Diverse Problems for Islam

[Pygoscelis]

You know, one of the most jarring things for me, as a Christian, is it seems as though you Muslims think that you can somehow "earn" heaven, that your own good works somehow "deserve" a reward from God. I find myself wondering; is there any room for grace (i.e., unmerited divine favor) in what is, effectively, a Pelagian cult (and here, I do not mean this in the pejorative sense, but in the etymological sense)?

Why do you find it jarring. I find that to be one of the things about Islam I far prefer to Christianity. How can the concept of faith or grace trumping works be anything but unjust and arbitrary?

I also very much appreciate that Islam doesn't share the concept of vicarious redemption with Christianity. That you should escape paying for your own wrongdoing by celebrating the torture and death of an innocent man... is disturbing to anybody who doesn't grow up Christian.

Ultimately, I think I never can agree with your prophet, since I can never agree that I ever, of my own account, can merit favor in God's eyes, or else, if I have sinned, make up for my sins by my own power. Whatever good I can do, I owe that to God. Whatever evil I do, whenever I violate God's laws, I make myself an enemy of God, irretrievably and irredeemably guilty, deserving of His righteous punishment, rightfully excluded from His society because of my crimes against His Holy Law.

That says more about your God than it says about you. That god would create you so you are sure to fail to live up to his standard, or even make you with "original sin" so you don't even have the chance.... is a very peculiar concept. That you should be punished infinitely for a finite wrong is also very peculiar reasoning. How is such a God just and good?

How, then, can I but sigh in sorrowful pity when the Muslims tell me that I can buy my way out through good deeds?

When Islam encourages good deeds, Islam is awesome and great. Can you really say otherwise? When Christianity encourages people to think they can find foregiveness through accepting a human sacrifice... that sounds a lot less promising.

If Jesus hasn't died on the Cross and risen from the dead, all is lost. Such is, I think, as much as St. Anselm says in Cur Deus Homo (Why God [became] a man). The verdict is already written. The gavel has already sounded. We are guilty. We must pay the price.

You mean Jesus paid it for you, right? You don't pay for your own wrongs in Christianity. You have a convenient scapegoat.