Q: You bring up some interesting topics in this book, for example when the characters debate about different gods in religions. What do you personally believe about the fact that there are different beliefs? Is one right and the others wrong?

A: To begin with, contradictory explanations can never both be right. You have to choose between monotheism or polytheism, between revealed and manmade religions, between religions that serve God and those that serve men. If you are drawn to the monotheism of the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, one comforting fact is that all three religions profess continuity in the chain of revelation; which religion you adopt depends on how far you progress down that chain (i.e., who do you believe to be the last prophet – Moses, Jesus, or Muhammad?). We should feel reassured to find that all three religions agree upon critical elements of creed. This supports each messenger’s claim to prophethood, because all of them are remarkably consistent in their description of our Creator. God is one (although Trinitarian Christianity plays with this concept, Unitarian Christianity does not), eternal and absolute. His angels are his emissaries, the prophets conveyed His religion of truth, humankind are bound by His decree. At the most simplistic level, there is only one God, so there can only be one religion of absolute truth. All others are, to one degree or another, corrupted. Whether people faithfully adhere to our Creator’s decree will determine whether He forgives them and grants them Paradise in the Hereafter. So what is that one religion of truth? You know my choice – what’s yours?

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