More on the hope for humanity's future

I don't want to get the focus off the question that I raised at Eid: "What is important for the future of humanity?"

I got a lot of comments on that posting. Make sure you read the comments. That's where I say a little about what I believe is important for the future of humanity. My hope depends on Christians and Muslims living next to each other and developing a relationship in which God has a role. There are many ways this can happen, but it seems to me that we are doomed to jihads followed by crusades followed by terrorism followed by "just wars", ad infinitum unless we can figure out how to break down the "dividing wall of partition". For that you may want to take a look at Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

It is not easy to imagine how this is going to happen!

We I did get one very interesting reply to my posting was an article from the Internet regarding whether the son that Abraham offered was Ishmael as is popularly believed among many Muslims or if it was Isaac as the Bible declares. It is from a Christian polemical site, so it would be interesting to know if thinking Muslims actually agree with what is written there.

This of course gets into a polemic that can degenerate into an arguement about "who is right". While one may be right and the other may be wrong (or did Abraham offer both sons and have this experience twice?), such polemic hasn't been able to settle this question during the last 1300 years. If our disagreements continue define our relationship, the future of humanity is at risk.

I don't think that is what God was thinking about when he rescued Abraham's son, whoever it was. What was He thinking?