Essay Sample on God Is Not One: Challenging the Unifying Beliefs of Major Religions

Introduction

People have been made to believe that all major religions are the same despite one's belief. Past scholars and authors of religious books have tried to drive a notion that all cults differ in practices, norms, and attributes but they share a commonality-the Supreme Being, God. However, a religious author by the name Stephen Prothero in his book, God is Not One vividly tries to convince the society against the traditional religious assertion that God is one. He gives a contradictory religious knowledge that indeed religions differ by exploring different cults, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, among other religions. With just the consideration of two major known religions in the world, Christianity and Islam as from the cases, theories, and values from Prothero's book, we conclude that indeed the religions differ. The practices, values, and beliefs of Christians and Muslims have made it's believers to be of different virtues and behavior in the real world. This implies that individuals need to understand the difference across religions such that they remain tolerant of differences among the cults and remain respectful towards each other. The results will be an end to the continuous religious rivalry on which is the supreme religion.

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First, the main difference is envisioned in the mentality of society today between Christians and Muslims is the portrayal of Jesus Christs and Muhammad. In the traditional religious stories, these peoples are crucial spiritual leaders and representatives of the Supreme Being on the earth surface and all religious illusion have been built around their lives and accounts. For Christian, Jesus was a spiritual leader and a son of God who miraculously lived among people in Jerusalem, Israel who later laid down his life to save humanity from sins (Prothero 69). To Christian believers, the symbol of Jesus is crucial to their lives as it marks a person that has saved them from the burden of sins. Thus, they have to show total belief in him as he is as supreme as God. On the other hand, for Muslims, Muhammad was religious leaders, political ruler, and a military head that helped to hold on and spread Islam all over the world (Prothero 42). Muhammad is directly linked to Allah since he was a prophet that conveyed the message between man and Allah. The modern Muslims consider Allah as the representation of their religion and his symbol and representations are sacred as they have to be respected. In stories of Islam, Muhammad accomplished his mission to humankind by the Sword; conquer a new area, hence spreading Islam.

Somehow the two great religions have significant similarities in practice, faith and believe. In all beliefs, morals and ethical standards are under the guidance with the holy books considered as written under the guidance of God. Even with the seen similarity, Prothero exhibits the divergence in the religions in that the modern Christians believe in a crucified and risen savior Jesus Christ (Prothero 78). On the contrary, Muslims follow a prophet and military leader, Muhammad (Prothero 54). Such a significant difference among the religions to imply that the religions do not share any common heritage; thus they should be practiced differently without any religious knowledge linkage.

Among the two religions, there is a varied believes in the symbol of a Cross versus the Sword as seen in Christianity and Islam. For the Christian dominion, the Cross represents the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ to eternity in heaven after he died for man sins. In the biblical verses as exhibited by Prothero, the acts of violence are limited in time and space, only in the ancient times of the Old Testament in the life accounts of the Canaanites before the coming of Jesus on the Universe. After the coming of Jesus, the verses of violence have rarely been accounted in the books of the New Testament when Jesus was alive. At the time, Jesus taught his disciples and followers to embrace the power of forgiveness to our enemies. The teachings of forgiveness are now vivid among the true Christians in the society who seldom use violence to sort out differences. For Islamic religion, the Quran verses of violence are endless (the phrase "Kill non-believers in the society"). Although Islamic Jurists and scholars frequently insist that the verses cannot get applied in modern society, still other Muslims followers cite them in Jihad manuals claiming that they are spreading Islam to the world by the Sword as done with Prophet Muhammad himself.

Again, another difference between the Cross Vs. Sword is exhibited in the Christians and Muslim perceptions of defaulters of their cult. For Jesus and his followers, the Christians never aligned a death penalty of any defaulter of faith. Instead, Christianity is a religion of free will to practice or leave, a reason as to why many Christian dominated nations co-exist peacefully with other dominions (Prothero 81). For Muslims, Prophet Muhammad developed a military dominance in which in apostasy from Islam is treated with a death penalty (Prothero 60). The act of punishing Islam defaulters with a death penalty is evident in some nations that hold on sharia laws in governance. Entirely, these actions denote that the religious practices and beliefs of Christianity and Islam are different since a method that is discouraged in one religion is discouraged in the other.

The historical religious practices of Muslims and Christians as exhibited in the holy books acquit believers with different virtues when dealing with religious or personal differences. Prophet Muhammad during his time beheaded his enemies while Jesus Christs discouraged the followers from using the Sword but rather forgiving their enemies. The religious practice of handling enemies has carried on among modern day Christians and Muslims. Christians seem to have the forgiving heart as encouraged by Jesus (Prothero 89). On the other hand, Muslims seem to be quite violent when handling the enemies as they torture and kill them justifying the act with the Quranic verses (Prothero 34). When a comparing between the Jesus teachings in the Gospel and prophet Muhammad teachings in Hadith, you get to understand that Jesus never encouraged the use of violence against the enemies of faith while Muhammad does. In the end, there is a remarkable lack of apostolic equivalence of Christianity teachings to the prolonged notions of Muhammad military raids. As such, Christianity stands to be very different from Islam with no shared God.

Another difference in Christianity and Islam is the consideration of the expression of the beliefs of the religion. According to Prothero, Islam religious norms include conducting and attending the five times daily prayers and making hajj/sacred journey to Mecca (Prothero 30). On the hand, Christianity norms involve having a strong belief in Trinity (the interconnectedness of God the father, son and the Holy Spirit) and participating in the Eucharist (Prothero 65). The two religious practices are different and seem to be significant to the individuals who are members of the faiths. It's absurd for a Muslim to take part in the Eucharist or for a Christian to set for Hajj to Mecca since it's against its beliefs. As such, the religions should be treated as separated to which respect must be based on the practices of each faith for them to mutually co-exist in the society.

Christian and Muslims have different beliefs and analogies on sin. For Christians, Sin is portrayed as a problem or a temptation against one's faith (Prothero 78). And the remedy for sin is salvation in the name of Jesus Christ's. Receiving salvation for a Christians is a belief that one is born again the spirit of Jesus Christ which helps them to win against sin. For Muslims, Sin has a consideration as pride which originates from the act of satanic disobedience in heaven. But for Islam, the remedy for sin is submission to the teachings of the prophet Muhammad (Prothero 46). In the evaluation of sin, you get to understand that Muslims do not believe in sins as a problem and the teachings of Jesus that salvation conquers sins. For them, sinners will face judgment in the last time of the world. Righteous Muslims are those with good deeds, good religious practice and observe the five pillars of Islam on their daily lives. On the issues around the sins among Christianity and Islam, it is evident that the two regions can never get merged under a common supreme based on the stories, beliefs, and practices put forward with Stephen Prothero.

Christians conduct their religious practices in the canonical gospel/Church while the Muslims do their religious activities in the Mosque. Although these two places are sacred and have to be kept holy at all times, the conduct in the church and Mosque is different. Even in the present days, the church hosts people across all demographics including all gender groups and age that congregate and share the same place of worship. But in Islam, the religious congregations are attended with men only and young male adults. Women and girls meet in particular gatherings designed for them. As such, there is no specific time when women and men meet in a common religious meeting.

In the evaluation of the two religions, Christianity and Islam are unique and seem not sharing any common origin or a Godly connection. Some of the unique features of Christianity that makes it very different from Islam is the belief in Jesus Christ as their God and the Trinity of Gods. Equally, Christians embrace aspects of the symbol of the Cross which signifies the salvation of man from sin and obedience of the teachings of Jesus (Prothero 44). On the other hand, the Muslims believe in the Prophet of Allah, Muhammad who was also a political and military leader (Prothero 69). They believe in the symbol of the Sword which originates from Muhammad as such that they seem to be more violent than Christians.

Moreover, Muslims consider sin as pride and do not regard salvation from sin as Christians. Finally, it is an easy one to devote from Christianity than it is in Islam. Muslims consider religious defaulting as a betrayal which that leads to severe punishment. But joining or devoting from Christianity is at free will with no any probable punishment.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as exclaimed with Prothero in the book God is Not One, religions are different and do not share the Supreme Being. It's upon the society to fight the existing religious ecstasy and accept that there is a difference in stories, beliefs, and practices which cannot get merged under one roof. As exhibited in the practices and beliefs of Christians and Muslims, it's vivid that the two largest religious groups need to be understood to be separate to avoid the rivalry of religious supremacy. In the end, religious pluralism will only exist when everyone accepts and tolerate the differences among the practices, stories, and beliefs of other religions.

Works Cited

Prothero, Stephen R. God Is Not One. HarperOne, 2011.