Muslim God vs. Christian God vs. Jewish God?

You’d need to ask him/her/it.

But how?

Yes, they are the same.

If you asked them if they believed in the God of Abraham, they would say “yes.”

Hmm, it’s kind of like asking if Bela Lugosi’s Dracula is the same as George Hamilton’s and Gary Oldman’s. Same fictional character, entirely different interpretations.

They all share a common origin. It pretty much started with the Jewish concept of God. Then Christians and Muslims believe they received other revelations both affirming and elaborating on the Jewish concept. These elaborations do significantly change the nature of the God for each religion. So they all agree on several aspects of his nature (ie. All knowing, all powerful, eternal, etc…) But disagree on more specific issues.

It’s the same God, with different interpretations on how to worship him and what he wants exactly from his followers.

Halfway down this thread there is some discussion on this very topic http://www.fluther.com/disc/55571/why-do-some-people-refuse-to-even-say-or-spell-out/

No with a caveat.

Jewish God: no son, no prophet named Muhammad, did not speak Arabic.

Christian God: had a son, is part of a Trinity, son died to save you from getting punished by him.

Muslim God: no son, no Trinity, but did speak Arabic and revealed the truth to Muhammad.

The trick is that Christians say the Jewish God is their God. And Muslims say that both the Jewish God and Christian God are their God. Religions always do this, it’s called syncretism.

I could start a religion right now and say that I am the prophet of the God of Moses, Christ, and Muhammad—and that I simply have the “latest version” of these faiths. That would be a very good strategy to get converts from these religions. It is what Mormons, Scientologists, Baha’is, and various doomsday and suicide cults do to gain followers from existing religions, which they present as “earlier versions” of their (of course) true religion. But the God of my new religion would nevertheless be different in nature from the Gods of these existing religions—just as Windows 7 is different from Windows XP.

Yes

That is like saying if I have water in a glass, water in a cup and water in a bowl.

It is still the same water?

Of course the owner of each individual vessel will go on to explain how the water is best in their container.

Peeps, it is still water.

@Qingu interesting way to put it. Here’s the thing…I think Jews are more likely to say it is the same God than the other religions, maybe I am wrong? With your statement you would think the Jews would be the most likely to say it is not the same God.

It would be interesting to find out on this thread what religion people are and whether or not they beleive it is the same God or not.

Jews, pssh.

Most Jews don’t even believe in God. (Well, a God that isn’t a glorified The Force from Star Wars)

The actually religious Jews would vociferously disagree that their God got a chick pregnant, or had his angel dictate the Quran to an Arab merchant.

I was raised reform Jewish but am now atheist.

@Qingu I am an atheist Jew, I think it is the same God. Of course the religious Jews would disagree that God got Mary pregnant, but I don’t think they would say it is a different God. But, not sure, that is why I asked. I think of Jews as respecting each persons relationship with God, not that they say there are many different Gods.

When I first read this question title I really thought (hoped) it would be “who would win in a fight among…”

If they are the same, a fight is just not gonna happen but if they are not the same then…

@JLeslie atheist Jew – how does that work?

@JLeslie, I guess I just don’t see how it could be the same if the versions of god in question have different characteristics and demand that you do different things to please them.

If you’ve ever played a Final Fantasy game, I think a good analogy would be that the 3 gods in question are like different palette color swaps of the same drawing for a boss monster. Their underlying structure is the same. You may even have to use similar strategies to defeat them in battle. But they use slightly different attacks and may have different elemental vulnerabilities.

They are all pretty much the same in that they we all created based on each other. They were three results of the creation of an Abrahamic god, all similar, just slightly altered.

@Cartman So you must be Christian? I am always shocked how many Chrsitians don’t realize how many atheist Jews there are. The estimates are between 30–50% of Jews are atheist or agnostic. I know I should probably keep this as a secret.

Cartman, it depends how you define “Jew.” Some people see it as just an ethnicity without indicating actual belief.

I don’t like that definition though. I prefer “Ashkenazi” for the ethnicity. Hence, I don’t like calling myself Jewish.

@Cartman To put that another way: ethnically Jewish, but atheist in terms of religion.

yes it is the same god.

these 3 monotheism, all worship the same god.

the religious tradition is what varies. however there is a lot of overlap in their religious stories and beliefs and traditions.

@alive, do you think Aten, the monotheistic sun-god of ancient Egypt, is the same God as the Jewish/Christian/Hindu god?

Not all monotheistic religions worship the same god.

Also, the Jewish god Yahweh was originally henotheistic (like the king of a polytheistic pantheon). Not monotheistic. And Muslims often criticize the Trinity as being not monotheistic.

I don’t know about Hebrew, but the root in Arabic is a female word (ie even though they refer to God as “He”, the word is the equivalent of something like “Godess”). Just a thought.

And yes, She is the same God.

@Qingu i said “THESE 3 monotheisms”.... meaning specifically the ones cartman asked about: Islam, Christianity and Judaism

@Jack79, this site seems to contradict your claim about Allah’s linguistic root.

i.e. “Allah” is a proper name; it doesn’t mean “the plural goddess.”

In Hebrew, the proper name for God is Yahweh. This is usually translated as “The Lord.” When you see the word “God” in the Bible, that’s usually “Elohim,” which means something like “spirits.” Strong’s says it’s masculine.

I would say yes, pretty much the same fictitious character that is known by various names. A bit like Santa Claus, Father Christmas etc etc.

Or Flag in the Stephen King novels.

@Qingu That’s actually a reasonable question. One could also ask if Jesus was the same as Horus, which naturally leads to the question of whether Osiris is the same as the Jewish/Christian/Muslim God. The answer depends to some extent on whether you believe in one of these Gods or not. If not, you can easily recognize that all the religions in the middle east influenced each other, and there are elements of each in the Jewish/Christian/Muslim God, which are obviously derivatives of each other. If you believe, then it seems to me to make sense that at least the Jewish/Christian/Muslim God are the same God, but you probably believe that your view of that God is the same. So like I said before, same fictional character, different interpretations.

I think the religious Jewish perspective is that the other religions have developed their own interpretation of the Jewish God. Most of the deviations in the subsequent religions would probably be deemed as inaccuracies.

For example, a Jew might disagree with the Christian concept of the Son of God because all people are the children of God. More importantly, God would not manifest himself on Earth as a human because his essence is too great to be contained in a human body. In a sense, it’s also redundant, as a person’s soul is a piece of God’s essence. What would make someone the Son of God? Having a bigger piece?

A Jew might disagree with Islam on the basis of the “revelation” to Muhammed on a mountain, seeing as how God had already provided a superior revelation in showing himself to the entire nation of Israel and not just one man.

I think Judaism happens to be very accepting of other religions because of the seven laws of Noah. Religion helps foster the fulfillment of the Noahite laws, and Jews want Gentiles to observe these laws so that they will also have a place in the World to Come. Which makes me wonder: is there another religion that does not want you to convert but still wants you to get into heaven?

@drdoombot, you’re leaving out all the juicy bits of the Jewish religion.

Like the parts that command you to kill anyone who converts to a non-Jewish religion or claims to be a new prophet.

As I said above, I think Judaism comes off as “tolerant” because so many people who self-identify as Jews are functionally atheists with liberal political opinions. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the content of the religion.

It’s all the same God, just packaged differently for different markets.

@Quingu the site you mention is making a more modern linguistic analysis of the word, describing its meaning after the belief in the “one god” started. But I was referring to the roots of the word itself, which, as your source itself in a way admits (when discussing the male/female equivalents) predates all 3 religions. I find it interesting linguistically, though obviously the word itself just took on a new meaning when the faith changed.

Does it matter? Does it matter or bother anyone to think it is the same God or a different God? Does it bother you to think that the Moslems worship the same God if you are Christian? Or, that the Jews worship the same God if you are Moslem?

@JLeslie I don’t think it should bother anyone, but wouldn’t you think if they all recognized that it was basically the same God they might get along a little better?

@gussnarp YES! That is why I want people to think of God as the same God. I mean I think HE is, but also I think it serves us for people to believe that way. Again, I think most Jews do, but I am going by the Jews I know, can’t speak for all. That is why I was curious what religion each person was who was responding here. I think Christians are more likely to not, but I might be very wrong. Moslems I have little idea what they think, I know several, but have never had this type of discussion with them before.

@JLeslie, fair enough, and on second glance my source is obviously biased in favor of a traditional Islamic language interpretation. AFAIK, the pagan Arabs believed in a sort of high-god named Allah, which may well have the same roots as the Hebrew Elohim.

I am having trouble finding corroboration that this original conception of Allah was feminine.

@Qingu I think you mistakenly mentioned me in your last response.

@JLeslie, it bothers me because, well, it’s sort of intellectually dishonest. I will note that you do not even believe in any of the three characters in question and your desire to see them as “the same God” is motivated by your desire to have religious people “get along,” rather than any examination of the stories of these characters and the beliefs of people who actually believe these characters exist in the first place.

What you are really asking them to do is redefine their conception of who God is. Understandably, many religious people do not want to do this, and do not agree with the interpretation that they are “the same God.”

For my part, the question of whether or not someone has a son isn’t something that ought to be swept under the rug. I don’t have a son; if someone claimed I did have a son, I would say they were wrong and were not talking about me. It seems perfectly reasonable, then, for someone who believes that God does not have a son to come to the same conclusion about Christians, or vica-versa.

—And yes, that previous post was meant for @Jack79.

@Qingu But all three religions believe Jesus existed and was important. It is kind of the same as not having a paternity test available back then. There is a child who supposedly claimed to be the son of God, but there is no proof, so you can believe or not, but the same “man” in this case God, exists either way. It is the followers who interpret God that changes not God.

there are 21 Gods: Sul (the Truth) is the light of truth, and the other 20 are facets of the Truth. The nature of each God is informed by an icosahedral jewel composed of 20 triangular facets the 12 vertices of which represent divine philosophies (Good at the extreme closest to Law, Mercy, Faith, Charity and Patience; then Evil with Greed, Chaos, Impatience, Intolerance, and Reality). This structure creates three categories of God: Good (the five facets with Good at one vertex), Evil (the five facets with Evil at one vertex), and Neutral (the other ten facets).

Source

@JLeslie, eh. That seems like a huge stretch to me. It’s not like Muslims and Jews are waiting for the results of Jesus’ paternity test before deciding whether he could be God’s son. They believe that God, as they understand the entity, is metaphysically incapable of having a son; that the concept itself makes no sense.

Also, in the Quran, Jesus is quoted as saying “I am not the son of God; God has no son.”

@Qingu, if you are inclined to
elaborate on the Jewish/Force phenomenon, I would appreciate hearing it.

@Qingu It seems like you are arguing about who Jesus was, not about whether the God is the same. Basically they all start from the same religion, they all believe the same story at least up to the point of Ishmael and Isaac, they pretty much have to be following the same God. Now, each can think the other is wrong about that God, but he’s the same God. Jesus may or may not have been his son, but he’s still the same God. If you really want to get into the theology of it, the New Testament may not even really mean that Jesus is the literal son of God. There’s all sorts of son of God and son of Man references in there, and they all seem to refer to Jesus. What I find to be the most striking similarity among the three is the focus on peace. Peace be with you or peace is a standard greeting among Jews and Muslims, and Christians say it to each other across the pews every Sunday. And yet they fight and kill each other, ostensibly over which religion should control the Holy Land. I for the record, am an atheist of Methodist upbringing.

@kevbo, oh, it’s not limited to Jews. I find that a lot of people who claim to believe in God often define God as this very vague, impersonal, universal force. Einstein believed in this sort of God, and said it was basically indistinguishable from the Universe as a whole.

I don’t think The Force from Star Wars really “counts” as a god; that’s just my semantic take (I think a god ought to be understood as a personal entity that interacts with human beings in some meaningful way). But my point was that, whether or not you think a Force-like entity can be called a God, it’s miles and miles away from the God of the Bible.

(In fact, I would argue that believing in a The Force-like God is functionally indistinguishable from atheism, but that’s another discussion.)

@gussnarp, I think you are understating the metaphysical differences.

It’s not just about who Jesus is. It’s also about whether or not the entity called God can be said to have a son in the first place. If you believe that’s possible, then your idea of God is fundamentally different than the Muslims’ idea of God, and probably many Jews’ as well.

There are also many similarities, and I said before that each religion can be thought of as an “updated version” of the previous one (that’s how they market themselves).

But I wouldn’t say that Windows Vista is the “same program” as Windows XP.

they are all the same god. the fighting that occurs between religions come because they each claim to be the CORRECT path that leads to “GOD/ ALLAH/ YAHWEH”

it is the path in question not the god.

The way my religious studies professor explained it, yes. Christianity obviously grew out of Judaism. History will concur.
The fundamental difference between these 2 is Jews do not believe that Jesus was the messiah. They think the messiah is still to come, thus they do not follow the New Testament.

Muslims, believe in the god of the Jews, and believe Jesus was a prophet, not the prophet. Mohammed came along and the angel Gabriel
revealed to him a new, new testament, so to speak. Muslims believe Mohammad is the last prophet of the god of Abraham, and thus Islam is the culmination and end all of god’s will.

So, we have the old testament (books for Jews and Christians), the New Testament (for Christians and Muslims) and finally, The Koran (for Muslims).

@Qingu The only way I see your point of view on this being correct is if one believes that all three Gods actually exist. In this case, none of the religions is wrong, their Gods are just lying about which one did all the Old Testament stuff. In other words, if there is a God who has a son named Jesus, but there is also a God who does not and never could have a son, but both of those Gods are claiming to be the God of Abraham. In this case they could not be the same God, since one God could not both have and not have a son. But it only works if they both actually exist as different Gods. And I think most Jews, Christians, and Muslims would say that there are no other gods (in spite of what the Old Testament says).

God is a hypothetical being that is thought of in different ways by people who pertain to different religions and philosophies. All monotheistic religions are based on the same hypothetical God.

@JLeslie Jewish people do not believe Jesus was important. The strongest admission you’ll get from a Jewish scholar is that he was “some guy who might have lived at that time.”

@Qingu Perhaps it is a result of you being raised in a Reform home, but Orthodox thought on the nature of God is much, much different than The Force. Reform Judaism, as I understand it, believes that the Torah was written by Moses, which makes God more impersonal as the Law was handed down to us by a man. An absolute tenet of Orthodox Judaism is that God wrote the Torah. This makes for a personal God that is involved with his people down to the lowest level of their observation.

Also, being a former Star Wars fanboy, I don’t see how you can compare The Force to the Judaic God. The latter spoke in no indirect way with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and others, whereas The Force just gave feelings and powers to Jedi. Especially in the case of Abraham, God has an intimate, personal relationship with his people. God advised, supported, tested, loved and promised things to Abraham. He spoke “face to face” with Moses. Where did The Force do that?

@tinyfaery As a Muslim explained it to me, the Jews had the first revelation from God, but they corrupted it and included things that God did not want. Then the Christians came along and misunderstood who Jesus was and his teachings, creating another set of corruptions and inaccuracies concerning God’s Word. Finally, Muhammed received the final, most accurate revelation from God.

@gussnarp, I don’t think their existence or nonexistence has anything to do with it.

I don’t believe Zeus or Indra exist. Both are lightning gods and the kings of their pantheons; like Yahweh and Allah, both appear to have evolved out of a similar tradition. But they are different gods.

I don’t believe the fae or Tolkien’s elves exist. But they are clearly different creatures. Fae are weak against iron, whereas Tolkien’s elves don’t seem to mind it.

Similarly, I think both the Christian God and the Muslim God are imaginary. But they are different imaginary beings. One has a son and exists as a Trinity; the other does not and spoke to an Arabian merchant.

@doggywuv, there are non-Abrahamic monotheistic traditions. For example, in the Amarna period of ancient Egypt, people worshipped a monotheistic god named Aten, who was identified with the sun.

@drdoombot, I never said or meant to imply that Orthodox Jews believe in a vague Force-like god; in fact I thought I had said the opposite (that Jews who are actually religious believe in a personal God.)

I also didn’t mean to single out Jews for the vague Force God thing; lots of Christians, as well as followers of other religions, have this view of God too.

@drdoombot So? What is the point you are making? I actually thought Jews see Jesus as a significant person, but did not meat the requirements of being a messiah. But even if it is true that the Jews just think he is just another man, what does that matter with my argument? Most Jews believe Jesus existed.

I’ll go with my professor over one Muslim, thank you.

@JLeslie In Orthodox circles (with whom I most familiar with), there is barely an opinion on whether Jesus existed. At best, his existence is irrelevant, and at worst, he did exist and preached for people to stop following certain laws of the Torah, which makes him a blasphemer.

I just wanted to clarify the assumption you had that Jesus is an important figure in the three religions being discussed here. He is important in two of them, and irrelevant to Judaism.

@tinyfaery I don’t see how what my Muslim acquaintance said contradicted your professor. But I heard pretty much the same thing from a couple of Muslim friends I had back in college and from what I’ve read: the reason for the existence of the Koran was the misinterpretation of God’s word in previous books.

Here’s one example I know of: in the Old Testament, Abraham intended to sacrifice Isaac to God and ultimately Isaac was the inheritor of the covenant God made with Abraham. According to the Koran (and Muslim scholars), Ishmael, Abraham’s son with his wife’s handmaiden, Hagar, was the one intended to be sacrificed. In addition, Muslim belief is that Ismael inherited the covenant of God and Abraham.

There are plenty of legitimate online sources where you can confirm this fact: Muslims believe that the previous revelations of God were tampered with by man and are incorrect. The Koran is the final, uncorrupted word of God.

I feel religious people from one of these religions will mostly claim them to be the same. The reason for that is that they all believe there is only one single God.

That leaves these believer two options: the other people believe in a false God or the others believe in “your” God, but are mistaken in the details of that God because someone mislead them. The latter interpretation will fortify ones own believe and that is what feels better.

I am not religious and I agree with @Qingu: the stories contradict each other so they cannot be the same God.

@gussnarp: I wanted to use the Dracula analogy on a previous thread to make the same point. except with Batman. (another bat guy.) thought it would sound too pat, though.

people seem to forget that 90% of what these “gods” think are exactly the same, just in different words… it’s absurd to put a “VS” between them because that’s like going “Pushover you” vs “Asshole you” vs “Little bit of both, you” might be a different mood, but it’s still just you.

And then what about the Mormons, the Book of Mormon, Mormon himself, his son Moroni, and all of the 220,000 Nephites who battled against the Lamanites?

I don’t see it as akin to Tolkein’s elves versus the Fae, but I’m pretty serious about my Dracula analogy. According to IMDB the character Dracula appears in 217 movies. Now they’re all Dracula, all based on Bram Stoker’s story (just like Jewish/Christian/Muslim God are all based on the Torah) which is based on the historical figure Vlad the Impaler. But many of those Draculas have different powers, different back stories, some are dead, some are not. Wes Craven’s Dracula is in fact Judas. Clearly the other Draculas are not Judas. Does that mean that Wes Craven’s Dracula is not the same guy? As I see it, God is a fictional character, and all these Gods are based on the same fictional character. Think of it this way, if the Torah (and its leading character) were copyrighted, then the Bible and the Koran and the Book of Mormon would be copyright infringement.

If God exists, yes, the same. He or she would been seen as the creator of thousands of inhabited planets by thousands of intelligent beings all across the universe or multiverse. Why have multiple personalities for a tiny little planet at the outer edge of an ordinary galaxy? Why worry about the circumcision of penises? Humans should not think we are that important.

If people invent individual/personal deities, in my opinion they would be different characters in a novel written by humans. But if this makes God more accessible to some people, as long as it serves world peace, I don’t have a problem with it.

Here’s what Einstein said: “I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it… A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty – it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.”

Certainly we are not here in the planet for nothing. To find the reason, many religions had appeared with its God.
To understand what is a God, think how we are created? the origin!
I am muslim, I am certain about what I thought, this is for the simple reason that islam is coherent (be attention, I don“t speak about muslims).
Islam explain what Allah says in Coran and what Mohamed said. what they say is protected until now from modification, but for the two other religions, they are many modification even in actual century!
In coran & sonnah (what Mohamed said and did), we have à lot information that are true, miracle in many field. Therefore we are sure that Allah is only the god of all what we can imagine.
We have limited mind to understand that! to have idea you may understand the relativity theory of Einstein!
So I invite you to read about islam religion to understand that we are not crazy when we think so!
I can explain what you want know about Allah and islam.

Allah akbar (He is the greatest) !, the creator of all, even languages :). He speaks what He want! i.e I can develop in many computer languages that I have defined!

Asalam(peace for you)!

@ahmedouallah But, there are different sects right? Sufi, Sunni, etc? Some more strict than others from what I understand. Isn’t that similar to the different Christian faiths, and reformed vs. observant Jews? We are always hopeful to have more Muslims here on fluther, to get their point-of view on many topics about religion Israel, and others.

@ahmedouallah – Welcome to our community !

I think most of the religions of the world worship the same deity. The God of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims are definately the same one.