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This website is being renovated throughout 2008.
Pages and the content of pages will continue to change until the end of the year and
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Allah, the Christian God and Yahweh are one and the same.
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate,
the Merciful
Allah first made himself known to the Prophet Muhammed at the beginning of the seventh century CE. Although he developed much later than his Christian and Jewish predecessors, the Muslim god is identical to his Jewish alter ego - all-knowing, all-powerful and, unlike the Christian God, unknowable.
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Allah = Al Lah = The God.
Arabic and Hebrew are both semitic languages; that means that they have the same origins, in the same way that French, Italian and Spanish all originated in Latin.
The Arabic Lah and the Hebrew El were originally the same word.
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Because they are unknowable, our only view of Allah and Yahweh comes from scripture - the Quran and Jewish Bible. The details between them differ, but the overall picture is the same. Allah and Yahweh are both strong, aggressive figures who love and protect their followers as a father loves and protects his family, and who treats his enemies with anger and violence.
Neither deity gives his love unconditionally. To be accepted by Allah or Yahweh means following strict rules, such as circumcision for the men, avoidance of certain foods, never-ending prayer and praise for the Almighty. Women have a special status in God's eyes - inferior according to some interpretations, superior according to others.
The similarities between Allah and Yahweh are not surprising. They both emerged from
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Chapter One: Defining God
Does God exist? Before we try to answer that question we
need to have a clear idea of who or what God is. How do we
describe God? What versions of God are on offer?
1.1: God, faith and religion
Do they need each other?
1.2: What is God?
God comes in several styles and models
1.3: The evolving God
From prehistory to today
1.4: El, Yahweh et al
The Old Testament family of gods
1.5: Three's company
The Christian Trinity
1.6: Allah
Over to Islam
1.7: Majors and minors
Polytheism
1.8: The unknowable God
Is he there?
1.9: Your god or mine?
Made in our image
1.10: Summary
Finished this chapter? Move on to
Chapter Two
Problems with God
The real God – if such a thing exists – may be very different
from the god portrayed by Jewish, Christian or Muslim
scripture.
But whichever picture of God we look at - from the
Bible and Koran to the images presented by other
faiths and believers - we are confronted by problems.
When examined closely, God's nature is so contradictory
that it is unlikely, if not impossible, for him to exist.
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the same machoistic, violent desert culture that produced not only Judaism and Islam, but other monotheistic cults such as Mithras that have since disappeared. They are of course, more than similarities - there is only one god viewed from different perspectives. (The Christian god is merely another version, with the added attributes of the Trinity and knowability.)
They may be the same god, but slightly different personalities emerge from the Jewish Bible and Quran, with Allah appearing more benign than Yahweh. Both gods either slaughter their enemies or encourage their followers to do the same ("[The Israelites] devoted [Jericho] to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every
living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and
donkeys." Joshua 6:21. "Make war on them until idolatry is
no more and Allah's religion reigns supreme." Spoils 8:39), but Allah sometimes has good words for other "People of the Book"("Those who believe, the Jews
and the Christians and the Sabians any who believe in Allah and the Last Day,
and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord."(The Cow / Heifer 2:62).
Yahweh, in contrast, seldom shows mercy. While each chapter of the Quran begins with the phrase "In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful", the phrase most often associated with Yahweh is "I am a jealous
God" (Deuteronomy 5:9).
Only centuries later, when Christ appears, does God's nature turns to love and forgiveness and even that is only temporary - in the End Days, violence and slaughter will return.
This brief section reminds us that Allah, the Christian God and Yahweh are one and the same.
It also reminds us that several scriptures - the Jewish Bible,
the different Christian Bibles and the Quran all claim
to reveal the True God. But because they contradict each other, only one of them may be true.
Reason tells us that at this stage of our research we can draw three possible conclusions:
(i) there is a God and he is revealed by one of these or another scripture;
(ii) there is a God and no scripture reveals him; (iii) there is no God.
We will come back to all these possibilities later. It's time now to look at gods elsewhere.
Next:
Chapter One: Section 7
Majors and minors
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If God existed, he would...
admire the beauty of a universe that he did not create
recognize that eternity is meaningless
deny both heaven and hell
disown all men and women who speak in his name
denounce the harm caused by religious "morality"
help the human race to thrive without him
If God existed, he would be an atheist.
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