I have not been able to participate much in this thread (to many other things going on), but I had to comment on this:



The Bible is not and cannot be based on the Talmud. The Talmud is a commentary (by and large) on the Bible and, as a result, comes after the Bible was written and codified.

If you wanted to say something like, "Why can't we say the Bible is based on other, previous religious concepts?" Then I would agree with you.

As far as the Qur'an being "based" on the Bible: it does not appear to be a complete rip-off of the Bible itself, but it certainly contains some quotes, paraphrases and allusions to what is written in both the Old and New Testaments. The fact that it is claimed that Mohammad said that both the Old Testament and the Gospels were a part of god's revelation to man (though corrupted by men) would seem to indicate that the Qur'an is based, to some degree, on the Bible, would it not?