporality, which is existence at every point in infinite time
  • timelessness, which is simply existence beyond time

God cannot be infinite-omnitemporal because He created time and therefore cannot exist in time, in the same way that God cannot exist in the material universe because He created matter, energy and space and therefore must be immaterial and transcendent. Infinite-omnitemporality would mean that God created Himself. This would mean simultaneous existence-nonexistence which violates the law of non-contradiction and is a logical impossibility. God can, however, be timeless-eternal, because He transcends His creation. He transcends time. He exists beyond time in the same way that He exists beyond matter, energy and space, all of which He created. Therefore, God is timeless-eternal.

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