Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Essay by buckeyebabe323College, UndergraduateF, May 2002

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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. The differences and the origins of them essentially wrote history.

Judaism is one of the world's oldest continuing religious traditions. It is argued that Judaism is seen not only as a single religion but, but as a group of similar religions. Judaism originated in the land of Israel in the Middle East. Judaism is a complex religious tradition. Jews believe a single, transcendent God created the universe. The Israelites accepted the 10 commandments from God at Mount Sinai.

They committed themselves to following a code of law that regulates how they worship and how they treat people. Judaism has no formal set beliefs that one must hold to be a Jew. In Judaism, actions are far more important than beliefs. It focuses on relationships: Relationships between God and mankind, between God and the Jewish nation, between the Jewish nation and the land of Israel, and between human beings. Jews recorded many of their customs in order to preserve their identity. These writings became the foundation of the Hebrew bible. The Hebrew bible focuses on one essential theme, the necessity for the Jews to obey their God. Scriptures tell the story of the development of these relationships, from the time of creation, through the creation of the relationship between God and Abraham, to the creation of the relationship between God and the...