Abrahamic Religions
There is a commonality in the three Abrahamic religions-Judaism, Christianity and Islam-that cannot be overlooked: Followers of all three believe in a single God, something of an anomaly before the first of these, Judaism, arrived. Some religious writers think there is another commonality, and one that is far less welcome in today's world, in the way these religions view their relationship to God and to the word of God as delivered by their respective holy books. Jonathan Glover, an English moral philosopher, has observed that all three "religions of the Book have a propensity for the authoritarian posture" (Pettifer, 2000). Each religion, basing its instruction on the Torah, the Bible and the Qur'an respectively, discourages rebellion and espouses dogmatism, although each will also define dogmatism as orthodoxy instead. Each, basing the claim on the relevant holy book, "forecloses the possibility of sympathetic discussion with folk who think differently" (Pettifer, 2000), thereby retaining and even enhancing the gulf between the peoples who believe in each religion. Working under the belief that a person's or group's actions speak more loudly concerning what they believe than do their words, it is easy to see that the thr
John 14:6 Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me. Joshua 24:14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve you the LORD (Qur'an Bible Comparison Web site). It seems to be true, then, in thought, word and deed, that dedicated followers of all the Abrahamic religions tend also to be absolutists, certainly a hint about their understanding of their religion. Although Pettifer notes that Catholics have been reluctant to acknowledge the fact, fascism "which took root in the anti-Semitic soil of Catholic, Christian Europe... was authoritarian, patriarchal and absolutist" (2000), so that expressing that religious belief by accommodating a Fuhrer or Il Duce was not a stretch either of behavior or belief. Pettifer also points out that Islam has an extraordinary record for violence, with the "monstrous Taliban in Afghanistan" damaging the lives of women to the point of despair. Pettifer (2000) writes: It is implied, however, that the God being approached after Jesus is the same God as those approached via the instructions in both the Qur'an and the Torah. Both of these quotations express a direct route to God, and also direct the believer in how to approach God, by serving and giving. By the time of the Gospels, an intermedi
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Approximate Word count = 961
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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