What are the Abrahamic Religions?

May they come to their senses in the mid-east, reform themselves, so they all can live together in peace.

Terah (Abraham's father) led a rag tag tribe that was forced out of Ur and followed the fertile crescent to modern day Turkey, picking up ne'r-do-wells, indigents, fugitives,etc. along the way. Forced by the sheer size of the tribe, Abraham and his brothers had to divide up the tribe and go their separate ways. Eventually, the saga of himself and his wife Sarah and her handmaid led to being the progenitor of the Jews, Arabs, and other cultures originating in the Sinai. See the story of Isaac and his two boys. Seems that no one else was procreating. If you are a Christian, Jew, or Moslem, you have to give credence to this fantastic story or your religion is based on nothing. How gullible is the human race?

Some comments have been made here about the differences between the Abrahamic religions. But I think that instead of looking at the differences, we should concentrate on the commonalities. Especially because the commonalities are much more than the differences. The belief in Abraham being such a good example.

Yes, there are controversies about his life, his wives and children. But that's bound to happen. We're talking about someone who lived a long time ago and multiple books that describe him. Let's not let the small differences prevent us from realizing that the Abrahamic religions are the same or similar.

I wonder who came up with the term "Abrahamic religions?"

It sounds like this category was made based on religious rhetoric and the mention of Abraham in them. But from the point of view of Islam, there is only one religion and that is the religion of Abraham.

Islam says that Abraham was the first prophet and since religion has been sent for all people on earth, not just one community, technically that makes Abraham everyone's prophet. It also means that everyone comes from the lineage of Abraham.

@nony - Different religion’s beliefs are a good thing, but that doesn’t mean we should all be religious. In our town the local atheists association started putting up billboards saying that you could be good with God. They meant to spark a controversy, no doubt, especially since we live in the Bible belt.

I don’t think anyone has been bent out of shape about it; but I agree with the basic premise. As an agnostic, I choose to recognize the good in all faiths, while believing that we can be good just because we choose to, not because we are told to by any particular faith.

@hamje32 - My discussions with people of other faiths (I am a Christian) tend to revolve around their view of our English Bible, and the variety of Bible versions that exist today. I have to point out that there are different versions because there are different source texts, but that they all tell the same story.

Actually, the multiplicity of texts that explain the same story validates, rather than dilutes, the integrity of the Bible in my opinion. If you have a lot of corroborating texts, then that should prove that the accounts are accurate; if you had only one text, how would you know if it was true?

@SkyWhisperer - The real difference between religions like Christianity and Islam is of course the fundamental question, "Is Jesus God?" I have a Muslim friend and he explained his beliefs to me.

The Muslims definitely respect Jesus as a prophet, so much so that in Muslims countries they will not tolerate any of the so called expressions of art which we have in the United States that depict Jesus in an unflattering manner.

However, they do not view him as God. When I pressed him for why, it’s because it violates a fundamental belief they have: God is One, and He has no sons. I suppose I can understand this.

We have had cordial discussions about our faiths. Obviously we don’t agree on some fundamental doctrines, but we do share a respect for the Abrahamic tradition and the Ten Commandments.

One important point to note about the three Abrahamic religions is how they view Ishmael and Isaac. For example, Christians and Jews believe and teach that God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on the mountain (of course he was not actually sacrificed in the end).

Muslims, on the other hand, believe that God ordered Abraham to sacrifice Ishmael. They even have a holiday to celebrate this tradition.

I am not a Muslim so I am open to correction if I don’t understand this correctly, however I lived in a Muslim nation for some time and this has been my understanding. Ishmael and Isaac are one of the major divides between Christians and Muslims.

I hadn't heard the term, either, although I'm pretty well educated in religion. So many people today seem to know so little about their *own* religion, much less the religions of others and how they fit together and relate to each other. I've met teenagers who describe themselves as Christian but don't understand, for instance, the relationship of Catholicism vs. Christianity or what the word Protestant means.

I'm not a believer myself, but I think the Bible is a fantastic piece of literature and I wish that more people who profess to believe it would spend more time not only reading it, but studying its place in world history.

This is interesting! I had no idea that there was a way to refer to Islam, Judaism, and Christianity together other than by saying all three of their names. But the three go together, so it's a handy term.

I also like how the term joins together such a huge chunk of the world's population. When you think about how many different kinds of Christianity there are (from Eastern Orthodox to Mormon and everything in between) and how divisive these minor religious divisions can be, it's nice to think of the Abrahamic faiths as forming one body.