I’ve just watched an interesting debate between Dr Jamal Badawi and Dr William Lane Craig on the Christian and Islamic concept of God. I say it’s interesting because of the arguments presented by both sides. Here are a few thoughts.
Dr Craig presents the case for Jesus’ divinity with his usual clarity and calm demeanor. He provides evidence from Biblical and philosophical considerations.
Dr Badawi presents the case for Allah as God and disputes that Jesus is God because of what that would mean in an Islamic context. His contention is that the Qu’ran says different to the Bible and the Qu’ran is God’s word therefore Dr Craig is wrong. He cites a number of Biblical verses in support of the divinity of Christ but doesn’t refute them.
When Dr Craig mentions this he can be seen in the background getting quite irate that Dr Craig is misrepresenting him. However, Dr Badawi uses the Bible to refute a claim that Christians believe. This is interesting because he then becomes upset when Dr Craig calls him for using the Bible to refute a Christian claim when he doesn’t even believe the Bible to be authoritative. One cannot use something they do not believe is authoritative to refute a belief.
He sums up with a few scientific evidences that the Qu’ran is God’s word. On a personal note, I find citing so called amazing scientific passages in both the Qu’ran and the Bible as evidence that it’s God’s word as being extremely weak since they’re often based on equivocal language. For example, if a Christian is to accept that the Bible is making a scientific statement when it says that God sits on the circle of the Earth then you also have to accept that it is making a scientific statement when it says that the earth rests on pillars. In this writer’s opinion there are very few passages in the Bible which have amazing scientific knowledge because the Bible is not a book of science. We cannot expect to use a poetic or metaphorical passage to prove a scientific concept is in the Bible and dismiss passages which supposedly indicate that the earth is flat as just poetry. That is a gross double standard and one which many Christians are guilty of. It’s called reading into the text what you want to be there.
That Dr Badawi does this is telling. He becomes agitated when he is called on his points and struggles to keep clarity in his speech. I’m obviously putting a ‘Christian spin’ on this so you should watch the debate and decide for yourself.
TRF
