# Do all monotheistic religions worship the same God? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 6, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169 "2010-12-06T18:03:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/21 "2010-12-06T20:28:45Z")
Sikhism is descended from Islam, by the way. It’s kind of a fusion of Islam and Hindu mysticism. They recognize their God as being identical to the Abrahamic God. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/22 "2010-12-06T20:28:49Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Well, there’s no god but Athena anyway. And Kara Thrace is her prophet. This is getting old. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/23 "2010-12-06T20:28:53Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > They are simply uninformed. Mohammed identified his God as the God of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Except that the God my father and sisters worship apparently has a penis, though he hasn’t a body, and a blood-son with whom he is identical. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Christians of a certain stripe to say that, since their beliefs about God are incompatible with Muslim beliefs, that they are not worshipping the same deity. ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/24 "2010-12-06T20:30:42Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Am I misunderstanding this remark? Zoroastrianism is not defunct. Sorry about that. I was under the impression is was extinct. It seems that there is a small population still practicing. Ha! Ignorance fought. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/25 "2010-12-06T20:31:36Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > But would you consider the Trinity to be pretty much the same as the God of the Jews, just named differently? Jews obviously do not recognize the possibility of a Triune God. I think it’s interesting, though, that most Christians don’t see a difference between their own conception of God and the Jewish one, but they think Allah is something totally different. In actuality, the Jewish and Islamic concepts of God are virtually identical (and mutually recognized as such), and it’s the Christians that are off the reservation. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/26 "2010-12-06T20:32:53Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Except that the God my father and sisters worship apparently has a penis, though he hasn’t a body, and a blood-son with whom he is identical. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Christians of a certain stripe to say that, since their beliefs about God are incompatible with Muslim beliefs, that they are not worshipping the same deity. Do they think they worship the same God as the Jews? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/27 "2010-12-06T20:33:55Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Jews obviously do not recognize the possibility of a Triune God. I think it’s interesting, though, that most Christians don’t see a difference between their own conception of God and the Jewish one, but they think Allah is something totally different. In actuality, the Jewish and Islamic concepts of God are virtually identical (and mutually recognized as such), and it’s the Christians that are off the reservation. Given that you concede that, why do you then aver that trinitarian Christians, in saying that they do not worship the same deity as Muslims, are incorrect? > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Do they think they worship the same God as the Jews? I honestly do not know. I vigorously avoid conversations about religion with all my family except for my wife, my son’s sister, and my baby sister. Having said that, I have heard clergymen in my father’s denomination claim that non-Christian Jews are damned and worshipping a false God. I do now know that he believes this, and to my knowledge it is not an official Church of God in Christ doctrine. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/28 "2010-12-06T20:40:36Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > But would you consider the Trinity to be pretty much the same as the God of the Jews, just named differently? Not unless you totally trivialize the concept. Our God never became mortal, and never had sons (not counting the ones in Genesis, that is). I’ve never understood the concept of the Holy Ghost, but I learned that God has no body and no form, and so I don’t see how they are different. And it is nothing like the polytheistic roots of Judaism. The saints, on the other hand, seem to have taken on many of the characteristics of the minor gods of the Romans, being assigned specialties. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/29 "2010-12-06T20:43:13Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Jews obviously do not recognize the possibility of a Triune God. I think it’s interesting, though, that most Christians don’t see a difference between their own conception of God and the Jewish one, but they think Allah is something totally different. In actuality, the Jewish and Islamic concepts of God are virtually identical (and mutually recognized as such), and it’s the Christians that are off the reservation. Except for showing up in the wrong place, I’d think that Mohammed had a lot more of the characteristics of the Messiah than Jesus did. It would be an interesting study. ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/30 "2010-12-06T20:43:16Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > How does the Trinity and the Hierarchy of Saints stand up to a strict interpretation of monotheism? As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t; though I make that basis on the term being defined as the belief in a single god. I don’t think that the arguments of inclusive monotheism, trinitarian monotheism, pantheism, etc should be included under this blanket term. They are related, but distinct from the practical belief in a single, unbroken, deity. To answer your question specifically, I don’t think that trinitarian monotheism should be, or is a valid term. That practice would be better defined as polytheism, and would be called such if not for the special status of christianity in western society. It is described as : > [@](#): > > The deities of polytheistic religions are agents in mythology, where they are portrayed as complex personages of greater or lesser status, with individual skills, needs, desires and histories. These gods are often seen as similar to humans (anthropomorphic) in their personality traits, but with addiarated from the animist beliefs prevalent in most folk religions. The gods of polytheism are in many cases the highest order of a continuum of supernatural beings or spirits, which may include ancestors, demons, wights and others. In some cases these spirits are divided into celestial or chthonic classes, and belief in the existence of all these beings does not imply that all are worshipped. Simply replace the “supernatural beings or spirits, which may include ancestors, demons, wights and others” with saints and angels and other members of the heavenly host. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/31 "2010-12-06T20:44:04Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Given that you concede that, why do you then aver that trinitarian Christians, in saying that they do not worship the same deity as Muslims, are incorrect? Because they are incorrect. Muslims identify their God as being the same as the Christian one. Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet, and even that he was born of a Virgin. They just think the Christians are mistaken about him being the son of God. This is theologically closer to Christianity than Judaism, but you don’t typically hear Christians saying that the Jewish God is not the same as the christian God. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/32 "2010-12-06T20:49:40Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Because they are incorrect. Muslims identify their God as being the same as the Christian one. The Christians making that claim _are_ incorrect in the Muslim point of view. Suppose I were serious about worshipping Athena. Suppose further I claimed that, while the Athena I worship is identical to the one to whom the Parthenon was dedicated, that the common conception of her is incorrect: that she was in no way related to Zeus, but rather that his worshippers co-opted her myths ages past and attempted to subordinate her to him, and that any claim that she leapt full-formed & full-armored from his forehead are incorrect. Mightn’t a worshipper of the Olympians as described in Bulfinch then say, that “Yeah, I know Skald claims he worships the same Athena as we do, but that’s not true,” and have a reasonable argument? May I ask why you are privileging the Islamic viewpoint to the evangelical Christian? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/33 "2010-12-06T20:56:41Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Not unless you totally trivialize the concept. Our God never became mortal, and never had sons (not counting the ones in Genesis, What do you take the meaning of the phrase “the sons of God saw the daughters of men” to mean, may I ask? I’m not challenging, just wondering. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/34 "2010-12-06T20:57:57Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > The Christians making that claim _are_ incorrect in the Muslim point of view. This should be “The \*\*Muslims \*\*making that claim _are_ incorrect in the \*\*evangelical Christian \*\*point of view.” Sorry, I was distracted by work. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/35 "2010-12-06T21:24:58Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > I don’t even understand what it means to be “the same God”. It’s like saying “Imagine a pink horse. Are we both imagining the same pink horse?” The word ‘same’ doesn’t even make sense. If you don’t want to take part in the discussion, it is a simple matter merely to refrain from taking part. Adherents of the religions in question do not consider that they are _imagining_ anything, and you can either accept that premise and debate meaningfully, or take yourself off to any of the other 5,479 “God doesn’t exist, silly!” threads on the Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/36 "2010-12-06T21:32:05Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > What do you take the meaning of the phrase “the sons of God saw the daughters of men” to mean, may I ask? > > I’m not challenging, just wondering. I think that is one of the legends left over from polytheistic times, when all gods had children, and edited into Genesis by the same editors who saw no problem with putting contradictory versions of the creation right next to one another. They get explained away, but mostly just ignored. They were nonpersons in my Hebrew School books. They are also about as far from what Jesus was supposed to be as you could get. I’m sure there is tons in the Talmud explaining them, but I don’t know it. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/37 "2010-12-06T21:48:59Z")
The Orthodox explanation is that they were angels. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/38 "2010-12-06T21:59:13Z")
I can’t speak to what **Chessic** intended, but… I think there is a relevant question there. Suppose we take it as a given that there _is_ at _least_ one “god,” whatever that means. How could we tell if two people were talking about the same one? I’ve had conversations with different members of the same Christian denomination who seemed to be talking about different concepts of God. ---
**Author:** ![ClaytonThroop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@ClaytonThroop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ClaytonThroop)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/39 "2010-12-06T21:59:32Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > If you don’t want to take part in the discussion, it is a simple matter merely to refrain from taking part. Adherents of the religions in question do not consider that they are _imagining_ anything, and you can either accept that premise and debate meaningfully, or take yourself off to any of the other 5,479 “God doesn’t exist, silly!” threads on the Dope. I don’t see that as not participating, or thread shitting, or what have you. Perhaps could have been phrased differently, but it gets at the same question I have about this OP. What does it mean to worship the same god? Clearly the big three disagree on some characteristics of god. Accepting that a god exists, at least two of them must be wrong about some or many details. Doesn’t that mean their gods are not the same? What makes them the same? Is it just the shared written material, which is a just a subset of each religions writings? Personally, the most common sense definition to me is that they are the same god if the adherents/leaders of the religions agree that they are the same god. I am neither a student of history nor religion, so I’m prepared to be educated by those with more informed viewpoints, of course. eta: > [@spark240](#): > > I can’t speak to what Chessic intended, but… I think there is a relevant question here. Suppose we take it as a given that there is at least one “god,” whatever that means. > > How could we tell if two people were talking about the same one? This is essentially what I’m wondering. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169/40 "2010-12-06T22:03:58Z")
Should I ask about [Ahkenaton](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten)? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-monotheistic-religions-worship-the-same-god/563169.md?page=3)