That is weird, and cool. Does that make any difference in how they perceive Islam?
I have aways found it a bit odd to be reading a novel where the protagonist prays to “God”, only to find out a couple pages later that that God isn’t the God I automatically think about. Cultural bias, of course, but having a different word for God makes a whole lot of difference.
It seems to me that most religious people do have a sense that other religions must just be different interpretations of the same basic truth*. This puzzles me, as it should lead to the conclusion that virtually all of the details of every religion must be either incorrect or irrelevant. Why bother to pray, for example, when there are religious groups out there that do not believe prayer does anything and you acknowledge the legitimacy of their beliefs?
*I will add that this is probably necessary to credibly believe. If one takes the (imo) more reasonable position that one’s own religion is pretty close to the true story while other religious groups are simply mistaken and wasting their time, it leads to a pretty good argument against belief. If there are many incompatible belief systems, then either they are all wrong or one is correct and the rest are wrong. Either way, any individual belief system is statistically unlikely to be correct.
Not all belief systems insist that they are the only correct path to ‘truth’ or ‘G-d’ or ‘divinity’.
Right - leading to the first point I mentioned (the details must not matter so why bother with them).
But the details do matter. Just because there is more than one possible way, does not mean that a) absolutely any way is OK or b) that amongst possible ways, all will be ‘right’ (fulfilling, useful, satisfying, or so on) for every person equally.
Ok, so if you acknowledge these two points, then it follows that at least some people are barking up the wrong tree so to speak. If there are many different ‘paths’ and most or all are wrong, then any individual path is unlikely to be one of the correct ones. Therefore you should conclude that your own is wrong.
On a related topic, I find it interesting that none of the words you use to clarify ‘right’ are related to factuality - they refer only to feelings. Do you think religious people (or at least you yourself) are more interested in therapy than true answers about the world/universe?
Methodist, from Dallas, TX.
Catholics, Jews, Muslims all worship the same God, we just have different prophets and holy books. I don’t really understand or buy into the whole Trinity thing, and I consider Christianity to be polytheistic or henotheistic - we worship the same God as Muslims and Jews, but we also have Jesus. I see the Holy Ghost as just an aspect of the Father, but Jesus is definitely something different. There’s also Satan, we don’t worship him but he’s definitely a god by most definitions of the word (if not Godlike). So, Christians - polytheistic because they worship more than one god, Muslims are henotheistic because they accept the existance of more than one god (Allah and Shaitan), but only worship one of them. Jews are true monotheists.
I’m not sure if the Hindu gods are the same God worshipped by the Christians, Jews, and Muslims, but there’s not much linking them aside from similarities in the message. I think that God would probably reveal himself to people all over the world in different ways, and there would be thousands of years of tradition and interpretation changing that, so I think he probably is the same, but maybe not.
I don’t claim to speak for Methodists or even be a very good Methodist, this is just what I believe.
Just another nitpick in Vaishnavismsects of Hinduism, Vishnu is considered “The Divinity” or “The Supreme God” actually. and there is a less emphasis on the polytheism.
So far, I am absolutely amazed about how many different viewpoints religious Dopers describe on this matter. So, there is no “official” standpoint on this, then?
It seems like one of those things chruch officials would keep silent about, for fear of raising the religious equivalent of an inter-board war.
I was “born Protestant”, and have remained so. I would say that I have a lot in common with a Catholic, except that I object to his/her insistence that the clergy remain celibate and a few other things. A Muslim, a Jew (religious) and a Hindu by definition reject the atonement powers of Christ’s sacrifice. This is a deal-breaker for me.
Yes, I’m pretty orthodox. Sue me.
Yes, but do you think the Muslim and Catholic worship the same God as you do?
I won’t speak for other people, only for myself. You do realise this thread is specifically for religious people to state what they believe, not (another) debate about the truth of religion, &c?
I didn’t say that ‘most or all’ paths were wrong. I said not ‘absolutely any’ was right. I come from the Jewish tradition, which tends to believe that what matters is not really related to belief, but to behaviour. So, in my mind, beliefs which produce a minimum standard of good behaviour to others and to the world are evidence of that belief system being ‘OK’. I don’t mind how many manifestations of the divine you worship, as long as you are participating in a civil society, behaving justly (eg the ‘Golden Rule’), and a few other things.
I don’t think that ‘religious people’ are ‘more interested in therapy than true answers about the world’ per se. It’s not therapy, it is a way of living one’s life (again, in my tradition). ‘True answers’ about the universe are indeed not what I seek from my religion.
Cracka, that statement is absolutely incorrect. Muslims do NOT believe Shaitan is a god. According to the Muslim belief, Shaitan was a djinn created from fire by Allah who was expelled from Heaven because he refused to bow down to Adam.
In practical terms- not, generally, as a matter of faith, of course- the details are irrelevant. Christians pick and choose which Biblical prohibitions to follow, and different sects pick different rules. There’s no rhyme or reason to how the “still valid” rules are selected; Biblical interpreters flipped through Leviticus and checked off the rules they liked. The ones they didn’t like are considered to have been superseded by the new Covenant (Christ dying for our sins, and all that).
Muslims do the same thing. Hindus do too; there are even more Hindu sects than there are Christian ones, and they’ve all got their own various prohibitions and ideals. In Judaism, the divisions between Orthodox and non-Orthodox is well-documented. Despite this, to most people, a Hindu is still a Hindu, a Christian is still a Christian, and a Muslim is still a Muslim.
I’m not sure that there are many religious groups that don’t believe prayer does anything. In any case, if there are religions whose beliefs fundamentally conflict with yours- ie. you’re a Christian and you take the “thou shalt not kill” bit seriously, and you meet a guy whose religion involves putting puppies on spikes.
You do realize that everything you’ve written regarding Satan/Shaitan is WAY outside the mainstream, accepted view on the subject?
Well, there is not one Supreme Offical Arbiter of Christian Belief in the US, no.
The United Methodist Church doesn’t keep silent on the fact that that Christian, Jews and Muslims are all worshipping the same God, it’s just that it’s common knowledge. After all, Jesus was born a Jew and AFAIK, remained one for His time on Earth.
There is a Christian apocryphal book, The Life of Adam & Eve, that gives the same reason for Shaitan’s fall.
Incidentally, I heard a Muslim cleric from Louisville, KY discuss djinn as a possible explanation for UFOs on a local radio show “The Moral Side of the News”. He was the only cleric on the panel who had anything substantial to say on the subject.
Which of these four would you say worships the same God you do, albeit in a different name?
The Catholic, Jew and Muslim believe in the same diety as I do.
Which of these four would you say are religious?
They all are. The only people who claim to follow a religion but don’t strike me as religious are followers of L. Ron Hubbard and Luke Skywalker.
Which of the four worship “false gods” as the Bible calls it?
I’m not sure. If the Hindu worship gods who are not in composite (you know, like the Catholic trinity is supposed to be three aspects of god, not literally three dieties) the biblical diety, I guess going by bible definition they’re worshiping false gods.
On the other hand, I’m probably a bit more open to the possibility of polytheism than your average Christian. If a pantheon exists, are they still false? I suppose that depends on the what is implied by false in that commandment - gods who don’t exist, or just gods who aren’t me?
Go back and read this Brahman - Wikipedia - I think you may have missed the all powerful monotheist creative force…
Jew here, not Orthodox.
I think that, as long as people don’t do certain things, any god they worship is a facet of the same God I worship (taking a leaf from C S Lewis here). Those “certain things” would include stuff like human sacrifice, sacred prostitution, using religion to exploit others, and using religion as an excuse for war or genocide, or killing people for having the “wrong” religious views. People who do things like that are worshipping false gods, no matter what god they say they are worshipping.
I think God wanted there to be different religions, perhaps because people are not all the same. What one person finds to be a spiritual and moving experience might not do much for somebody else. Some people do well in a religion where what you believe is what matters most, and some have an easier time with one where what you do is more important.
Jews do this too. We don’t interpret the entire Hebrew Bible literally, and we don’t just rely on the Hebrew Bible to tell us what to do- we also have lots of stuff that’s been said by various rabbis over the millennia. For example, all the Bible says about keeping kosher is that you shouldn’t cook a kid in its mother’s milk, you shouldn’t eat certain species of animals, and you shouldn’t eat blood. It doesn’t say you shouldn’t have poultry with milk- rabbinic tradition is what added that rule.
There are people who interpret the Hebrew Bible literally without our rabbinic traditions, but they’re not mainstream Jews. They’re called Karaites.