Answers From a Christian

Why I Am Not a Muslim

This chapter is painful for me to write, not because I have any doubt that what I am about to say is the trust, but because I know that it may hurt many of the people on here that are very dear to me and I will even dare to say I have come to love as my own. I will say now this is not an attack on any person or even an attack on Islam, per se. And I will say I know what it is like to be on the receiving end of people who do not "play fair" or respect another person's religion. I have also seen my religion, God, and prophets slandered, mocked, and insulted to no end, so trust me when I say you have no friend who knows better what it is like to have her religion mocked. I do not write these things to mock or insult others. Neither are they aimed at a certain or specific person. If I talked to you about these things, I probably did with four others as well.

What I do write is to tell what I know is true, and what I understand from what the Bible says. I invite you friend, acquaintance, stranger, please stay and listen. This is not an attack. This is a conversation, an explanation, of what I believe and why. If hearing someone gently or even harshly point out why they believe or even know why your religion is not true, that is a problem. One must learn to overcome the anger they feel. It is what God expects from all of us. If Mohammad is as generous and forgiving as you say he is, then follow his example and please do not face this with outrage.

That being said, I am not writing this also to point out whether Islam is sexist, racist, violent, or any other accusation. There are enough people who already have discussed this. I think there are good defenses on both sides. I believe Mohammad was a man who did have moral standards of right and wrong better than most of the atheists and agnostics of today have. He was not a total monster as some make him out to be. He is also not as innocent and near perfect as others make him out to be. That aside though, this conversation is not to confront the morals of your religion or prophet. Many others have done that much better than I ever could. Perhaps at some time I will, but not today.

What I wish to discuss today, is the doctrine of Islam versus the doctrine of Christianity. Many people I have talked to may ask why? Why do you reject Allah, the Quran, and Islam? Can you not see the beauty behind it and the order it has, that it is true? And the answer I have to this is that I believe the Bible has superior answers to the questions of life than Islam can, and because the Bible has better answers to the meanings of life, it is true.

Now again, please hear me out. I have listened many Muslim apologetic videos. Alli Dawah, Zaiker Naik, Shabir Ally. I have heard what they have to say. I've read book after book on wattpad, both by young and old, scholar and passionate teenager, why Islam must be true and its doctrines trustworthy. I have sincerely considered them, and just because I have arrived at a different answer than you does not automatically make me wrong. If anything, you should want to know genuinely why and consider why it might be true.

The big questions of life everyone asks are these -

Why is there suffering?

Why are we separated from God?

Why is there sin?

What is the solution to sin?

What is the highest moral calling?

What is our relationship with God?

The Bible answers all of these in a much more logical way than Islam does.

To begin, why is there suffering? From all Muslim sources I have seen, it is because God willed it. He wanted pain and suffering to test humanity. Death is just all part of His big plan. (Now if I am wrong, please correct me with sources, I am open to other possibilities, this is just what I have read in many people say). In Christianity, evil arises solely from humans and devils, not because God desired pain but because He wanted humanity to have a choice. Let's say God forced us to be good and love Him. What a farce that good and love would be! Yet like this, even if we choose the wrong thing, when we choose the right ones it is so much more meaningful because it wasn't a robotic program forced into our brains, but a conscious decision. Sin and death exists, but only because we choose to sin and bring death upon the world. Christianity teaches God does not desire this, but He is to good to force righteousness on us. God is ultimately purely good and desires good for all, evil is not part of the plan.