I am writing this for believers and atheists alike actually, but I think perhaps a little more for atheists, as they tend to sneer a little and show a tiny bit of contempt when the issue of Allah Vs. God comes on the table in much the same way a vegetarian does when you talk about the cruelty of halal slaughter. For the vegetarian all meat is evil and therefore what difference does it make if you kill it with the Halal method? The answer is quite a good deal of difference actually but thats the subject of another essay and many people have already explained it much better than I can.
Atheists typically state that no supernatural entities exist or at least that no gods do. That Thor, Allah, Jehovah and Amon Ra are all equally non-existent, and therefore, all equally irrelevant.
For the sake of argument lets say they are right on their first point. All gods are equally nonexistent. The same thing is true of all superheroes however. (no offense meant to the devout Marvel believers, please don’t blow up my clubhouse for this one) But even fictional superheroes have wildly differing attributes. Batman, for example, had no supernatural powers. His abilities were derived from careful planning, extreme training and leading edge technology and the clever application of that technology. Superman on the other hand has so many native abilities that there was nothing he couldn’t do, (making writing plots for that character a lot more challenging I bet.)
It would be unthinkable to a Batman fan if all of a sudden he could just fly on his own power out of a situation and go into space and solve the problem by going faster than light and backwards in time. The Batman fan would get carpal tunnel syndrome writing in to whatever authority governs the rules for superheroes in movies and comic books.
Muslims know this at some level. In Malaysia there are laws which forbid Christians from referring to their god as ‘Allah’. (It boggles the mind why Christians would want to refer to their deity, one who’s attributes are a clean 180 degrees away from the Islamic Casus Belli they call Allah, but for some reason some of them do.)
Allah, we are told, instructs muslims to attack, kill, enslave, rape, and hate non believers on pretty much every page of the Koran. The Christian bible, while it has some anecdotes and parables about horror committed by people, typically explains how and why to be cooperative with other people for the benefit of all. These attributes are fundamentally different and have led to fundamentally different results.
The fact of the existence of the entities is utterly irrelevant. What matters is that those who take influence from the scriptures, claimed to be dictated by these entities, has shaped the world for millennia. To say that the Jews, Christians and Muslims all worship the same god is a cheap sales con. It is to say that Batman, Superman, Lex Luthor, the Kandari demons from the Evil Dead, are all basically the same thing. While all may be equally fictional, those who follow the example of these characters will not commit the same deeds. Imagine running into a cult of Red Skull or Beelzebub. I doubt your night would go as well as if you ran into a group of Presbyterians on the way home from Church.
Much like saying, ‘The Prophet Mohamed’ when you are not a muslim, yet seeming to be willing to admit the divinity of the pirate-in-chief of the Islamic faith, saying that all worship the same god is not only wrong, but creates a tactical advantage to Muslims when they are not yet dominant. When they are, they will see to it that you don’t make that mistake. Just ask a Malaysian Christian.
It is a common rhetorical trick to try and relativize all things in order to force them all to be what the speaker wants everything to be. For example – multiculturalists pretend to revel in cultural diversity while denying that any real cultural differences actually exist and calling those who point those very real differences out to be ‘racists’. (Just try and explain to a multiculturalist the real nature of Islam to see this in action) To claim that the central and prime force, the God, that is the justification and motive for all law, all actions, organizational principles, and rules for the treatment of all others are the same for all religions is again, simply trying to force them all into the mold of the limited imagination of the cultural relativist.
Never let someone get away with this kind of relativism when you can stop it. Allah is not god any more than Spiderman is Peter Pan. Whether or not these entities exist is not nearly as important as the fact of the belief in them and the results of that belief. So yes, it actually does matter what you call the deity much more than the question of its existence.
Eeyore for Vlad.
Hi Vlad: Just thought I would enforce your point on this outstanding article. Minorities in Muslim Regimes are foced to use Allah as the name of G-d. Jews were subjected to this while in Muslim Regimes, Hindus are currently as are any remaining Christians. In other words . Muslims forcibly demand that Non Muslims refer to THEIR god ALLAH. This is enforced on pain of death with no compliance. This is a Muslim tactic that eventually and inevitably leads to forced conversion.
Warmest Regards,
Zemira Eli Natan
Executive Director
International Unity for Freedom and Equality
Dare I say: “Amen to that” 😉
One question: what does that church of “Atheism” call their God?
Because I “believe” that “Atheism” is every bit as militant as any other religion (but not quite as dangerous as Islam, except that it has created a lot of empty parking spaces for that geopolitical totalitarian regime who used “religion” as a fig-leaf).
Good post.
Eeyore,
You ought to be getting paid for that.
I have fun telling atheists that they are really misotheists because they care so much about hating God that they go out of their way to make a comment stating there is no God.
Look it up on some time, atheists are the easiest to troll on the internet.
As for the atheists/misotheists that are ignorant and constantly claim that God and allah are the same.
http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2014/03/is-allah-best-of-deceivers.html
Is Allah the Best of Deceivers?
According to the Qur’an, Allah is the “best of deceivers” (3:54; 8:30). The phrase is often translated into English as “best of planners,” “best of schemers,” or “best of plotters,” but the root word (makr) means “deception.” Hence, the following Qur’an verses should be rendered as follows:
Qur’an 3:54—And they (the unbelievers) planned to deceive, and Allah planned to deceive (the unbelievers), and Allah is the best of deceivers.
Qur’an 7:99—Are they then safe from Allah’s deception? No one feels safe from Allah’s deception except those that shall perish.
Qur’an 8:30—And (remember) when the unbelievers plotted deception against you (O Muhammad), to imprison you, or kill you, or expel you. They plotted deception, but Allah also plotted deception; and Allah is the best of deceivers.
Since the Bible declares that Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44), the question must be raised: Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?
Being both a vegetarian and an atheist, I would like to suggest that not all generalizations are true.
a) For the vegetarian all meat is evil and therefore what difference does it make if you kill it with the Halal method? For lots of use, eating meat is not evil, we just find it unapetizing (ok, I find it disgusting). However, if you are going to kill and eat animals, please do so humanely. Halal slaughter is worse than disgusting, it is barbaric.
b) That Thor, Allah, Jehovah and Amon Ra are all equally non-existent, and therefore, all equally irrelevant. Well yes, but the religious rites attached to the worship of the various (non-existant) gods is not irrelevant. The worshippers of Thor have never threatened to bring about Ragnarok by blowing up everyone else. Neither do they insist we all drink mead. Al’lah and Jehovah are obviously not the same god, although they are equally bloodthirsty, their worshippers tend to react differently to my non-worship.
Please, everyone gets upset when people profile the religious, there are lots of different atheists – hundreds of millions of us – and we just want to live without having your god(s) thrust apon us.
Georgina:
You are correct. I should have used the word, ‘some’ before atheists and vegetarians. You are quite correct to have pointed that out.
You’re B point however is exactly the central point of this article. The worship rituals, dogma, beliefs do matter. You are adding another vector to the same point and thanks for that.
Eeyor: …it actually does matter what you call the deity much more than the question of its existence.
Yes… some Gods are more equal than others.
However, immediately you say “That One,” then everyone else who doesn’t have “That One” to fear and tremble before, has to determine what they must do upon their God’s behalf to defeat It, before “That One’s” servants dream up their total annihilation for the betterment of Mankind.
History has shown- religions never get better, they get more fundamentalist every time, dividing into more squabbling sects or just marching into the deseet to be left alone; trying to get through the eye of the needle onto the promised land on the other side or into your living room.
You can’t have milquetoast religions. Look at Environmentalists, Animal Cruelty Activists, and say you would do less for your God?
Leaving to grow unchanged and unimpeded by rational criticism as hate crimes, into a dominant majority ideology such as Islam or Communism it would be political/social/economic/personal suicide not to be seen to worship “That One”. The weaker character politicians are already moving over.
Fortunately, the Bible does have a proof their God exists, (though I’m sure at the last minute James Randi would have made them swap pyres).
http://mobile.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Kings+18%3A22-40
You can even make a religion up. That’s how they all started.
Imaginary Allah is nothing more than anachronistic nonsense.
Mudslimes have the polluted belief that imaginary Allah actively supports their idiotic hegemony !
It’s time that Pisslamists should be the subject of satirical black comedy.