Lassis Boukari

Suzanne Jacob
RELS-2300
08/10/2015

World Religion Final Comparison paper

Religion has and always will be one of major forces that drives and have
constantly shaped our world. Throughout the centuries wars have been fought, laws have been
created, countries and towns have been built and demolished all to protect or to make known a
religion. In all cultures, human beings make a practice of interacting with what are taken to be
spiritual powers. Humans connect themselves with spirits, ancestors, and gods. Religion is used
to designate this complex and diverse realm of human experience. According to the dictionary,
"Religion is the service or warship of God or the supernatural." In the case of western
civilization, the three religions in question; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are the building
blocks of the world we know today. In this paper I will examine the similarities and differences
between the three major religions of the world including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The
origin of all three religions will be covered as well as their view of God and several conflicts
they have, and beliefs.
The origin of Judaism can be traced back to the stories of the Old Testament.
These stories however cannot be proved by other historical fact (there are no records of the
existence of the Hebrews until 1230 BCE). Through careful examination of the Old Testament
we can conclude Abraham, the first patriarch of the Jews, lived between 1700- 1900 BCE. The
new nucleus of the religion are said to be formed by Abraham and his son Isaac and grandson
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Jacob. These biblical figures, along with their wives, formed their new religion in Canaan. Jacob
fathered twelve sons that became the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel. Due to a great famine
in Canaan these men moved along with their families to Goshen, located in Egypt. The great
mass of Jews in Egypt was not good and after about four centuries the Israelite had become the
slaves of the pharaohs. They built massive monuments that still stand today. The new leader of
the Jews was Moses who leads the people out of Egypt. One of the defining moments in the
Jewish faith is when God speaks to Moses and hands him the Ten Commandments miraculously
engraved in stone tablets.
Christianity is centered on an extraordinary amount of fundamental beliefs.
These beliefs are all found in the bible; there is only one God (Isaiah 43:10, John 17:3), God is
omniscient (Acts 15:18, John 3:20), God is holy (Peter 1:15), God is love, true, spirit (John 4:8,
Romans 3:4, John 4:24). Since the Bible makes it abundantly clear that there is only one true
God and the multitude of gods created by man are idols, then there is only one acceptable
doctrine of God. The deity of Christianity has always been identified as three persons in one
divine Godhead, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The three great Christian creeds explain this.
There are many misconceptions on what happens when you die, some say that good people go to
heaven and bad people go to hell (what makes you good or bad?), others believe that
immediately after death you go into a state called soul sleep. Based on what the Bible says,
Christians do not believe in an afterlife. They believe that once you die, your soul goes to
Heaven, and then, if you have accepted Jesus as your Savior into your heart, you will live on
forever in heaven. But if you have denied Christ, you will not be welcomed into his Kingdom
and will stay in hell for eternity. They believe that Gods Kingdom is Paradise. The bible is the
only book of worship for Christians. Most Christians meet in churches, but recently a new fad
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has taken over, church in movie theater. The local leaders of the churches are the priests. The
priest conduct masses, confirmations, baptisms. The priests are not the only leaders in the
church; the Christians split too many Christianity such as Catholic, Baptist, and Mormon etc.
They have a same view of Jesus Christ. The Catholic religion has a whole Christian leadership
hierarchy. The first is the Pope, then the Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Deacons, and lastly the laity.
Similarities include belief in one God, preserving the faith through prophets,
scriptures and observance of religious law through expression of faith or submission. Faith is the
foundation of many religions, Islam and Judaism included. The first of the five Pillars of Islam,
testimony of faith, requires Muslims to say with conviction, There is no true god but Allah, and
Muhammed is the Messenger of Allah. The first half of this testimony states that only Allah is
to be worshiped. Muslims take this very seriously and do not consider Muhammad to be Allah or
even divine. They simply believe Muhammad was the last in a series of prophets. Besides
Muhammad, Muslims believe in many of the same prophets as the Jews, such as Adam, Noah,
Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus. Similarly, the first commandment states that, You shall put
no other gods before me. Judaism is a monotheistic religion, as is Islam, and they do not believe
in the Trinity. Prayer is a way to speak with and learn from God for both Muslims and Jews.
Muslims believe that the first mosque, the Kaaba, was built by Abraham and his son Ishmael.
Unlike Jews, who had priests offer sacrifices to atone for sin, Muslims believe there are no
intermediaries between God and themselves. Before beginning their prayers, Muslims say,
Allah Akbar (God is Greater that all else). Although works based doctrines do not allow
absolute assurance of an ultimate salvation, Muslims claim prayer lets them feel at peace with
Allah. Jews are to pray to God and no other. They pray several times a day, but their prayers are
broken into three basic groups: Shacharis (Morning Prayer), Mincha (afternoon prayer), and
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Maariv (evening prayers). Prayer stems from Abraham who instituted the Morning Prayer, Isaac
who instituted the afternoon payer, and Jacob, who instituted the evening Prayer. While the
Muslims pray five time a day. Today, people see Islam like a violent religion because they adhere
the political law with religion called Sharia.
There are few similarities between the three religions. One similarity is that
Abraham is viewed the same between all three religions. The only other similarity is that all t
religions believe in a God, Just in different ways. Judaism is, of course, much older that Islam
but there are still many similarities. Whilst Jews and Muslim do not consider Christ to be the
Savior, they do believe him to be a prophet. Three religions are monotheistic, which mean they
believe in only on God and both of these Gods are described very similarly.
One of the first similarities between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is that
they all accept Abraham as the originator of each religion. The people of each religion endured
hardships in their beginnings. Each religion had a major prophet, Judaism and Christianity had
Moses and Islam had Muhammad. The prophets of each religion received their book from God.
They are also all monotheistic religions. Beliefs all three religions believe there is only one God.
They all believe that God is the creator of all things. Each religion also believes in angels and
demons. They also believe that salvation can be given through correct belief and good deeds.
Islam, Judaism, and Christianity share similar thoughts in certain aspects of their faiths, but there
are some differences. All three of these major world religions believe in peace and an afterlife.
Also, they all believe in spiritual beings, such as angels and demons. While Muslims and Jews
adhere to strict daily laws, Christians separate the church from state

Three religions are monotheistic, meaning belief in one only true God. Three
religions believe in a distinct afterlife being either good or bad depending on how a person has
led their life according to their religion. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam three have writings with
describing of how one should live as a part of either religion (the Torah, Bible, and Quran).
There are rules regarding eating restrictions such as only being able to consume Halal (in the
name of Allah) produced goods in Islam and eating Kosher meat in Judaism. Both religions have
special holidays to celebrate various historical and spiritual events of their beliefs. Both religions
have special headwear such as a Jewish yarmulke worn by men during prayer and hijab worn by
Islamic women conforming to a standard of modesty. For the Christians, they are free to eat
everything and to wear normal costume during the ritual.
Judaism is over one millennium older than Islam. Islam is a far more strict
belief with many more demands and rules compared to Judaism. Judaism has a Sabbath day of
rest while Islam believes that Allah, God does not need rest.
The major difference is that while Islam acknowledges that the Old Testament
once was Allahs true revelation, they believe it was altered by the Jews to reflect Jewish views
and opinions. The Jews are seen by Muslims as once having true revelation and submitting to
Allah, but now being misled, unbelieving and no longer in submission.
In conclusion, peace is essential in all three faiths. Islam, Christianity, and
Judaism use peace as a greeting, generally meaning peace be upon you. While Muslims,
Christians, and Jews practice peace within their faith, it doesnt mean theyre peaceful to others
that are outside their faith. This is part of the reason for the holy wars throughout global history.
The followers of each religion cannot accept each others differences, therefore causing conflict.

If Muslims, Christians, and Jews could just accept the differences of each religion, then we could
have a much more unified world. We would be able to speak to one another from different faiths,
and come together to find solution within the world.

Reference
Hebrew,
Isaiah 43:10, John 17:3, in Bible
Acts 15:18, John 3:20, in Bible
Peter 1:15, in Bible
John 4:8, Romans 3:4, John 4:24 in Bible
Quran
Dictionary