What We Believe Matters - Reason, Faith and Islam

The adherents of Islam who tacitly or explicitly condone the latest violence, have placed themselves beyond the realm of reason. Their conception of God is that he is all powerful and unlimited in what he may require of believers. As a Christian, I too believe in all powerful God, but one who has chosen to be bound by the promises of His Word. He is a God of reason as well as a God of faith. He will not require of me that I commit idolatry or slaughter the innocent for that would violate his word and reason itself.

Muslim apologists often point to passages in the Koran prohibiting the latest atrocity. Others claim that such acts are not really the acts of Islam. But such apology misses the point, because those committing the heinous acts hold a belief that Allah may command them to do so regardless of what is written.  Further, this belief is widely held throughout the Muslim world.  They do not adhere to a philosophy that requires consistency and logic.  This matters. We will never be able to come to a rapprochement with Islam until such time as it's adherents  believe that reason, logic and fair play must apply in their dealings with nonbelievers.  

Pope Benedict said the following  when discussing the subject of forced conversion, which is also unreasonable to Christian thinking. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg_en.html

The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature.[5] The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality.[6] Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazm went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God's will, we would even have to practise idolatry.[7]

 (The entire speech is worth reading for Christians' education on the interplay of faith and reason.)

We should demand of the Muslim world a commitment to truth and reason. This commitment must extend even to their dealings with those whom they see as unbelievers. Without such commitment there will always be mistrust and conflict. 

[published from iPad blogger.]