Taking On The
Qur'aanic Jesus?
Robert Williams
To: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
Subject: WebMaster:_Positive_Atheism_Index
Date: Sunday, January 28, 2001 6:07 AM
Dear Editor,
I came across your website today and read about the biblical confusion over the status of Jesus. Have you also taken to the task the Qur'aanic Jesus? The Qur'aan purports to be the Last Testament because , in part, the previous testaments were tampered with -- for example, the Gospel of Jesus is not even in the New Testament. So we find in the Qur'aan something of an account of what Jesus said about his status as a messenger of God.
If you have considered the Jesus in the Qur'aan and wrote about it, I would very much welcome this information. Or if you know of others who may have done this, I would welcome this information as well.
Lastly, thanks for your honest efforts. A Spanish professor once said "We don't know what's happening to us, and that's precisely what's happening to us". Honest efforts such as yours help us to figure out what is going on.
Cheers,
Robert Williams
From: "Positive Atheism Magazine" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
To:
Subject: Re: WebMaster:_Positive_Atheism_Index
Date: Sunday, January 28, 2001 11:18 AM
I have not spent very much time examining the minor differences between the Qur'aanic concept of Jesus and the Biblical concept of Jesus -- simply because the evidence for the historicity of Jesus is virtually nonexistent. Thus, I would not be any closer to finding out if a Jesus existed by comparing the two myths. And since I do not recognize revelation as even a valid concept (even were I a theist I would still have a tough time accepting the notion of revelation and would probably be, at most, a Deist), then the contents of alleged revelations to not mean very much to me.
Now, if I were to encounter hard evidence that a Jesus actually existed, and if that evidence provided any clue as to who Jesus was, I'd jump right on it. In lieu of hard evidence, though, my studies of the various Jesus interpretations are purely for entertainment. And since the Qur'aanic revelation is so far removed, chronologically, from the era when Jesus is alleged to have existed (as are the Mormon revelation and the Urantian revelation), the disagreements between these revelations and the Christian stories do not carry much force, and thus fail to keep my interest.
My interest revolves primarily around the fact that in the United States, many Christians are working tirelessly to institutionalize the Christian religion as the State religion; thus, I must spend part of my time studying the Christian religion and trying to find ways to discredit it as an institution, to minimize the chance that it will be accepted as authoritative and worthy of our common assent. Were it the Muslims, the Hindus, or the Buddhists who were trying to establish their religion, or were these other groups as successful as the Christians are at fostering antagonism toward and bigotry against atheists as a class of people, then I would study those religions as carefully as I do the Christian religion.
Sometimes I wonder if there will come a time when Muslims will replace Christians as the ones I have to watch out for. But then I remember that part of my family heritage is that my grandparents lived in Lebanon and Egypt for many years, and my grandmother developed a very deep respect for Islam. From what she said, we would have less to fear from a Muslim-dominated society than we do from a Christian dominated society. I don't know, and can only hope that all people eventually learn to get along.
Cliff Walker
"Positive Atheism" Magazine
Five years of service to
people with no reason to believe
From:
To: "Positive Atheism Magazine" <editor@positiveatheism.org> Subject: Re: WebMaster:_Positive_Atheism_Index
Date: Monday, January 29, 2001 11:26 AM
Dear Cliff,
Thanks for your reply. Your Grandma was correct when she noted that Muslim (versus Islamic) civilization practiced a high degree of tolerance. This was noted in Henry Grady Weaver's The Mainspring of Human Progress in chapter 10. However, I doubt if today's Islamic Dark Agers would be as tolerant. (When I say Dark Agers, it is in reference to Abercrombie's observation in a '70s issue of National Geographic that Muslims have fallen asleep and are just now beginning to awake and rub their eyes).
About the historical Jesus -- have you read The Jesus Mysteries by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy? It was published in 1999 by Thorsons.
There was a faction piece (part fiction, part fact) out of Leicester, England in '97 with some info on the historical Jesus -- a rather combatant fellow in this account. When I locate it, I'll pass it on.
Cheers,
Robert Williams
From: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
To:
Subject: Re: WebMaster:_Positive_Atheism_Index
Date: Monday, January 29, 2001 6:28 PM
The approach I took for about 15 years, was Jesus as political revolutionary, seeking to free his people from Roman occupation. This is most vividly described in Hyam Maccoby's hard-to-find Revolution in Judaea, and augmented in his easier-to-find The Mythmaker."
I now find myself taking the road recently advocated by Robert M. Price, that if Jesus Agnosticism. Price says that we cannot know, and shows that if you accentuate some facts and ignore others, you can come up with any number of Jesus scenarios.
Cliff Walker
"Positive Atheism" Magazine
Five years of service to
people with no reason to believe
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