Friday, April 22, 2011

Several Flavors of the Abrahamic God

The religions which claim Abraham as one of its founders (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) see God as a supernatural being who created the universe and rules over it. He is thought to be infinitely holy, just, wise, powerful, knowledgeable, and good. He is omnipresent and is immortal. He is also believed to be transcendent, meaning that he exists outside space and time, but can act in our physical world when he chooses to.

Christianity

The Trinity of Christianity (father, son, holy spirit) is a puzzle. Christianity, unique in the Abrahamic religions, espouses this non-unitary concept. The others conceive of God as a unitary being. According to the Trinity theory, there are three holy entities, but also clearly a single entity, sometimes called the "Godhead". Trinitarian monotheists believe in one god that exists as three interdependent persons who share the same essence. This inherent contradiction supports the idea that god is beyond reason. That it makes no sense is not a problem, but a benefit. It helps the believer cast off reason and accept based only on faith. Within Christianity there is still disagreement as to the Trinity concept. It is not clearly explained in the Bible, and was hotly debated in early Church history (Arianism, Adoptionism, Sabellianism), finally being officially sanctioned by the Council of Nicaea and the First Council of Constantinople in the 4th century CE. Some Christian churches deviate from this, advocating a unitary god, or multiple gods (as in Mormonism, where the father, son, holy spirit, and in some denominations a "heavenly mother", are actually separate gods) etc.

Many Christian churches in the west (Methodists, Unitarian, generic "Christian" or "non-denomiational") have loosened their view of God and take a rather liberal view of the issue, leaving it up to the individual to decide what works for them. Fundamentalist, Pentacostals, Baptists, Mormons, and several other distinct denominations have more strict creeds and are less tolerant of deviation.

A very strong draw to many Christian churches is the "fellowship" they offer. Whether at the church on weekdays or at individuals' houses, members gather to share experiences over coffee, discuss issues of faith and morality, explore how their religion applies to current events, and otherwise provide support and encouragement to each other. For those who need or want like-minded company for social interaction, this can be very rewarding.



Judaism

The books of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) show a god undergoing tremendous transformation from primitive and vengeful to tolerant and inclusive, though that set of changes is typically denied by all the Abrahamic religions. Modern Judaism is less dogmatic than Christianity about the specific details of heaven, hell, judgment, afterlife, angels, demons, etc.

Jewish tradition teaches that the true aspect of God is ultimately unknowable, and that it is only God's revealed aspect that brought the universe into existence, and interacts with mankind and the world. In Judaism, God is conceived of as the one God of Israel who is the guide of the world, who gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, empowered Moses to lead his people out of Egypt into the promised land, and who inspired all the other prophets of the old testament. Regarding the historicity of Moses and his many accomplishments, Rationalwiki.org says,
Despite being regarded in Judaism as the primary factual historical narrative of the origin of the religion, culture and ethnicity, Exodus is now accepted by scholars as having been compiled in the 8th–7th centuries BCE from stories dating possibly as far back as the 13th century BCE, with further polishing in the 6th–5th centuries BCE, as a theological and political manifesto to unite the Israelites in the then‐current battle for territory against Egypt. Archaeologists from the 19th century onward were actually surprised not to find any evidence whatsoever for the events of Exodus. By the 1970s, archaeologists had largely given up regarding the Bible as any use at all as a field guide.
Judaism is monotheistic, though in the early books of the bible, there were clear references to other gods, not as false or imitation gods, but as gods that it would be sinful to worship. The old testament refers numerous times to Yahweh sitting at the head of a divine council of gods, or God being greater than the other gods. This probably reflects a gradual cultural transition from polytheism, to monolatry, and finally to monotheism.

Modern Judaism lacks a centralized authority that would dictate an exact religious dogma. It is not clear what their view of judgment and the afterlife is. I have asked several Jewish people about this, and I get the impression that it is not something that they spend much time considering. If there is a unifying codification of Jewish philosophy (other than the Torah), it would probably be Maimonides 13 tenets: belief in a single, unique, immaterial, immortal god; that he should be prayed to; acceptance of the teachings and the prophets of the Torah; that god is omniscient; he will reward and punish humans based on their adherence to the Jewish law; and that there will eventually be a resurrection of the dead.

Islam

Allah, the god of Islam, is much like the Jewish and Christian creator/monitor god - omnipotent, in that he knows our thoughts and intentions, etc. The prophet, Mohammed, is not considered a "son of God" or an aspect of God, as many Christians consider Jesus to be. He is the last of the line of prophets that include Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Jesus, and others. Theoretically, Islam is tolerant of other world religions (Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc). Under Islamic (Sharia) law, non Muslims are allowed to practice their religion unmolested as "dhimmis" or non-Muslims who believe in same god as the Islamic god. Originally this applied only to Christians and Jews, but was extended to other religions as the Islamic empire grew.

In practice, this so-called tolerance was really the institutionalization of second or third-class standing to non-Muslims. Persecution and forced conversion were (and are still) common in the Muslim world. It would be a great stretch to say that Islam is a religion of tolerance. Although isolated examples of it exist, the common perception (especially in the last half century) is anything but that.

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