I’m astonished that anyone would disagree. Of course the Christian God is the “same” as the Jewish God. The Christians’ Bible contains the Jewish scriptures.
It’s like trying to say that the “Jesus Christ” of the Latter Day Saints isn’t the “same” Jesus Christ of the Catholics. They may be heretics to each other, but they still are talking about the same person, the bloke who was crucified on Good Friday nigh on to a couple millennia ago.
The specifics of the doctrines are incompatible. Well, if that’s all it takes, there are some fifty or more different Abrahamic “Gods,” from the Gnostic demiurge/creator (Ialdabaoth,) to the Eastern Orthodox God, to the Jewish God, to the Sunni and Shi’ite versions of Allah, to the hate-filled God of Fred Phelps to the love-filled God of Robert Schuller, and on and on. Every single Protestant denomination would have its very own!
You can’t just go around appropriating other people’s beliefs, changing them radically, and then claim with a straight face they’re the same and not expect people to raise a fuss.
The line is subjective on when you declare two gods with a common mythological history too dissimilar to be the same. Lumper/splitter psychology plays a part I’m sure. But at some point you have to draw a line. Otherwise you might as well just declare all gods to be avatars of the one true god. Because everyone loves being told their god is the emanation of some other dude.
As an aside, I think it’s funny when Christians think Judaism is just some quaint older version of Christianity – “Judeo-Christian” values doncha know – and Jews are like a hipster religion or something. Then they come face to face with it and realize it’s completely different than their own goofy pagan fusion faith.
Is that a trick question or are you just talking in metaphors?
Forget religion, if you’re a believer, how about fairy tales and folk hero tall tales? Lots of different versions. Most share common elements, but others change things dramatically. In many ways it’s fair to call them “the same.” But if in one the hero is a pacifist who escapes using trickery and in the other they’re a murderer are you really going to say they’re the same character? I hope you wouldn’t be confused and ask if there were 20 different Little Red Riding Hoods running around.
Too late to edit: You can also add in controversies over modern day interpretations of long running fictional characters, ranging from the “that’s not my Superman” people to the two different versions of Han Solo. The real one shot first, of course. The fervor and clannishness often reminds me of religious arguments.
Excuse the hijack, but I’ve wondered at times: is it ONLY the dishes? Or do you need separate silverware? Pots and pans? Knives and spatulas and all that?
For that matter, can you use the same glasses and cups to drink milk and, um, chicken broth?
No, Catholics pray for Mary to intercede for us with one or more of the Trinity and are quite aware that Mary is not God.
Which god is God will be a matter that may or may not be resolved to our satisfaction after our deaths. Until such time as one has actually experienced death and the afterlife, which god or gods are the true God or Gods isn’t a matter of fact, it’s a matter of opinion.
I believe Jesus, Mary, and Muhammad existed but I don’t believe they had any divine or supernatural status. I doubt Abraham existed as an actual person and I’m on the fence about Moses.
this part isn’t entirely true -
there was a Malaysian case recently where Christians weren’t allowed to use the word Allah in a translation of the bible - specifically because it was “reserved” for Muslims.
Oh, I’m sure there is. I’ve heard many Muslims argue that Christians are basically polytheists, worshiping three gods rather than one (and indeed many anti-Trinitarians within Christianity have made the same argument). To Muslims it is the most abhorrent of blasphemies to raise any other entity to equality with the one true god, however it is festooned round with theological jiggery-pokery.
If Catholics claim that they don’t worship Mary, and Muslims claim that they don’t worship a moon god, I’m willing to take their word for it. It doesn’t make much difference to me anyway, since I have no interest in becoming either Catholic or Muslim.
I still want to see some Anglican icons that incorporate corgis, though. Because icons with corgis would just be
I thought Muslims thought of Jesus as a prophet but not a god or a son of Allah.
That might depend on what language you speak. Some languages that have grammatical gender say the sun is masculine and the moon feminine (the Romance languages have this setup). Some have it the other way around- German, for example.
Some mythologies have moon gods, some have moon goddesses.
