"They all worship the same God"

[GenesisNemesis]

Can someone tell me where this ridiculous claim originated? I often see it perpetuated by politically correct people who don't want to say anything bad about religion. Christians believe Jesus is God. Jews do not believe Jesus is God. Muslims believe Jesus is only a prophet and Allah is the only God. It amazes me that people don't understand these major differences and completely ignore them.

 

[dx713]

The "ridiculous" claim originated from the religious themselves. Their holy books themselves say it's the same god. They all recognize the Bible and the god described in there, the god of Abraham, as theirs.

"Allah" is a Arab word, whose translation is "God", I don't understand why Islamophobes keep talking about "Allah" in English, instead of translating the whole sentence. Arabic Christians worship "Allah", if you don't want to translate the word "God" for some strange reason.

In a nutshell, and necessarily oversimplifying:
Christians believe Jesus was the Messiah, and as a Messiah, a manifestation of God (replace manifestation by any word that makes more sense to you to conceptualize the "holy trinity" thing), and try to follow his word as found in the New Testament, while still reading the Bible. Jews and Muslims believe that Jesus was just another prophet with no special status. Muslims add another prophet named Mohamed who had a direct link with God and wrote what God told him in a book called the Coran (or whatever spelling you prefer), so they try to follow that book instead, while still reading the Bible too. And the Jews recognize no prophets special status and only read the Bible.
(note that I left away all the side stories and commentaries and letters, plus the fact that not all agree on which writings to include in the Bible, or it becomes too complicated, so yes, I am aware that Torah and Bible aren't exactly synonimous for instance, but I don't see the bearing or that on the OP)

But in the end, the big guy up there is still Yahweh, is still the big guy that Abraham worshipped and who guided Moise.

So no, that's not a "ridiculous" PC thing, that's just recognizing how the religions themselves see it.

 

[DBT]

Just as a guess, in recent times, I'd say New Age thought, perhaps from Blavatsky's Theosophy.
''That all souls are identical with the universal oversoul which is itself an aspect of the unknown reality.''

 

[ideologyhunter]

Surely it's a ridiculous claim because of the intense hatred the Big 3 have built up for each other in various historical eras. By the time the Gospel of John was composed, the Jews were being referred to as vipers, weren't they? (This drives me nuts.... that Jesus was a practicing Jew, apparently wore the ceremonial garments, was executed a day after celebrating Passover, wouldn't eat Christmas ham with the Christians of today....... side issue, but crazy!!!! Christians need to celebrate the high holy days, like their boss.) They're called Abrahamic religions, but the preponderance of believers in each camp would call the other 2 a heresy -- and, depending on the place and the century, right on up to today, worthy of persecution or much, much worse.
The 'One God' mantra is also encountered with various spiritual/New Age movements that center around some sort of vague belief in the one god of nature. I knew people who were into this some years back. They tended to own crystals and meditate with 'em.

 

[dystopian]

The fact that these religious and their various sects have diverged from each other doesn't change the fact that the god they all worship is one and the same. Stating this to be the case has nothing to do with being politically correct and everything with being *factually* correct. Islam, Christianity, and of course Judaism, are all part of the same religious line. They may diverge in very important ways (although they really don't seem all that different to me), but the core supernatural being at the center of them is still recognizable as the same figure; just interpreted differently. The fact that they all hate each other is not relevant to whether they worship the same god; just as two geeks fighting over which modern version of the spiderman movies is canonical doesn't imply that they're not bickering over the same damn fictional character.

 

[skepticalbip]

Surely it's a ridiculous claim because of the intense hatred the Big 3 have built up for each other in various historical eras. By the time the Gospel of John was composed, the Jews were being referred to as vipers, weren't they? (This drives me nuts.... that Jesus was a practicing Jew, apparently wore the ceremonial garments, was executed a day after celebrating Passover, wouldn't eat Christmas ham with the Christians of today....... side issue, but crazy!!!! Christians need to celebrate the high holy days, like their boss.) They're called Abrahamic religions, but the preponderance of believers in each camp would call the other 2 a heresy -- and, depending on the place and the century, right on up to today, worthy of persecution or much, much worse.
The 'One God' mantra is also encountered with various spiritual/New Age movements that center around some sort of vague belief in the one god of nature. I knew people who were into this some years back. They tended to own crystals and meditate with 'em.

There is a lot more division than the Big 3. Christianity had a split between the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic had a split with the Protestant reformation and hundreds of years of wars between the two, the Protestants have many splits. Islam has a major split and a lot of killing and wars over which is right. Judaism has splits though no wars over it that I am aware of.

However, all these many different way of beliefs still claim to accept the god of Abraham.

 

[hinduwoman]

Surely it's a ridiculous claim because of the intense hatred the Big 3 have built up for each other in various historical eras. By the time the Gospel of John was composed, the Jews were being referred to as vipers, weren't they? (This drives me nuts.... that Jesus was a practicing Jew, apparently wore the ceremonial garments, was executed a day after celebrating Passover, wouldn't eat Christmas ham with the Christians of today....... side issue, but crazy!!!! Christians need to celebrate the high holy days, like their boss.) They're called Abrahamic religions, but the preponderance of believers in each camp would call the other 2 a heresy -- and, depending on the place and the century, right on up to today, worthy of persecution or much, much worse.

Nah, they hate each other so ferociously precisely because they all belong to the same family. They are all people of the Book, with Abraham as the first prophet/Father and the same God created them all.
That leads to sibling holy rivalry --- Daddy loves me best.

 

[Syed]

Can someone tell me where this ridiculous claim originated? I often see it perpetuated by politically correct people who don't want to say anything bad about religion. Christians believe Jesus is God. Jews do not believe Jesus is God. Muslims believe Jesus is only a prophet and Allah is the only God. It amazes me that people don't understand these major differences and completely ignore them.

jews, hindus, christians, muslims, sikhs all worship same ONE god but understanding of that ONE god is corrupted

 

[dystopian]

jews, hindus, christians, muslims, sikhs all worship same ONE god but understanding of that ONE god is corrupted

Uhm, no, they don't. The god of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam *is* the same god, coming from the same source and clearly the same figure just interpreted differently... but Hindus and Sikhs do *not* worship that god. And it's patently absurd to try and claim that Hindu's worship "one" god; they actually worship a couple of thousand different gods. Just because you believe there's an actual god and that everyone worships that god; doesn't mean they do; Hinduism/Sikhism and their beliefs are *not* related to Abrahamic religions, they represent a distinctly separate tradition with distinctly separate deities.

 

[Syed]

jews, hindus, christians, muslims, sikhs all worship same ONE god but understanding of that ONE god is corrupted

Uhm, no, they don't. The god of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam *is* the same god, coming from the same source and clearly the same figure just interpreted differently... but Hindus and Sikhs do *not* worship that god. And it's patently absurd to try and claim that Hindu's worship "one" god; they actually worship a couple of thousand different gods. Just because you believe there's an actual god and that everyone worships that god; doesn't mean they do; Hinduism/Sikhism and their beliefs are *not* related to Abrahamic religions, they represent a distinctly separate tradition with distinctly separate deities.

the perception of one god is different in all religions but the same god

no religion say there are two gods not even hindu

 

[skepticalbip]

Uhm, no, they don't. The god of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam *is* the same god, coming from the same source and clearly the same figure just interpreted differently... but Hindus and Sikhs do *not* worship that god. And it's patently absurd to try and claim that Hindu's worship "one" god; they actually worship a couple of thousand different gods. Just because you believe there's an actual god and that everyone worships that god; doesn't mean they do; Hinduism/Sikhism and their beliefs are *not* related to Abrahamic religions, they represent a distinctly separate tradition with distinctly separate deities.

the perception of one god is different in all religions but the same god

no religion say there are two gods not even hindu

Not at all true. Animism believes in individual spirits inhabiting all things - there are spirits everywhere each thing has its own spirit. The very name Pantheists says belief in many gods. Hinduism isn't a monolithic belief there are many sects, some believe that the millions of gods are all incarnations of Para Brahman, some believe in a Trimurti (or three male gods) and their consorts a Tridevi (or three female gods), some believe that each of the millions of gods are all individual gods.

Even Christianity and Islam have minor gods. There are angels, demons, jinn, etc. though they both have one major god like Zeus that ruled over the other gods in Olympus.

 

[Syed]

the perception of one god is different in all religions but the same god

no religion say there are two gods not even hindu

Not at all true. Animism believes in individual spirits inhabiting all things - there are spirits everywhere each thing has its own spirit. The very name Pantheists says belief in many gods. Hinduism isn't a monolithic belief there are many sects, some believe that the millions of gods are all incarnations of Para Brahman, some believe in a Trimurti (or three male gods) and their consorts a Tridevi (or three female gods), some believe that each of the millions of gods are all individual gods.

Even Christianity and Islam have minor gods. There are angels, demons, jinn, etc. though they both have one major god like Zeus ruled over the other gods in Olympus.

let me say this all religions agree there is ONLY one god

 

[skepticalbip]

Not at all true. Animism believes in individual spirits inhabiting all things - there are spirits everywhere each thing has its own spirit. The very name Pantheists says belief in many gods. Hinduism isn't a monolithic belief there are many sects, some believe that the millions of gods are all incarnations of Para Brahman, some believe in a Trimurti (or three male gods) and their consorts a Tridevi (or three female gods), some believe that each of the millions of gods are all individual gods.

Even Christianity and Islam have minor gods. There are angels, demons, jinn, etc. though they both have one major god like Zeus ruled over the other gods in Olympus.

let me say this all religions agree there is ONLY one god

No they don't. I just pointed out several. Although you could probibly say that most religions have a major god overseeing the minor gods, though some don't.

And then Buddhists don't have any god.

 

[dystopian]

let me say this all religions agree there is ONLY one god

You clearly don't know the first thing about religions other than your own. Hinduism has a great many gods. Hinduism has three primary gods; Shiva, Vishnu, and Shakti; beyond these three, there are hundreds of lesser gods. In fact, according to tradition, there's anywhere between 33 and 330 million gods in Hinduism. Beyond Hinduism, there is also traditional Chinese folk religion Shenism (still very popular in China), which also knows a great many gods. And there's Shinto, the native religion of Japan. It's pantheon of gods is called the Yaoyorozu No Kami; meaning "Eight Million Gods". Two of the most important of these are Izanami and Izanagi, who created Japan and gave birth to the other gods; other important Shinto gods are the siblings Amaterasu, goddess of the sun and universe; Tsukuoyomi, god of the moon, and Susano'o, god of the sea and storms.

Then there's the many religions that were polytheistic but are either dead or not popular anymore. For instance, Germanic/Norse paganism (Asatru), is a polytheistic religion with two distinct families of gods (the Asatru and Vanir); many of the days of the week in English and other European languages are named after gods from these pantheons. In my native Dutch, all of the days of the week except for Saturday and Sunday (both named after Roman gods) are named after Germanic gods: Monday is named after Mani, god of the moon. Tuesday is named after Tyr, the one handed god of justice and glory. Wednesday is named after Wodan, god of writing and the leader of the Asatru. Thursday is named after Thor, god of thunder and strength. And friday is named after Freya, vanir goddess of war, love, fertility and death.

 

[Syed]

let me say this all religions agree there is ONLY one god

You clearly don't know the first thing about religions other than your own. Hinduism has a great many gods. Hinduism has three primary gods; Shiva, Vishnu, and Shakti; beyond these three, there are hundreds of lesser gods. In fact, according to tradition, there's anywhere between 33 and 330 million gods in Hinduism. Beyond Hinduism, there is also traditional Chinese folk religion Shenism (still very popular in China), which also knows a great many gods. And there's Shinto, the native religion of Japan. It's pantheon of gods is called the Yaoyorozu No Kami; meaning "Eight Million Gods". Two of the most important of these are Izanami and Izanagi, who created Japan and gave birth to the other gods; other important Shinto gods are the siblings Amaterasu, goddess of the sun and universe; Tsukuoyomi, god of the moon, and Susano'o, god of the sea and storms.

Then there's the many religions that were polytheistic but are either dead or not popular anymore. For instance, Germanic/Norse paganism (Asatru), is a polytheistic religion with two distinct families of gods (the Asatru and Vanir); many of the days of the week in English and other European languages are named after gods from these pantheons. In my native Dutch, all of the days of the week except for Saturday and Sunday (both named after Roman gods) are named after Germanic gods: Monday is named after Mani, god of the moon. Tuesday is named after Tyr, the one handed god of justice and glory. Wednesday is named after Wodan, god of writing and the leader of the Asatru. Thursday is named after Thor, god of thunder and strength. And friday is named after Freya, vanir goddess of war, love, fertility and death.

https://www.himalayanacademy.com/readlearn/basics/fourteen-questions/fourteenq_1

Question One: Why does Hinduism have so many Gods?

A: Hindus all believe in one Supreme God who created the universe. He is all-pervasive. He created many Gods, highly advanced spiritual beings, to be His helpers.


Longer answer: Contrary to prevailing misconceptions, Hindus all worship a one Supreme Being, though by different names. This is because the peoples of India with different languages and cultures have understood the one God in their own distinct way. Through history there arose four principal Hindu denominations—Saivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism and Smartism. For Sai-vites, God is Siva. For Shaktas, Goddess Shakti is supreme. For Vaishnavites, Lord Vishnu is God. For Smartas—who see all Deities as reflections of the One God—the choice of Deity is left to the devotee. This liberal Smarta perspective is well known, but it is not the prevailing Hindu view. Due to this diversity, Hindus are profoundly tolerant of other religions, respecting the fact that each has its own pathway to the one God.

 

[dystopian]

Question One: Why does Hinduism have so many Gods?

A: Hindus all believe in one Supreme God who created the universe. He is all-pervasive. He created many Gods, highly advanced spiritual beings, to be His helpers.


Longer answer: Contrary to prevailing misconceptions, Hindus all worship a one Supreme Being, though by different names. This is because the peoples of India with different languages and cultures have understood the one God in their own distinct way. Through history there arose four principal Hindu denominations—Saivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism and Smartism. For Sai-vites, God is Siva. For Shaktas, Goddess Shakti is supreme. For Vaishnavites, Lord Vishnu is God. For Smartas—who see all Deities as reflections of the One God—the choice of Deity is left to the devotee. This liberal Smarta perspective is well known, but it is not the prevailing Hindu view. Due to this diversity, Hindus are profoundly tolerant of other religions, respecting the fact that each has its own pathway to the one God.

Looks like you didn't read skepticalbib's posts. *Some* Hindus believe that the various gods. Contrary to what this website is claiming, it is *not* true that "all" Hindus worship 'one supreme being just through different names.'; that's just arrogance on their part. There are many different Hindu sects; some of these believe in a supreme transcendental god; others do not. It is a mistake to claim that these sects all worship the same god, though; since these are disparate traditions. As India's supreme court put it: "Unlike other religions in the World, the Hindu religion does not claim any one Prophet, it does not worship any one God, it does not believe in any one philosophic concept, it does not follow any one act of religious rites or performances; in fact, it does not satisfy the traditional features of a religion or creed. It is a way of life and nothing more".


However, even if your argument was true, you've utterly failed to address the other religions I mentioned. And I know for a fact that you can NOT make the same argument for Shinto, or Germanic/Norse paganism; these religions do not recognize a single transcendental god; but explicitly worship a multitude of roughly equal gods, each associated with different aspects of their respective cosmologies.

 

[Perspicuo]

You clearly don't know the first thing about religions other than your own. Hinduism has a great many gods. Hinduism has three primary gods; Shiva, Vishnu, and Shakti; beyond these three, there are hundreds of lesser gods. In fact, according to tradition, there's anywhere between 33 and 330 million gods in Hinduism. Beyond Hinduism, there is also traditional Chinese folk religion Shenism (still very popular in China), which also knows a great many gods. And there's Shinto, the native religion of Japan. It's pantheon of gods is called the Yaoyorozu No Kami; meaning "Eight Million Gods". Two of the most important of these are Izanami and Izanagi, who created Japan and gave birth to the other gods; other important Shinto gods are the siblings Amaterasu, goddess of the sun and universe; Tsukuoyomi, god of the moon, and Susano'o, god of the sea and storms.

Then there's the many religions that were polytheistic but are either dead or not popular anymore. For instance, Germanic/Norse paganism (Asatru), is a polytheistic religion with two distinct families of gods (the Asatru and Vanir); many of the days of the week in English and other European languages are named after gods from these pantheons. In my native Dutch, all of the days of the week except for Saturday and Sunday (both named after Roman gods) are named after Germanic gods: Monday is named after Mani, god of the moon. Tuesday is named after Tyr, the one handed god of justice and glory. Wednesday is named after Wodan, god of writing and the leader of the Asatru. Thursday is named after Thor, god of thunder and strength. And friday is named after Freya, vanir goddess of war, love, fertility and death.

https://www.himalayanacademy.com/readlearn/basics/fourteen-questions/fourteenq_1

Question One: Why does Hinduism have so many Gods?

A: Hindus all believe in one Supreme God who created the universe. He is all-pervasive. He created many Gods, highly advanced spiritual beings, to be His helpers.


Longer answer: Contrary to prevailing misconceptions, Hindus all worship a one Supreme Being, though by different names. This is because the peoples of India with different languages and cultures have understood the one God in their own distinct way. Through history there arose four principal Hindu denominations—Saivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism and Smartism. For Sai-vites, God is Siva. For Shaktas, Goddess Shakti is supreme. For Vaishnavites, Lord Vishnu is God. For Smartas—who see all Deities as reflections of the One God—the choice of Deity is left to the devotee. This liberal Smarta perspective is well known, but it is not the prevailing Hindu view. Due to this diversity, Hindus are profoundly tolerant of other religions, respecting the fact that each has its own pathway to the one God.

That's Hindu propaganda.

The truth is, not even Muslims and Christians worship the same god.

Muslims:

2:8 And of the people are some who say, "We believe in Allah and the Last Day," but they are not believers.

112:2 Say, "He is Allah , [who is] One,
Allah , the Eternal Refuge.
He neither begets nor is born,
Nor is there to Him any equivalent.

From: http://quran.com/

Christians:

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
Maker of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,

begotten, not made,

he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.

From: http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=495

The insistence of monotheism was a medieval development. The Krishna-as-one-true-god was developed when the Muslim Persians were already conquering large portions of northern India. And they still insist to this very day while they worship their god images (idols).

Monotheism is a cultural artifact like any other, which has spread from its initial source, ancient Egypt.

 

[dystopian]

The truth is, not even Muslims and Christians worship the same god.

I still dispute this. In the case of Christianity and Islam, we have two interpretations that can very clearly be traced to the same source. Compare it to the many different versions of batman we have; just because they can be pretty different from each other, doesn't mean they're not all still batman; they're obviously just different versions of the original character. This isn't really the case with the Hindu gods; and not all Hindu sects buy into the idea that there is a single god of which all others are mere aspects.

 

[Bronzeage]

Can someone tell me where this ridiculous claim originated? I often see it perpetuated by politically correct people who don't want to say anything bad about religion. Christians believe Jesus is God. Jews do not believe Jesus is God. Muslims believe Jesus is only a prophet and Allah is the only God. It amazes me that people don't understand these major differences and completely ignore them.

We pretty much beat this one to death in another thread, but here goes.

The traditions upon which Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are based go back to a man known as Abraham. Abraham worshiped God the Creator, Maker of Heaven and Earth. There was no pantheon, no nature spirits, etc. Abraham was the father of Ismael and Isaac. Ishmael is revered as the fore bearer of the Arab peoples. Isaac is revered as the fore bearer of the Jewish people.

Both the Jews, Christians, and the Muslims revere Father Abraham and worship the "God of Abraham."

The only way for a person to claim the Muslims, Jews and Christians worship different Gods would be to misunderstand the traditions of all three religions and completely ignore them.

 

[DBT]

The truth is, not even Muslims and Christians worship the same god.

I still dispute this. In the case of Christianity and Islam, we have two interpretations that can very clearly be traced to the same source. Compare it to the many different versions of batman we have; just because they can be pretty different from each other, doesn't mean they're not all still batman; they're obviously just different versions of the original character. This isn't really the case with the Hindu gods; and not all Hindu sects buy into the idea that there is a single god of which all others are mere aspects.

It is the believer who endows their own God with aspects and features. Mohammed and his followers wanted his religion to be accepted by the followers of Judaism, and probably used the OT for that purpose, but his version of God was a product of his own imagination, as it is for the Jews and Christians and various cults and offshoots of both religions. Obviously there are archetypal qualities that are attributed to God as the Creator of the World (Omniscience, Omnipotence, etc), and as these overlapping Archetypal attributes happen to overlap, as overlap they must, some claim that ''all worship the same God'' - but this is not necessarily true. In fact, for the outlined reasons, it is not true.