This controversy amuses me

Submitted by Sudeep Pathak (United States), Feb 17, 2009 at 02:06

As a Hindu, this controversy confuses me and amuses me. First, the three main monotheistic religions are willing to call everyone else a sinner if they attach as much as a symbol with the God but cannot even agree upon a name for Him. If you all believe there is exactly one Supreme power and some of you call Him God and the rest of you call Him Allah, does not it follow that God must be equal to (same as) Allah. It is a no-brainer. No kidding.

Secondly, and more importantly, can human knowledge of God be so powerful that humans can exactly differentiate between two notions of God and state which of the two is the correct one. To know if God is same as Allah, don't we need to know both of them with full precision? Which one of us is capable of this precise knowledge? To extend this example, if Christians include Jesus as a part of the Almighty God but Muslims do not, then which of the following two hypothesis is logically more tenable:

A: Unique Almighty God is not same as Unique Almighty Allah.

B. Almighty God is same as Almighty Allah but either Christians or Muslims humans are slightly wrong in their understanding of him.

If we follow the doctrine A, we create a situation in which the two communities can fight for 1400 years. If we follow doctrine B, we can all live happily ever after.

Hindus are not dumb. We know that the Supreme God is unknowable in His exact form. And this is the genesis of our, so called, polytheism. You accept my Allah as worthy of respect. I will accept our God as worthy of respect. And let us hug each other. And the philosophers among us who want to split the hair and want to know God, can do so for ever and they will also find nirvana (salvation).

Sudeep Pathak

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