Can
we argue from a corrupted source?
I
claim that it is a logical fallacy when Muslims base arguments
for the truth of Islam on the Bible which in their mind is a corrupted
source.
But to this objection one can often get this Muslim response:
Wrong. The Islamic viewpoint is that there is truth and falsehood
in the Bible. One of the purposes of the Qur'an is to indicate
what is the truth and what is the falsehood. As such one can
base arguments on the Bible.
If one is out to prove that something is wrong, then of course
one uses the material available to do so. If one is to prove
that something is correct, then you would use the other material
available. Since the Bible contains both truth and falsehood,
one can do both.
But how do you decide which is the truth and the falsehood in
the first place?
No, you have not understood how flawed this approach is. You are
employing circular reasoning. You want to show the truth of Islam
/ the Qur'an. But since the truth of Islam is the goal of your
reasoning you cannot use it in the process or for the foundation
of your argument as well.
But in the above approach you do exactly that, because you use
the Qur'an to decide which part of the Bible is right and which
is wrong. That makes your argument circular and therefore wrong.
If you have already declared that the Bible is corrupted and contains
falsehood then EITHER [if not using the Qur'an at all] you base
your arguments on something that might not be true, and your argument
itself is therefore invalid, because it is reasoning from unverified
and possibly false premises. OR you try to separate the true from
the false [according to Islam] in order to get "pure" premises,
but then you use the Qur'an to do so and make your argument circular
which invalidates it too.
I agree that it is valid to use the Bible for the attempt to prove
Christianity wrong. But if you want to postulate any corruption
in the Bible [as most Muslims do], then the Bible cannot be used
anymore for a validation of the Qur'an without committing one
of the above logical fallacies.
I insist on it. You will have to come up with an independent validation
of the Qur'an FIRST. THEN you can use the Qur'an to separate the
true from the false in the Bible. BUT this independent validation
of the Qur'an hasn't made its introduction to me yet. THAT is
what you have to show me first.
But on the other hand, if you discard the Bible, then you are
pulling the rug under the Qur'an since the harmony with the earlier
revelations is one of the biggest reasons the Qur'an brings for
its own validity. And you just discarded it!
This objection is met with:
Wrong again. The Qur'an makes clear that the peoples who had
received revelation before have distorted those books, that
is one of the reasons for the sending of the Qur'an, to guard
what was sent before..ie. to be able to tell what is right and
wrong in what is claimed to be the previous revelation. If the
claimed previous revelation is not in accord with the Qur'an,
then that part which is not in accord is wrong. The part which
is in accord with the Qur'an is ok.
This is valid ONLY if you have ALREADY shown the Qur'an to be
right. WHERE have you or anybody done so?
BUT even your claim above is wrong. I have asked a many times:
WHERE does the Qur'an speak of the textual corruption of the Christian
scriptures at all? NOWHERE. This is a popular Muslim myth. I have
posted the proof of it several times on this newsgroup. Please
go and read the complete discussion of ALL Qur'an verses about
the Jewish and Christian scriptures at this
web page and then tell me whether Dr. Campbell forgot even
one verse and if that one or any of these verses discussed speaks
of corruption of the text of the Christian scriptures.
If not, then please stop making these unsubstantiated claims.
And I have to reiterate my argument from above: It is the as yet
unvalidated Qur'an which claims to be in accord with the earlier
scriptures. If this claim of harmony turns out to be false, then
it is the problem of the Qur'an and not the problem of the Bible.
It is the Qur'an which claims harmony and it isn't there, so the
Qur'an claims something that is wrong. I cannot understand that
it is so hard to comprehend that if the Qur'an makes false claims
that this is a problem for the Qur'an and NOT for the Bible.
Basically Muslims say:
If the Qur'an makes false claims about the Bible then the Bible
is wrong.
I hope expressed in this form you see how illogical this conclusion
is. If a Bahai or any other newer religious descendent of Islam
would reason that way in regard to contradictions between his
book and the Qur'an, you would be the first to detect the error
in this "logic".
