(January 13, 2015 at 8:00 am)Newtonscat Wrote: As I understand the facts there is no evidence that Mohammed was the driving force behind Islam. Islam expanded through Egypt, Palestine, North Africa, Persia, etc., before 700 ad, but this expansion was not described by contemporary writers are being driven by the teachings of Mohammed and there was no mention of the Koran. Mohammed doesn't come into the picture until 697 ad, 65 years after his supposed death. The Mosques were rebuilt early in the 8th century to face Mecca (not shortly after Mo's death). Commentators in the early 700s complained that the Quraysh tribe from Arabia were trying to take over and were inventing stories about Mohammed. The Koran, I am convinced, was written around 770 ad by a single individual of very high status. I think Nestorians were more likely to have been the original founding force behind Islam. Mohammed's lot came later ... and appear to have rewritten history to suit themselves.
The influences of the Hebrews was polytheism. Christianity and Islam started in the same area. But none of those religions were magically handed down by a god to a man/god or a "prophet". They all started as a result of mundane competition and marketing.
I think much of Islam started as a splinter sect of Egyptian Christianity, if I remember correctly.
It isn't that the writers of any of these books were deliberately lying. They were simply ignorant and confused their fortune in getting people to follow as being of divinity. It is a human mental trap, the same as a lucky bat or lucky socks. You gap fill to make an explanation as to why things happen. If you convince others then what you wrote was right in your mind. Most certainly retrofiting and backwards logic.
