Can God lie?

[Pygoscelis]

why do people keep thinking of God as something they can understand? you cant!

i pray Allah guides us all

How is he going to guide you if you can't understand him? :mmokay:

 

[IbnAbdulHakim]

How is he going to guide you if you can't understand him? :mmokay:

do parents not guide their children from even before they can speak?

 

[Keltoi]

If this is explained by a mistranslation, its a pretty severe one.

Makes you wonder why the Christians don't insist on readings of the Bible in the original language as many muslims insist on reading the Quran in arabic.

Probably because Christians are more concerned with the New Testament than they are the Old, at least in terms of importance to salvation. The Garden of Eden story is understood very early on in religious education. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the Fruit of Knowledge, they opened the door to death and separation from God. It doesn't require an exact word for word translation, as there is no such thing as an exact translation.

 

[Md Mashud]

do parents not guide their children from even before they can speak?

This is win.

 

[InToTheRain]

Can God Lie? Can God make a rock he can't move?

The root of the questions actually is questioning the attributes of Allah(SWT) we muslims believe in. It's the same as saying "Well, if attributes of Allah(SWT) give him unlimited power, can he change his attributes to a limited one? Can God be Human if he can do anything?"

To furthermore deny the attributes of Allah(SWT) they start making comparisons, trying to look for similiarities between them and One who has nothing similiar to Him by asking questions such as "We can make something we can't lift, why can't God?" The very question itself is a contradiction for how can one find similiarities to one that has no similiarities?

It's similiar to saying "one of the Attributes of Allah(SWT) has these attributes:

Al-'Awwal
The First, The One whose Existence is without a beginning.

Al-'Akhir
The Last, The One whose Existence is without an end.

Can he change them as he has the ability to do anything?"

These questions are nonsense to a Muslim because in order to answer the question the Muslim will have to change an Attribute of Allah(SWT) (which makes that Muslim a believer) into an attribues which makes him a desbeliever.
So instead of going round the bend, why don't just come right out and ask me whether I will deny the attributes of Allah(SWT) or even entertain the thought of Allah(SWT) being similiar because the question is no diffrent.

Immam Tahawi Says:

[PIE]"knowledge is of two types: the humanley accessible and humanley inaccesibile, To either deny accissible knowledge or to claim the inaccessible is disbelieve. Faith is not sound unless accessible knowledge is embraced and the persuit of Inccessible is abandoned."

Human imagination cannot consptualise Him, nor can human undertaking rasp His reality.

As he was in eternity attributed with qualities, so He remains forever described with the same attributes.

It is not after creating that He merits the name "The creator" [al- Khaliq], nor through originating His creatures that he merits the name "The Originator" [al-Baari]
[/PIE]


And we know our limits and in inconclusive matters of knowledge, we assert, "God knows best"

"O Allah! Verily, I ask you by my testifying that there is no God worthy of worship except You. You are the One, the Self-Sufficient Sustainer of all, Who does not give birth, nor were You born, and there is none comparable to Him.''

 

[Pygoscelis]

Probably because Christians are more concerned with the New Testament than they are the Old, at least in terms of importance to salvation.

The new testament wasn't written in english either. If there are mislanslations as severe as the one you pointed out in the OT there are likely similar ones in the NT.

The Garden of Eden story is understood very early on in religious education. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the Fruit of Knowledge, they opened the door to death and separation from God. It doesn't require an exact word for word translation

I think it does. I think this story is one of the most important stories in Christian dogma. It sets up original sin, without which Jesus would have served no purpose. Without Adam and the "fall of man", "salvation" is a non-concept.

It is also the first story of the first book of the bible, the place that a person would naturally start reading if picking a bible up to read for themselves. As written/translated it depicts a God who tells his creation not to eat an apple of the "knowledge of good and evil" and then punishes them severely for doing so.

There are a number of fundamental problems with the story that will confuse or even turn people away very fast. First, the apparent lie God tells (which you say is a mistranslation). Second, the concept that Adam and Eve were expected to obey God even having no knowledge of good and evil (that came with the apple so it reads). How were they to know it is good to ebey God? And third, the concept of the forbidden fruit being "knowledge", ie that ignorance is good and knowledge/science/questinioning is bad.

All of these things I point to may be due to linguistic or cultural misunderstandings. If they are, that should be fixed.

 

[Keltoi]

The new testament wasn't written in english either. If there are mislanslations as severe as the one you pointed out in the OT there are likely similar ones in the NT.



I think it does. I think this story is one of the most important stories in Christian dogma. It sets up original sin, without which Jesus would have served no purpose. Without Adam and the "fall of man", "salvation" is a non-concept.

It is also the first story of the first book of the bible, the place that a person would naturally start reading if picking a bible up to read for themselves. As written/translated it depicts a God who tells his creation not to eat an apple of the "knowledge of good and evil" and then punishes them severely for doing so.

There are a number of fundamental problems with the story that will confuse or even turn people away very fast. First, the apparent lie God tells (which you say is a mistranslation). Second, the concept that Adam and Eve were expected to obey God even having no knowledge of good and evil (that came with the apple so it reads). How were they to know it is good to ebey God? And third, the concept of the forbidden fruit being "knowledge", ie that ignorance is good and knowledge/science/questinioning is bad.

All of these things I point to may be due to linguistic or cultural misunderstandings. If they are, that should be fixed.

Well, there is no "lie" from God here. There other instances in the OT where the phrase "on that day" is used, and in these cases it did not refer to the immediacy of something. If you truly want an example, try looking at 1 Kings 2:37, as King Solomon uses this phrase to elude to a punishment that doesn't refer to an exact day.

As for the rest of your post, it isn't really on topic and probably should be addressed in a separate thread.