User: ASoleil

Thanks "predator" for beginning the conversation on this one. You're correct in asserting that the third question is the most problematic of the trio. We all know Judaism is the foundation for Christianity and Islam. What we can assert is that the God of all three faiths has much in common; they believe in variations of the classical God of theism. (The theistic God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent [all-good]. Of course, these attributes must be carefully expounded as they raise philosophical difficulties, but this isn't the place to elaborate.)
However, the differences are striking. The late pope John Paul II's appeal to unity under a common God between Christians and Muslims was nice diplomacy but unsound theology. Recently, Benedict XVI came under great fire for quoting an historic ruler in a university lecture: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." First, it is important to note that the bishop of Rome did not concur or refute, and these words come from a Byzantine in the 1300s; anyone who knows anything about medieval history can sympathize. Sure, this is exageration, but there is a grain of truth, and there are irreconcilable differences. First, Christianity and Islam do NOT both claim Jesus in the same way. In Islam, he is merely a prophet, like Moses, inferior to Muhammad. In Christianity, he is the son of God, crucified and ressurected offering forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Islam stresses the unity of Allah. Christianity holds that there is only one God who is tripartite (the Trinity). Predestination is a controversy in Christianity; the Koran teaches Allah predestines who will be saved (76: 29-30, 7: 155). Time magazine defends the pope in its article, "The Pontiff has a Point." It reminds us that the Christian God is intrisically tied to reason (the Greek idea of Logos brought into Judaism by Philo of Alexandria and incorporated into the Gospel of John). In Islam, God is more mystical, "absolutely transcendent." The implicit danger here is that irrational violence could be God's will in Islam but is utterly contrary to divine nature in Christianity.