Yes Bushmaster, you are right, i am not trying to say that what Christians think of, imagine, conceptualize is the same as what Muslims think of, imagine or conceptualize as God. But we both do agree that He is the Creator and Master of All.
But whatever the pre-Islamic pagans thought of God is irrelevant, just like you would argue that whatever Muslims believe of God is irrelevant. If they believed that God had daughters, Christians believe that God had a son. So my point in stating this was some other people who keep trying to imply that the root of Islamic religion is demonic or false. Again, Prophet Muhammad stated it clear, Muslims believe in the One and Only God who Created everything and has control over everything. Hence we reclaimed Monotheism as no other religion has. And I will stand on that till the day i die and am resurrected and stand before my maker. I would be afraid to stand before my maker knowing that I had believed him to be mortal at some point in His "existence."
On what i believe about Jesus, the only reason Muslims debate this topic, while not even giving it credence to begin with, is because we are trying to show our brothers and sisters in humanity that there are contradictions, there are things that had Jesus actually been God he would have never done, or gone through, or subjected himself, He would have been God subjecting himself to humans in the most degrading of forms. It's often talked about that Jesus was a willing sacrifice. So why did he pray to himself to not let himself go thru the pain (in the garden right before he was seized.)? Why was he hiding out with his disciples in the Garden? And not proclaiming openly his deity? Why did so many people not know that he was God? They thought him to be just a prophet. And if God loved his Children so much as goes the claim, why didnt he announce that he was on the earth? Ready and willing to save all? He ordered those he healed never to speak of it. Why were his disciples, if they acutally thought him to be God, disobeying and disbelieving in some cases? This is why muslims look at the majesty and power needed to create the entire multiverse and here we are told God was walking among us as a man who was beat and killed and we don't believe it. Not because we don't want to, but because it lessens the majesty of the Almighty. I ask everyone to think for a second about the very definition of "Almighty."
as far as "father", i have no problem with that at all as it has been clearly shown this was a common colloquial saying of the Jews of that time and its found elsewhere in the bibleOT. The muslim who described the relationship between man and dog as indicative of the islamic reality is not the analogy i would have used but it is absolutely correct. You just don't like the analogy. The proof of its correctness is that God will take your life at anytime when you least expect it. You were born and will die all by the will of God, you have no say in it. Do you have illusions that if you "love" God more you get to live longer? Yet this relationship, as realized in Islam is full of Love as evidenced by the very names that begin the chapters fo the Quran. God is "The Most Merciful" and "The Most Benevolent or Lovingly Merciful" Doesn't change the fact that God doesnt need us, or require us; the definition of "god" precludes that "god" has contingencies. God's love in Christianity is conditional as it is in Islam. The word Love in the verse "For God so Loved the world..." actually would fall under the "Merciful" aspects of HIs attributes. Because Human beings never asked for a savior, they were informed of them, notified of them over time, but one (in this case Jesus, puh) was sent out of love and mercy. The illustration of God's unending Mercy and Benevolence is that we have food and air and water, clothing, the love between humans, family etc. Things that we could never dream up, yet they are provided for us without asking whether you believe or don't believe in God