Quote:
Originally Posted by fatbuckRTO
If they were the same god, the different styles of worship would describe denominations. They are different religions, at least according to those who practice them.
At this point it's a semantic argument, I think. I understand the three share holy books, some dogmas, and a lot of history (both verified and dogmatic). But they are different gods in my book, by my definition of what makes a thing "different" from another thing. To a Christian, worship of the Muslim god is idolatry, and if it goes without a belief in Christ as the savior (a god) it's a path to hell. To a Muslim, belief in Christ as a god is idolatry, and denial of Mohammed as the prophet is some sort of sin. A Jew would also consider worship of Christ as idolatry.*
* These are, of course, the "by-the-book" dogmatic views, as I understand them. I get that some Christians don't believe in hell, some Jews eat shellfish, and some Muslims have probably never even heard of Gabriel.
|
Sorry, but if a Christian considers worship of the "Muslim God" to be idolatry, then said Christian needs to look that word up. In fact Islam has even less symbology attached than do the majority of Christian denominations.
Most religions, that are based in the Old Testament stories, believe that everyone who doesn't follow their personal flavour is going straight to hell. At least one even believes that not all of THEM are going to heaven, because they have a set number who will get in. As far as I'm concerned any of their new converts are fools, because all the tickets for the cruise ship have already been sold.
Islam admits that Jews and Christians follow the same God, but says that they got it wrong. They're all based on the same foundation books. It's not semantics, it's bloody fact, that they all follow the same God. Those who fail to admit this are simply trying to set themselves further apart from what is different because of zenophobia, or simple bigotry. The simple truth is that they can't agree on what secret handshake gets you into the lodge house, but they all have the same address to it.