u/salamacast

Hopefully this would be more appropriate than answering disparate questions in the comments like I had to do recently.

• I'm what is typically called a Salafy/salafist, or Athari, adhering to the old-school interpretations, with no attempt to modernize/reform.

• I don't sugarcoat, so feel free to delve into controversial topics if you need to.

• I have years of experience as an apologist, and can prove that Islam is superior to Christianity theologically, and in all other aspects.

• I'm an Egyptian (native Arabic speaker), so I might get a bit technical when it comes to language.

• Since this is a DebateAChristian space I think it appropriate to start with a simple challenge:
  If the Gospels were inspired by God, why did Luke need to do research to write his? And in his gathering of witness accounts, how did he know the details of Mary's first angelic encounter when she was alone? Was his interviews first hand or second/third hand, and how then can you verify the authenticity of the chain of narrators?
  This is just an optional question. You can bypass it and ask instead about Isa, the Islamic belief in Jesus' second coming, what is the Injeel exactly, etc.
  I don't like subs like debateReligion for Islamic-Christian debates, since atheists seem to be a majority there and they can't make real contributions, as they think both faiths are equally wrong :)

• I have no problem dealing with the frequently repeated topics of child marriage, slavery, patriarchy, expansionist Jihad, Biblical partial corruption, qira'at variations, apostasy/homosexuality laws etc. But it would be nice to find more interesting debate points, as I have been answering the same Qs for nearly 10 years on Reddit!

EDIT:
I guess things finally slowed down. I appreciate you participating in the discussion. I'll keep an eye on future notifications if you thought of additional questions.

EDIT:
OK, that was an interesting second round. I think I'm going to sleep now (it's 1 AM here!)

I need to see what magic fixed the latest error messages!
Can someone link to the appropriate log of changes in the nightly version?
Keeping up with YT shenanigans seems like a heroic, never-ending battle!

.. proving that abrogation is a thing, contrary to the Christian claim that shelving OT legal code is "fulfillment, not abrogation".
(a semantics difference anyway)

..and was only recognized as official Catholic dogma relatively recently, after 1700 years of speculation!

Eve even said it (supposedly) way back in Gen 4!!
Christians, these anachronisms have many attempted workarounds. What's your favorite?

Was A DeLorean involved?! The timeline doesn't add up.
And why wasn't this made official doctrine until relatively recently?! It looks like a patch to plug a plot-hole.

• I've been reading SPD material for 10 years, but I never cared enough to know about other personality disorders! (except the bare minimum, only enough to distinguish them from SPD)
• I switched to a Linux operating system 12 years ago, using command line on a daily basis & such, but if you asked me to fix a simple issue on your Windows or Mac, I'd struggle! Not long after I switch camps, I forget the old! (Is this related to "weak object attachment", for those more knowledgeable than me on such psychological topics?)
  I won't bore you with many similar examples (like losing my way in my own neighborhood simply because I never venture beyond the usual route!)

Aegosexuality is:
like enjoying thinking about mangoes, with mango px as your phone's background, while being allergic to the real thing and not in love with the taste either.

• Born 1989, England
• Youtuber from 2011-2018 as WhiteEnglishGirl
• Main interest: Japanese Rap
• She & her brother (former youtuber David Brown aka BoyInABand) lived in The UAE for a while
• Diagnosed with Schizoid Personality Disorder
• Travel vlogger

If your SPD vanished today, you could find yourself without a personality at all! Your moral compass would be affected too. And you will have to start from the beginning, learning to navigate a social ocean too late in life.

• Do you know the story of Kaspar Hauser? He was a Dark Lord of the Si imprisoned all his life. In chains from childhood. When finally released he didn't know how to speak. A cured zoid is a Kaspar. The simplest of things will be a challenge. It's like that Republican Hercules actor whose trainer messed up his neck during a session he had to learn how to walk again. Starting from square one is a feat of will not everybody is capable of achieving.
• An essential part of my views on life was influenced by being an outsider, an observer free to judge society since he doesn't participate in it. My rigid moral code aligns nicely with the cold-hearted, detached schizoid persona. Without that, what would I become?
• If you reached a certain age as a zoid, then you have already passed the point of learning certain skills. You probably burned many bridges too that are hard to reconstruct. The reconciliation & teary hugging reunion of families happen mostly in Hollywood fantasies. People are hard to warm to a person who suddenly claims he broke free of lifelong behavioral patterns.
• In Young Frankenstein, the monster was revealed to the public in a new look, as a gentleman. It didn't last long before the old patterns of mutual mistrust emerged.
• Will a sudden cure magically fill your CV's gap years?
• There is a certain wisdom that comes with SPD, like the blind honing their other senses. You will lose that. You will be too trusting of others, naive, an easy prey to conmen, because you now lack the reserved caution that protected you before, and you are too eager to jump into relationships & interactions. Basically a teenager-level of immaturity!

Sorry if this was a downer (I usually try to avoid those), but maybe the glass-half-full view is that you wouldn't be too sad if the fabled cure didn't materialize.

Where are the lost books mentioned by name in the Old Testament?!

• The Book of Shemaiah the Prophet and Story of the Prophet Iddo mentioned in 2 Chronicles 9:29, 12:15, 13:22. Completely lost to history.
• The Book of the Wars of the Lord mentioned in Numbers 21:14
• The Book of Jasher mentioned in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18
• The Manner of the Kingdom referenced in 1 Samuel 10:25
• The Acts of Solomon referenced in 1 Kings 11:41
• The Book of Nathan the Prophet referenced in 1 Chronicles 29:29, 2 Chronicles 9:29
• The Chronicles of King Ahasuerus referenced in Esther 2:23, 6:1, 10:2, Nehemiah 12:23
• The Book of Gad the Seer referenced in 1 Chronicles 29:29

Some throughout the ages even tried to exploit this by fabricating their own versions and passing them as discovered ancient manuscripts!

For me:

• Punny one liners. The sillier the better (aka dad jokes)
• malapropism
• Angry outbursts
• The Brits

So I don't agree we are really "dead inside". Perhaps it takes more effort to "tickle" us, but if you know the right spot..
(favorite comedy film: Clue. favorite tv comedy: UK's The Sketch Show. favorite radio comedy: Count Arthur Strong, followed closely by Milton Jones)

We use words like human creativity, originality, author, inventor, etc., but if you think about it deep enough you discover there isn't a single original idea or tool mankind came up with that wasn't already in nature in some form, or mentioned by God's prophets!
Fire? (lightning hitting a tree). Dragons? (fire + snakes). Cloning? (twins). Wireless communication? Poor imitation of divine inspiration. Superheroes? Basically Moses + Jesus. Dams? Plagiarized from beavers. Medicine? Copied from animals seeking healing herbs when ill. Society? Ants & bees.
Our fantasies & reality are all imitations. An atheist can believe in aliens but he is basically dressing up the ancient concept of angels.
You can't ask "Who created God?" when He is the only entity that created anything to begin with :)

That would mean that at some point, the author of My Immortal was a close acquaintance of theirs. A classmate, a neighbor or a family member!
Writers draw from life and may base their art on real persons, especially "interesting" individuals like Rachel & Sarah. The author could have simply observed them develop their personas in real life (before their YT uploads), and so thought of them as fair game for appropriation.

Everyone knows the stereotype that guys make friends in weird situations, right? I was able to prove it for the second time (I posted another story about a different person a couple of months ago)
To give you some context, I’m on a Discord server dedicated to a certain obscure game. In my part of the world, this game is even less popular than in other countries, so I was chatting there in English. Suddenly, someone with another Russian username noticed my Russian nickname. He messaged me, “Are you from Russia?” to which I replied, “No, from *Another Country*”. He was completely shocked, since he was from there too. I asked which city he was from, and he said the same one as me. That blew my mind, and we switched to private messages. While we were chatting, a third person from our same city showed up in the chat!! And the game’s fanbase is mostly made up of players from the States. We got together as a group and decided to go for a walk on our very first day. In literally 20 minutes, I got ready and headed to the station near the beach. A lot happened there: from a fight between us and some drunks to getting five liters of kvass for free. Then we headed to a bar, where a bartender I knew poured us some kombucha for free. And so, even though I’d planned to just sit around and do nothing all day, I found friends and here I am, sitting in a bar during a thunderstorm, drinking kombucha. I love this life, what a small chance there was for all this to happen! Best day of year.

It's my 31st year wearing glasses. 14 hours a day, everyday. Once a week I take a 40 min walk to the supermarket, and today I decided to see the world without the glass filter.
Blurry vision. Sunny day. Zigzagging while navigating Egyptian traffic. Said hi to a guy I assume was a neighbor (could be a total stranger). Bumped the shopping bag. Couldn't see the price tags, so I leaned so far it looked as if I was smelling the food. All of that isn't important though. People reacted differently. Friendlier. Too polite. Ladies getting closer than usual, as if I'm "safer", more approachable somehow!
2 hours later I found my way back.