Hello everyone, just joined this forum. I’m from England. Anyway, for quite a while I was a vehement aetheist. But after years of slowly mulling the question over I gradually came to believe that there is some kind of God (or Goddess).
About 7 months ago I was working in a staff canteen in Manchester and met a guy called Elroy, who was in for a few days doing relief work. A while after meeting him he says “Do you believe in God my friend?”. I was like “Err…not really. I believe in somthing like that.”. So he starts telling me about how Jesus is the savior and how I should turn to him. After some mild debating the conversation gets to “And if I don’t believe in Jesus?”. Answer: “…then you’re going to hell my friend.” The debate ended. When I looked back at this later I wondered why I hadn’t put this senario to him:
“OK, what would you say if you lived a long and virtuous life and maintained you’re faith in Jesus. After you die you meet God and He says to you “Though you have done some things right, you failed to see Mohammed as My true messanger and see that My name is Allah. Face the fire.” Then a trapdoor opens and you fall into the fiery horrors”
So the question is, if you were a vehement christian with similar views to Elroy, what would you say to God before said fiery horrors ensued? Thanks.
A better answer to Elroy might be that if he truly understood his faith he a) wouldn’t be judging you and b) hasn’t the faintest idea what God has in store for you. You need to get back and hit the books Elroy.
If the afterlife scenario played out I would probably try to lawyer God: “Oh c’mon you know more perfectly and better than I do there was no freakin’ way in my time, place and culture that I was going to convert to Islam. Is this a test of my obedience now? Because I can’t believe for a second that you would be that seemingly unreasonable.” If he assured me he was I would ask about what I could do to redeem myself.
Kind of off-topic, but I’m English too and ending a conversational comment “…my friend” is utterly, utterly alien to my ears - maybe you just paraphrased him - but if not, then I would say he was following a script or parroting some preacher he had recently heard.
The Elroy person might not be English, though. If he were, say, a student from Nigeria or wherever, then I could see the " blah blah, my friend" thing happening. Amusing in the context of consigning non-believers to hell, of course.
Uhhh…I can’t believe that I’m the first to point this out:
Allah IS the Christian god, just by another name.
Islam was founded on Judaism, just as Christianity was, and the main doctrinal difference between the two is that Christianity doesn’t recognize Muhammed as a genuine prophet or his writings as sacred.
So, if I were to meet Allah, I’d say, “Hey, Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, baby! Let’s me and you head on done to the pub, hoist a few, and talk about what those idiots down there are doing in your name.”
The God of Islam and the God of Christianity are the same God. That’s not a philosophical musing, it’s an objective fact. Allah means “God” in Arabic. Mohammed identified his God as identical to the God of Judaism and Christianity. Arab Christians call God “Allah.” If A Christian meets Allah in Heaven, he’s meeting exactly the God he was expecting to meet.
It makes me wonder when people say “my god” versus “your god” or something. Maybe he’s just God by whatever name you may call him, regardless of what religion you practice (or don’t).
