chbrooking
Puritan Board Junior
chbrooking said:Islam and Christianity share nothing. Christianity does not have a non-immanent monad as its God. That is, we do not share belief in the existence of God, because the very term must contain its definition. To say that we share belief in the existence of God is to equivocate on the term God.
Then I will rephrase--we agree on the existence of a God. It is the nature of that God that we are debating. It's quibbling to suggest that such a debate is a debate over God's existence: we are debating precisely whether God is a non-immanent monad. I don't argue for the existence of God with a Muslim for the same reason that I don't argue the divinity of Christ with a Catholic.
The Muslim already believes that God exists--I am merely proving that God is not who the Muslim thinks Him to be. I am arguing, in fact, that the non-immanent monad is not the greatest possible being and therefore cannot be God.
Incidentally, one of Islam's core tenets (presuppositions) is that nothing which might be said of God may be said of man and vice versa. But that precludes revelation completely. Their system is internally inconsistent.
Actually, that inconsistency is (paradoxically) consistent. Since Islam denies reason utterly, it would be inconsistent for it to be consistent. Thus, it is actually consistent.
The Muslim would not agree with your assessment that he denies reason utterly. And, in fact, he doesn't. By using language or math, the Muslim demonstrates that reason holds. He simply cannot give a reason for reason. His presuppositions are inconsistent with his life and worldview. That is what presuppositional apologetics points out to him.
But I think you are quite missing the point. We cannot begin with agreement on the existence of 'a God', simply because it is no agreement at all. The term must have content or communication is pointless. This is why all reasoning is circular, good reason being virtuously circular, bad reason being viciously so. How will you move from a shared term 'God' which,, as shared, has nothing of the Christian God in its denotation or connotation, --How will you move from this to the Christian God? You might as well begin with agreement that we both have a holy book. We wouldn't agree that theirs is a holy book at all, so there is no agreement at all.
We aren't asking the Muslim to tweak his theology. We are asking him for wholesale repentance.