In the Western world, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have scriptures:: Avesta (Zoroastrianism), Old Testament (Judaism), New Testament (Christianity), and Qur’an (Islam). Avesta was prepared by the Royal Scribes of King Vishtaspa of Iran after Zoroaster told the King what God (Ahura Masza) told him face to face. Jews say that the words in the Old Testament are inspired by God through the Holy Spirit. Christians say that God appeared in our world as the Son of God, who was Jesus Christ. And Muslims say that the Qur’an is written in God’s language and are messages that Muhammad received from the angel Gabriel.
Panentheism says that a plurality of words found in each of these four scriptures are not from God because only one word exists in a monotheistic God.
The gap that separates God and Creatures became clear in the 15th century when Nicholas of Cusa showed that a monotheistic God is incomprehensive and thus cannot be known with the languages that have awakened our minds. In Part IIc of 'The First Scientific Proof of God', I discuss the communication problem between God and man. There, I say that that only information can be exchanged between God and Creatures.
The language barrier between God and the Creatures prevents us from communicating with God and prevents us from knowing God perfectly. However, we can know God's attributes because, when contracted, they form our world. The existence of this barrier is thus ‘good news’ because it tells us that that God is 'one and infinite' and can give us an everlasting life. So, my messages to all religions are as follows: "Scriptures do not express God’s thoughts and acts. Scriptures can only express the thoughts and acts of the Creatures."
God thus gave humans a unique ability --- to create and use symbols. With symbols, we can think and talk discursively, communicate with each other, find relative truths about God’s creations, and use these relative truths to find unchanging or absolute truths about our world. With symbols, we conceive the Creatures around us. As the symbols become more precise, our conceptions of the realities in the world become more accurate. With relative and absolute truths, we continue to improve our consciousness. With symbols, we communicate with each other, build new knowledge, build new sciences, and build new technologies. This unique ability from God requires that we do have responsibilities to God.
Let me now discuss the early togetherness of Judaism and Islams. Nicholas’ book on 'The Peace of Faith' was a study for Pius II on the unification of different religions. It was written in two months after the Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453. Pius II concluded the Muslims would not stop their plundering. The Peace of Faith recommends ways to unify religions and eliminates conversions and missions. In this study Nicholas found two facts: (1) that the name of God in the different language is the same or has very similar meanings and (2) that differences between religions exist only because of different rites. So, religions could be unifies simply by developing common rites.
Nicholas visited Constantinople in 1437 while he was a member of the Council of Basel. During this visit, he examined the Qur'an and assisted thirteen Muslims who wanted to travel to Rome for instruction on the Christian faith. After the Turks sacked Constantinople, Nicholas wrote Sifting of the Qur’an. It was dedicated to Pius II. In this book Nicholas says that Muhammad prepared the Qur’an so that he can teach his highly ignorant followers in Mecca about Jesus Christ. Since sexual relations dominated the lives of his ignorant followers, Muhammad used sexual symbols (e.g., white virgins) to describe the nature of paradise.
According to Nicholas, three very crafty Jews attached themselves to Muhammad in order to avert him. After Muhammad’s death, these crafty Jews approached Alis, the son of Abitalip, to whom Muhammad had bequeathed his collection of writings. Abitalip was persuaded by these Jews to elevate himself to a prophet. They added and deleted what was necessary from the book of Muhammad and added passages so that Muhammad would appear as a prophet.
I conclude that the purpose of making the Qur’an was not to make a new religion called Islam. Islam began in order to unite many Muslims with Jews and divert the teaching of Jesus Christ and the teaching of panentheism, away from Islam. Jesus expressed panentheism at John 14:20. The togetherness of Jews and Muslims exists today through the God called deism. But deism produces only ungodly rites. I discussed this togetherness in my Aug. 12, 2010 blog. For the firs time, the term 'Judeo-Christian' has become troublesome in my mind. At this time, only Christianity is an advancing form of panentheism
The God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is common because a monotheistic God is incomprehensible. One might conclude that the rites will not differ in these three religions. This conclusion is wrong because panentheism is able to gain "understandings" about God. These understandings can change common rites drastically and change the world fast.
Based on the information in this blog, I conclude that it is inappropriate for any religion to express their rites at the place where the 9/11 event occurred in New York City. Only advancing religions should be allowed to express and record a new understandings there.