ITS ISLAM NOT CHRISTIANITY THAT IS PAGANISM
This Post is going to debunk a myth that goes around far too freely. Yes, the Muslim charge that the incarnation and/or doctrine of the Trinity is pagan, is nonsense and needs calling out. Moreover it needs pointing out that yet again Muslims try to tarnish Christians with what they in fact are guilty of.
Muslims bandy about terms without having a clue of their meaning or origin.
□ DEFINITION OF PAGAN
Pagan; Paganism: “a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions; who adheres specifically to a non-Christian or pre-Christian religion.”
Merriam-Webster has the following entries:
1): HEATHEN sense 1 especially : a follower of a polytheistic religion (as in ancient Rome)
2: one who has little or no religion and who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods : an irreligious or hedonistic person
3: NEO-PAGAN witches, druids, goddess worshippers, and other pagans in America today— Alice Dowd
2). Of, relating to, or having the characteristics of pagans
//pagan customs/beliefs
// Reuse of Roman objects was not uncommon during the Middle Ages, although the discovery of ancient sculpture was usually a momentous event, and pagan images in particular provoked fearful responses — Peter Scott Brown
// In addition to moon-rituals, wiccans celebrate pagan seasonal holidays — Scott McMurray
According to Merriam-Webster, the term “Pagan” comes from the Latin word ‘paganus’, which was used at the end of the Roman Empire to identify those who practiced a religion other than Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. Early Christians often used the term to refer to non-Christians who worship multiple deities. In Latin, ‘paganus’ originally meant “country dweller” or “civilian;” it is believed that the word’s religious meaning developed either from the enduring non-Christian religious practices of those who lived far from the Roman cities where Christianity was more quickly adopted, or from the fact that early Christians referred to themselves as “soldiers of Christ,” making nonbelievers “civilians.”
Paganism is simultaneously a prehistoric and postmodern religion – it is as ancient as the fertility symbols associated with the veneration of gods and goddesses tens of thousands of years ago, while its newest forms have emerged as recently as the mid-20th century.
Broadly speaking, Paganism encompasses two key characteristics: 1) religious and spiritual practices concerning the worship of, or devotion to, the earth, the natural world, and/or the manifest physical universe; and/or 2) belief in spiritual beings: goddesses, gods, nature spirits (fairies, elves, power animals), and ancestral spirits.
□ ISLAM NOT AN ABRAHAMIC FAITH
And I will take issue with Islam being a mainstream Abrahamic faith and therefore not pagan. It fits far more readily the above dictionary definition characteristics of paganism, in respect of devotion to the Cosmos and is ruled by the lunar calendar. Celestial emblems adorn every mosque.
Be under no illusion, Allah the Islamic deity, is a pagan god of idolatrous roots and invention. Allah bears no relation to the Lord God of Judaism or Christianity, both of which faiths, recognise what the Bible teaches from the outset – the plurality of the Godhead. Whether etymologically, by personality, self revelation, commandments, purpose or moral attributes, the Islamic god is incompatible and woefully deficient in comparison to God as revealed in the Bible. He has nothing in common with Yahweh and everything in common with pagan pre-Islamic celestial worship, and Sabeanism.
If you Google “who was the chief god of the Quraysh” this is the first answer you will get:
“Hubal
Hubal (Arabic: هُبَل‎) was a god worshipped in pre-Islamic Arabia, notably by Quraysh at the Kaaba in Mecca. He was the patron the chief god of Muhammad’s tribe the Quraysh.”
Not to put any gloss on it, Muhammad was born into pagan Baal worship. If Allah is simply a generic name for God and not a proper name for God then we must ask which Allah did Muhammad’s tribe worship, the answer can only be Hubal. Hubal is the proper name of pre-Islam’s god.
The Cambridge companion to the Quran page 24:
“The sira literature presents Mecca’s cult as a pagan one to the god Hubal, and depicts the Arabian religious environment in which Muhammad grew up as overwlemingly pagan – the final vestiges of the ancient near eastern religious tradition.”
Hubal “chief god of the Kaaba, a marshal and auricular deity a moon god” (‘God goddesses and mythology’ vol. 11 page 137)
Hubal “an idol the god of the moon” (The New Encyclopedia of Islam page 209)
Hubal was an idol from Syria. He was the god of the Moabites.
There is a broad consensus that the high god of Mecca was Hubal:
“… The great god of Mecca was Hubal, an idol of carnelian.” (Maxime Rodinson, Muhammad [New Press, NY, May 2000 ISBN: 1565847520], p. 16)
“… The Kaaba which may have initially been a shrine of Hubal alone, housed several idols …” (Rodinson, p. 40)
“… The presiding deity was Hubal, a large carnelian kept inside the temple; 360 other idols were arranged outside …” (Malise Ruthven, Islam in the World [Oxford University Press, Second edition 2000], p. 15)
“… Although originally under the aegis of the pagan god Hubal, the Makkan haram which centered around the well of Zamzam, may have become associated with the ancestral figures of Ibrahim and Isma’il as the Arab traders, shedding their parochial backgrounds sought to locate themselves within the broader reference-frame of Judeo-Christianity.” (Ibid., p. 17)
“… the god of Makka, Hubal, represented by a statue of red carnelian, is thought to have been originally a totem of the Khuza’a, rulers of Makka before their displacement by the Quraysh …” (Ibid. p. 28)
“… At the time of Muhammad, the Kaaba was OFFICIALLY DEDICATED to the god Hubal, a deity who had been imported into Arabia from the Nabateans in what is now Jordan. But the pre-eminence of the shrine as well as the common belief in Mecca seems to suggest that it may have been dedicated originally to al-Llah, the High God of the Arabs …” (Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet [Harper San Francisco; ISBN: 0062508865; Reprint edition, October 1993], pp. 61-62)
“… Legend had it that Qusayy had travelled in Syria and brought the three goddesses al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat to the Hijaz and enthroned the Nabatean god Hubal in the Kaaba …” (Armstrong, p. 66)
“Pre-Islamic Arabia also had its stone deities. They were stone statues of shapeless volcanic or meteoric stones found in the deserts and believed to have been sent by astral deities. The most prominent deities were Hubal, the male god of the Kaaba, and the three sister goddesses al-Lat, al-Manat, and al-Uzza; Muhammad’s tribe, the Quraysh, thought these three goddesses to be the daughters of Allah. Hubal was the chief god of the Kaaba among 360 other deities. He was a man-like statue whose body was made of red precious stone and whose arms were of solid gold.” (George W. Braswell, Jr., Islam Its Prophets, Peoples, Politics and Power [Broadman & Holman Publishers, Nashville, TN; July, 1996], p. 44)
“Hubal. An idol, God of the moon. It was set up in the Kaaba and became the principal idol of the pagan Meccans.” (Cyril Glassé, The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam [Harper & Row: San Francisco, 1989], p. 160)
“… the principal gods at Mecca were Hubal (god of the moon) and the female goddesses.” (Ibid., p. 179)
Ibn Al-Kalbi in his “Book of Idols’ (see: answering-islam.org/Books/Al-Kalbi/index.htm) notes:
“The Quraysh were want to venerate her above all other idols. For this reason Zayd ibn-‘Amr ibn-Nufayl, who, during the Jahilyah days, had turned to the worship of God and renounced that of al-‘Uzza and of the other idols, said:
‘I have renounced both Allat and al-‘Uzza, For thus would the brave and the robust do. No more do I worship al-‘Uzza and her two daughters, Or visit the two idols of the banu-Ghanm; Nor do I journey to Hubal and adore it, ALTHOUGH IT WAS OUR LORD WHEN I WAS YOUNG.’
… The Quraysh had also several idols in and around the Kaaba. The greatest of these was Hubal. It was, as I was told, of red agate, in the form of a man with the right hand broken off. It came into the possession of the Quraysh in this condition, and they, therefore, made for it a hand of gold. The first to set it up [for worship] was Khuzaymah ibn-Mudrikah ibn-al-Ya’s’ ibn-Mudar. Consequently it used to be called Khuzaymah’s Hubal.
It stood inside the Kaaba. In front of it were seven divination arrows (sing. qidh, pl. qidah or aqduh). On one of these arrows was written “pure” (sarih), and on another “consociated alien” (mulsag). Whenever the lineage of a new-born was doubted, they would offer a sacrifice to it [Hubal] and then shuffle the arrows and throw them. If the arrows showed the word “pure,” the child would be declared legitimate and the tribe would accept him. If, however, the arrows showed the words “consociated alien” the child would be declared illegitimate and the tribe would reject him. The third arrow was for divination concerning the dead, while the fourth was for divination concerning marriage. The purpose of the three remaining arrows has not been explained. Whenever they disagreed concerning something, or purposed to embark upon a journey, or undertake some project, they would proceed to it [Hubal] and shuffle the divination arrows before it. Whatever result they obtained they would follow and do accordingly.
It was before [Hubal] that ‘Abd-al-Muttalib shuffled the divination arrows [in order to find out which of his ten children he should sacrifice in fulfilment of a vow he had sworn], and the arrows pointed to his son ‘Abdullah, the father of the Prophet. Hubal was also the same idol which abu-Sufyan ibn-Harb addressed when he emerged victorious after the battle of Uhud, saying:
“Hubal, be thou exalted” (i.e. may thy religion triumph);
To which the Prophet replied:
“Allah is more exalted and more majestic.”
(Source: answering-islam.org/Books/Al-Kalbi/uzza.htm)
Thus the association of Islam and its rites and rituals with celestial worship, places it full square within a pagan setting. The main influences in the main Islamic texts are gnostic sources, the heretical and occult Simon Magus, and Persian myths and legends.
It is no coincidence that Allah only ever “spoke” during one false self acclaimed “prophet’s” life and was never heard from before nor since. Its no coincidence that gods of pagan religions are remote and unknowable. In complete contrast to how God reveals Himself in the Bible.
I wouldn’t agree with atheist Matt Dillahunty about much but he is spot on here:
“If god does exist, it either interacts with the universe in some detectable way or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, that god is indistinguishable from a non-existent god.”
This sums up the pagan moon god makeover that Muhammad gave Hubal to rebrand him as Allah. Islam’s god is anonymous, incognito, inscrutuble, non communicative, indescribable, and undetectable. Muhammad even admitted he only existed in his imagination!
Bottom line: Its impossible to relate to or worship a god who is unknowable. That’s why God came down to earth and took on the appearance of a man so we can see His exact likeness in Jesus.
This is why Muslims have to deify Muhammad and make him not Allah the subject of blasphemy laws and object of Durood Shareef because they know Allah doesn’t exist.
No wonder Muslims all over the world have continued in this figment of imagination syndrome they contracted from their so called prophet Muhammad.
SUMMARY
Muslims say the Incarnation is paganism but it is literally the opposite of paganism because Jesus Christ is not a man made god but rather God made man for our salvation. Similarly a triune God of co equal and co eternal persons has no parallel in paganism.
Saying the Trinity is “paganism” isn’t true just because you regurgitate this common misconception. Repeating a lie will never make it true however often repeated. There is not a single pagan religion comprised of a consubstantial and co-eternal Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
There is One Name, One Throne, One Ousia, One Mind, One Will and One purpose. Jesus is eternally begotten by the Father outside of time and space such that They have eternally co-existed from the beginning anterior to all creation.
The Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father through the Son. Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. God did not have sex with the Virgin Mary to allow the incarnation. This is completely dissimilar to, and has no parallel in paganism. It is also completely at odds with the Islamic Issa who has more in common with the mythical Taurus than the historical Jewish Jesus of the Gospels.
Literally nothing about the Trinity is paganism. The only argument Muslims have is the strawman fallacy that Christians believe in a “Triad” of three gods. Yeah, well read the above points which are completely foreign to paganism. Seriously Muslims need to produce an actual argument against us, rather than the lame and feeble strawman attacks of 3 gods and a tag of paganism which does not fit Christianity in any shape or form, but absolutely applies rather to Islam.
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