Why I Am Not a Muslim

Why am I a Christian and not a Muslim?  Is it because I was born in a country where Christianity was the primary religion?  If I had been born in a Muslim country, wouldn’t I just be a Muslim?

If I was born in a Muslim country, I would be a completely different person, so who knows what that person would believe.  As for being born in the USA, I was raised in a non-secular environment and was an atheist growing up.  Nevertheless, why did I become a Christian instead of something else?  Was it just because Christianity is the most common religion here?  Maybe.  But then again I was attracted to Christianity because of the evidence I had come to know as a young atheist.

So back to the question – why am I a Christian and not a Muslim?  Because of the evidence.  Put simply, there are many strands of evidence that point to a manmade origin for Islam, yet the same metric fails to qualify Christianity as such.  Let’s start with one – life after death.

There is a subtle, yet significant,  difference in the Islamic and Christian views of Hell. First, consider the Christian teaching:

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away fromthe presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might – 2 Thessalonians 1:9 ESV

and

Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. – Matthew 25:41 ESV

Now, consider the Islamic teaching:

Indeed, those who disbelieve in Our verses – We will drive them into a fire. Every time their skins are roasted through, We will replace them with other skins so they may taste the punishment. Indeed, Allāh is ever Exalted in Might and Wise.- Surah An-Nisa – 56

Notice the difference. In Christianity, Hell as akin to being abandoned. Thrown away. Discarded. Depart from me. Away fromthe presence of the Lord. And yes, it is terrible to be abandoned by God. It is this separation that is the root and source of all the misery. 

In Islam, God is there. And he is torturing you. We will replace them with other skins so they may taste the punishment.

The idea that God is the Torturer seems obviously manmade to me.  It strikes me as vindictive and “getting even.” 

The Christian view doesn’t suffer the same problem.  In fact, it all fits together perfectly, as Hell is just God honoring your lifelong demand that He “go away” and “leave me alone.”  Hell is the ultimate outcome of free will.  It’s not a divinely-run torture chamber,  it’s just what remains when God is no longer there.

As for heaven, it’s much less subtle.  Islam teaches that the men will have multiple sex partners as part of their heavenly reward – the Houri :

“The God-fearing shall be reclining on couches facing each other, and We shall wed them to maidens with large, beautiful eyes” (Quran 52:20) “no human or jinn has ever touched these maidens before” (Quran 55:74) “And Hur (fair females) with wide lovely eyes. Like preserved pearls.” (Quran 56:22)

Nothing sounds more manmade than a heavenly reward of 72 sex slaves!  Literally manmade. Here is a page that nicely explains the problem:

In fact Muhammad for the most part describes heaven pretty much as life on Earth, just with much more facilities and luxuries, such as rivers of honey and milk, dates and plentiful fruits available, having good wine, and silk and clothes, and giant palaces, and of course 72 virgins. Muhammad describes heaven as life on Earth to, in my opinion, calm the fears of his men, so they know that if they die, they will still get to enjoy a life similar to the on Earth.

Now if I did believe in a God, which I dont, but if I did, I would think its fine for there be to sex in heaven. I dont think there is anything ungodly about that. But the problem for me arises with the fact that there are 72 mindless servants that you do it with, it seems bizzare and out of place. It seems like the fantasy of a teenage boy, and not the divine command of a God. It seems far too obscene and chasing after your primal, lustful desires for heaven.

Women also get the short end of the stick in Islamic heaven, they dont get to be with 72 mindless boy virgins, they become the queen of their husband’s virgins, which I find deeply disrespectful and insulting, instead of women becoming empowered and liberated in Islamic heaven, they are still under the control of their husbands and relegated to the leader of her husband’s sex toys. 

Indeed. In contrast, Christianity teaches:

However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him— 1 Corinthians 2:9

If someone wants to make the case that Islamic teaching is less like to be manmade, feel free to make your argument below. But at the very least, I can hope you see that the choice to be Christian and not Muslim is not arbitrary and dependent on my environment.