XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: theswain@operamail.com   
      
   Bill Baldwin wrote:   
   > Derek Broughton (news@pointerstop.ca) wrote:   
   >   
   >   
   >>I agree with John that since Islam _does_ say Allah is the same   
   >>God as the God of the Jews & Christians, then it must be so.  Just   
   >>as Christians say they worship the same God as the God of Judaism.   
   >   
   >   
   > (By the way, I wonder if we're boring the good folks of   
   > rec.arts.books.tolkien and alt.books.inklings. I recall the original   
   > poster saying he couldn't get replies via alt.books.cs-lewis and so   
   > wanted the follow-ups to the other groups preserved. But this   
   > discussion has taken us perhaps in a direction that is no longer on-   
   > topic in those other groups.)   
   >   
   > Anyway, I don't agree with that. Let me see if I can locate the point   
   > of our disagreement. Suppose a man comes up to you and says, "The God   
   > I worship is the God who appeared to Abraham. She later revealed   
   > herself as Semiramis to the Assyrians and the Virgin Mary. Some have   
   > worshiped this God under the name 'Lucifer' (whom others have wrongly   
   > claimed to be in opposition to the God of Abraham). There are other   
   > names and manifestations as well."   
   >   
   > Since that man _does_ say the God he worships is the same God as the   
   > God of the Jews & Christians, must it be so? My answer, obviously, is   
   > no. It's a massive fallacy of equivocation.   
   >   
      
   At least in the case of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. though your   
   analogy is a false one.  Islam for example doesn't just pop along and   
   say "We worship the same God" but they also accept as HOLY AND INSPIRED   
   TEXT the same collection of texts that Judaism does as does   
   Christianity, and claims descent from the same revelation to Abraham.   
   That places it on a much different level than  your analogy will allow.   
      
   At the same time, the analogy you use could be used against Christians   
   by Muslims and Jews (and has been actually) to show that indeed the   
   Christians worship a different God from the one they do.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)