things that interest you that others dont care about probably thread

[sral]

Originally Posted by uh-oh

i'm not asking in regards to jesus.

how do you feel about muhammad? do you see him as an actual historical figure? do you lend credence to his followers writings of him? can you take what was written about him as historical fact?

Unlike Jesus, Mohammed was a head of state, and quite a formidable one. Don't think of the historical Mohammed as someone like the historical Jesus - think of him as more akin to Justinian I, of the Byzantine Empire. Justinian's a saint in the Eastern Orthodox church, with (one assumes) various miracles and other religious properties attributed to him. One can believe in Saint Justinian or not - but Emperor Justinian I was very, very real, and came very close to re-integrating the Western Roman Empire with Byzantium.

So, too, with Mohammed. Was he a prophet? I don't believe so - as an atheist, I don't believe *anyone* was a prophet. But was he a real, historical person who cut quite a swathe through the Middle East in the 600s? Well, *someone* certainly did a whole bunch of conquering at that time, and the contemporary sources attribute it pretty unanimously to a fellow named Mohammed. (As I understand it). So, the simplest explanation is that the fellow existed.