It is better to believe in the God of the Bible than to believe in Allah

The Mercy Question - Eschatological nitpickery (eternity or not?)A great problem with basing our understanding and judgement concerning an absolute, eternal being on something as temporal and fluctuous as language is that you often get into little disagreements like this, over what a word is intended to mean, and how it is supposed to fit with all the other things that are said. No serious theologian can get away with his belief without the most painstaking and mind-contorting apologism and relativatism, which is as true for the Bible as for any other holy book, and I do hope I won't have to point out in detail why this is. You think of the Bible as a clear and straight-forward book, to represent a clear and straight-forward god? Read it again, brother.If science would ever have good reason to believe in the existence of a deity, and to study him, the metaphorical, symbolical, hagiographical language of the Stone Age testaments won't do.The word 'All-Merciful' is supposed to be a translation of either the word رحمان or رحيم, which are often respectively translated as 'the most gracious', and 'the most merciful'. It is not, as I said, by default taken to mean that He forgives everyone and everything. The verse which you quoted then, "...verily Allah forgives all sins...", can indeed be interpreted to say that He will forgive every one sin specifically - entirely semantically valid. Another, again completely valid interpretation however, is that there is no one kind of sin which He does not forgive. Doesn't mean He always forgives it, but He can, if He so pleases.The one exception, though - and even God may make exceptions, somewhere in the fine print of His contract - is mentioned in chapter 4, verse 48 of the Qur'an: "Verily, Allah forgives not that partners should be set up with him in worship, but He forgives except that (anything else) to whom He pleases, and whoever sets up partners with Allah in worship, he has indeed invented a tremendous sin". This still doesn't tell us unequivocally if only Muslims get to go to Heaven (and I truly believe I could have a nice intellectual kerfuffle over that with a Muslim, some time) but mainstream Christians, who believe in the Trinity, and therefore associate partners with the one true God, are as such, in the Islamic faith, certainly excluded from mercy - let's work with that.We were looking for the best odds of salvation, given the possibility that either of these religions are true. You made the argument, dear opponent, that in Islam, it's not clear when Allah will forgive you, while in Christianity it is - namely when you believe in Jesus and his sacrifice.The Qur'an, however, states plainly, in several places, the attributes of the people of paradise."Those who spend (freely), whether in prosperity, or in adversity; who restrain anger, and pardon (all) men;- for Allah loves those who do good;-And those who, having done something to be ashamed of, or wronged their own souls, earnestly bring Allah to mind, and ask for forgiveness for their sins,- and who can forgive sins except Allah?- and are never obstinate in persisting knowingly in (the wrong) they have done.For such the reward is forgiveness from their Lord, and Gardens with rivers flowing underneath,-an eternal dwelling: How excellent a recompense for those who work (and strive)!" (3:134-136)The point is, that even those who did these things, and those who believed, like Abu Bakar whom you mentioned, were always in doubt, fretting over the degree of their sincerity. Did I really do this with a pure intention, pure enough to please Allah? Those religious people who are honest with themselves, notice that their motives and convictions are not always as simple, one-sided, so to speak pure as they believe they should be. How foolish - do they try to surpress the intense complexity of their psyche? In that sense, there is some wisdom in the Christian doctrine that it is not possible for man to overcome his base nature, in his aspiration to the Father, and that by his own deeds, He cannot attain to Him. The singularity of Faith sought by people of faith, is unattainable, and therefore only through God's forgiveness are we saved.Of course, Muslims believe the very same thing: only God gets to decide, merely by the power of his Mercy, whether one is saved or not. And that which saves someone, is faith, but God needs us to prove our faith, not only by doing good deeds, and avoiding and repenting from sins, but also through tests and calamities which He sends upon us, to test if we believe in Him as well in times of hardship as in times of ease. One certain thing however, is that anyone who did believe, even if it was only a little, eventually is saved, possible after spending a little time in Hellfire to cleanse his soul.. It was narrated from Abu Sa‘eed al-Khudri from the Prophet Mohammed: “Everyone in whose heart there is an atom’s weight of faith will be brought out of Hell.”And before the final tally, let's review Hell in Christianity for a while. It's true that most Christians believe in the concept of eternal damnation, but that's merely an interpretation, which wasn't prevalent until some time after the intial spreading of Christianity. The Jews, from which the Christian creed sprung, intially had no concept Hellfire at all, and it plays no part in the Old Testament - though later Rabbinic literature does flirt with various ideas of an underworld. Jesus himself, in the New Testament, refers several times to a place call Gehenna (very close to the Muslim term for the same thing, جهنم [djehennem]) which is usually translated as Hell, and described in Matthews 10:28: "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." And then there's John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It all seems to imply that whoever does not believe in Jesus, does not live forever, and can therefore not be tortured for eternity - at most, he is sent to hell, for both his body and soul to die, which I don't suppose is going to be a very pleasant experience, but it will definitely come to an end. Not so for disbelievers in the God of the Muslims. They don't get the privilege of perishing, '...and live therein forever.' (I used to be so terrified of those verses as a child.)So let's resume, and evaluate the odds of the wager again. If Islam is right, the Muslim may have to go through some infernal purification, depending on the validity of his faith and God's mercy, but he's sure to enter Paradise at some point. The Christian burns forever. If Christianity is right, the Christian gets eternal life in Heaven, and the Muslim burns for a while and perishes. So, in either case, the Muslim risks only temporary pain, whereas the Christian risk an eternity of it if he's wrong, but the chances of both for having eternal bliss are equal, if the chances of either religion being right are also equal. This puts the odds squarely in the camp of the Muslims, if you ask me.Yet, I have to ask my honoured opponent again, what is the point of all this calculating? Sincerity, as was mentioned, is a rather big thing in religion. Faith could be said to be the opposite of doubt, and if you don't doubt, then nothing above your faith has any chance of being right at all.But then, faith comes in many sizes, it seems, even the weight of an atom. In the end, everyone will have to look to his own heart to make the decision. As for me, whose heart is decidedly nothing but a motor for the distribution of bodily resources, I prefer just to look at what's obvious through our own investigations of the natural world, and not to go on believing, or being scared of, childish stories and fantasies, like the monsters in my closet, which have no grounding in reality. Let alone, try and make others believe it too...