Similarities and Differences Among the Three Major Religions Judaism Christianity and Islam Term Paper

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Judaism, Christianity, And Islam

Judaism, Christianity and Islam:

Similarities and Differences

I am sure that most of you already have some pretty strong convictions about one or all of the three major world religions I will discuss today -- particularly, given the state of current events, considering Islam. However, if you strip away the political issues surrounding the faith, I am sure that you will be amazed to know just how many similarities Judaism, Christianity, and Islam actually share.

First, it is important to note that all major religions have millions of followers. As such, it is all but inevitable that many will distort the teachings of their respective religions in order to pursue their own personal goals and agendas. For example, many Israeli settlers site their unique position as God's children as justification for violating United Nations and International laws against building illegal settlements on Palestinian Land, many Christians might use their faith to justify "inquisitions," crusades, or even murder (in the case of abortion doctors, for example), and many Muslims might use their faith to justify acts of violence against civilians in many places throughout the world.

The simple truth is, given the massive media coverage of the wrongs committed in the name of God in current times, the practice is neither confined to one particular religion, or even one time. However, if one takes the time to move past the misdeeds of individual followers of any faith, one can gain a real understanding of principles of the great religions of the world.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are the three major "monotheistic" religions, meaning that they all worship the same single God. Further, they are all based on the historical and religious precedents set by Abraham, and are thus known as "Abrahamic" religions (Fisher, 2002).

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However, aside from common "roots" there are other significant similarities between the three religions.

Foremost among the many similarities between the faiths is the monotheistic nature of the belief in one God (Fisher). Perhaps one of the strongest veins that runs through all three religions is the universal abhorrence of all of them against polytheism and polytheistic practice. Further, although it seems that of the three, Judaism and Islam weighs in most heavily on the side of true monotheism (due to the emphasis in Christian doctrine on the notion of the Trinity), it is commonly understood that Christianity also is monotheistic in that the three aspects referred to in the concept merely refers to the complexity of God, rather than three separate gods (Sherrill, 1999).

In addition to being monotheistic religions, all three faiths are based on a kind of communication between "prophets" and God. In Judaism, the prophet was Moses, Christianity, Jesus, and Islam, Muhammad. However, it is here that one sees the first large divisions emerge -- for Judaism does not acknowledge Jesus or Muhammad, Christianity does not acknowledge Muhammad, nor does it restrict the role of Jesus to simple "prophethood," while Islam accepts both Moses, and Jesus as prophets (and not in any way divine), as well as Muhammad as the final "seal" of revelation (Makari, 1998).

Interestingly, even the holy texts of the three religions hold striking similarities as well as difference -- for Judaism's holy book, the Torah is considered revealed scripture from God, Christianity's Old and New Testaments are considered "holy," and Islam's Qur'an….....

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