Posted by Illuminati on 3/2/2008, 11:18 pm, in reply to "Re: Islam vs. Christianity"
216.31.65.252
Manan,
I believe you are asking the correct questions. Your questions are premised on the belief that truth is best served when people use their reason. When we are discussing a being like God whom we can not generally see or speak to, it is very easy for charletans to step in and deceive people.
What you are asking for is information outside the holy books to confirm their validity. From my experience, I'm convinced that the best way for any of us to proceed is to use every tool at our disposal to evaluate truth including science, philosophy, and history. Above all, any faith which has not been tested by criticism is worthless. That is why freedom of speech is so important to any believer who has a desire to know truth.
My personal approach is quite different from that of most theists, I suppose. If we assume that God is a good God, and I can think of no reason to believe otherwise, the only reason God would wish to contact us would be to benefit us. Therefore, whatever message is found in the holy books, if it is from God should lead us to be better people, and should lead to the maximum human health, prosperity, and happiness. From my perspective, the best objective test of a religion is the society which the religion sustains.
That is not to deny that there are things such as miracles and visions some of which are genuine, but since people who experience these things often disagree, there still needs to be objective evaluation of the messages. I believe the final objective test is how it plays out in the real world. This is probably what Jesus meant in the following verse.
Luke 6:43-45
43 "No good tree bears bad fruit , nor does a bad tree bear good fruit . 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit . People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
NIV
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