Thanks for the link. I can use all the help I can get.
> One of the branches of Christian religious scholarship is studying the authenticity of various books of the Bible, their origin, the meanings of the words, etc.
Sounds very much like what I have been thinking of pursuing. Do you know their names and have links to their works?
> I was surprised to learn that this type of analysis does not exist in Muslim religious scholarship.
That is not quite right. To begin with, extreme care was put into preserving Koran right off the bat. Many people were assigned to memorizing it as Muhammed was receiving the message. And those who knew how to write, would scrible it down right away. The effort to gather and collect all the verses started almost as soon as Muhammed died. Various versions and writings were collected and compared by all the "experts" and Muhammed's closest friends who had rarely if ever left his side. Ali was very instrumental in this. He was also the first man (if you are a Shia) to become a Muslim (second if you are a Sunni). In contrast, Bible was put together centuries after Jesus. The research I did on Mithraism shows that perhaps 2/3 of what we call Christianity today came from Mithraism. Paul for example mistook the Persian term "christ" which means a god-king who sacrifices himself for his people (so that a greater god will look more favorably on his people) with Jesus...or so say some experts <g>.
Koran is not the only book that Muslims fallow. The Sunnis rely on Hadith (the sayings, edicts, and traditions of Muhammed). There was substantial research put into dicerning the validity of the Hadith. Shia also believe in Hadith, although they use different sources and have had different researchers.
Then there is the matter of "Tafsir" (taf-seer). It roughly translates into "interpretation". Parts of Koran and much of other holy sayings are ink blot tests. They are open to interpretations. Various holy figures have had varying interpretations of the same texts. Whom you believe here is akin to which doctor you trust. If you are a Wahaabi for example, you will take all of it litteral form and end up being very screwed up.
There is a lot more to Islam than Koran.
> For many what is the most impressive about Jesus isn't His ideas, but the fact that He could work miracles...
That is too bad. His miracles are not around today. In fact, the more science has progressed, the fewer miracles have been seen. Ideas are all that is left. When I talk with my Christian (read religious) friends, they tell me that to them the most important thing is their relationship with God. I've come to the conclusion that by this they mean some kind of "good" feeling that they feel inside themselves. That is all fine, but how does it help the world? Any doctrine that presumes to save the world, must be able to do so in a manner that is external to its followers. |
