Abrahamic Religions
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are all very closely unified as Abrahamic religions because they share a multitude of common beliefs and thoughts. Hinduism, on the other hand is almost complete opposite of these religions. The extreme differences within these religions has seemed to cause problems between them throughout history. Hinduism is considered to be an Eastern religion while Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are considered Western. (Lafave,2004. Location, leaders, religious practices, and political issues are just a few aspects that bring them to differentiating opinions. The Abrahamic religions have many shared ideas and thoughts in relation to life and the driving force of the universe. Jews ,Christians, & Muslims all agree upon the notion that there is only one creator of all of humanity. They are all monotheistic religions and they rely on holy scriptures as a life guided tool. The Christians use the Holy Bible, Islams refer to the Qu’ran, while Jews refer mostly to the Torah.
All believe that the human body is only a temporary state and that if the soul is a deemed a good one by following God’s plan then it goes on to live eternally in heaven with Jesus or the equivalent. If the soul judged by God is unworthy, then it must live in hell with the devil. Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike all believe in a coming of the Messiah, though at different times. Another shared belief is that GOD is a merciful God and must be respected and given praise accordingly.
He will forgive the sins of the people by repentance and one must live their life according to his teachings. These beliefs are just the tip of the iceberg when talking about similarities between the Abrahamic religions. Hinduism is an almost complete opposite of the Abrahamic religions. Hindus have no substantial founder of the religion nor do they only worship just one God, but different Gods and Goddesses and manifestations or aspects of the Supreme God. Hinduism is considered a polytheistic religion.
The life guided scriptures used by them is the Vedas which are considered the oldest and most sacred religious texts. Hinduism beliefs consider karma to determine one’s life path for the future in the cycle of reincarnation. Karma is considered to be the universal law of cause and effect. They consider life to be a continuous cycle and the end goal for them is to be released from life by “learning the true illusions of life and achieve unity with the Brahman”. “Individuals may find release from life by devotion to one or more of the Indian Gods. (Hopfe &Woodward,2009. p. 98)Hinduism has grown to become the world’s third largest religion. Places of worship include temples and home shrines. Brahman is the unifying principle and Supreme Reality behind all existance though is rarely worshipped. Brahma is the most widely known and is the recognized one as Creator of the world. The similarities that are shared by these religions are very few and many conflicts have actually risen from differences in views of the world.
In modern civilation in these days and times, I believe in unity of all religions. If the whole world could all come to a common point of understanding, there would be less need for war and misunderstanding of humanity. Even though these religions are deemed so different, I believe there is a unifying force that helped create them all.
References Hopfe, L. & Woodward, M. , (2009). Religions of the World,11th ed. Lafave, S. , Retrieved January 2004 from http://instruct. westvalley. edu/lafave/east_west. html
