Is the Abrahamic religion the precursor, or foundation, of all modern monotheistic religions?
545737
Interesting question. Actually, when God came to Abraham and revealed to him that there's only one God He was bringing him back to the truth already known by people like Adam, Abel (Adam's son), Noah and others who preceded Abraham. So, really, Abraham was just one in a long line of monotheists who preceded him. But he was a major person in the promulgation of the truth of monotheism. So, although \nAbraham can, in a sense, be called a founder he did not originate the idea.
1070048
Well to start with, Christianity, Judism, and Islam all share the story of Abraham. Zoroastrianism has a character that died and was reborn much like Jesus. Some connection, definately? All connected....not so sure about that one..
373590
Islam (Arabic: الإسلام; al-Islām) means "submission to the will of God". It is a monotheistic faith and the world's second-largest religion. Islam is considered an Abrahamic religion, along with Christianity and Judaism. Followers of Islam, known as Muslims, believe that God (Allāh in Arabic) revealed his divine word directly to humanity through many earlier prophets, and that Muhammad was the final prophet of Islam.
762908
Christianity and jewish thoughts certainly conditioned the thoughts of Karl Marx and the Crusades that lasted from 1090s till 1260s had certainly influenced his conclusions on the general nature of organised religions in Europe. But apart from that there is nothing that warrants any comparison between the two.\n\nMarxism minus proletarian dictatorship is not Christianity, nor if Marxism starts believing in God it becomes Christianity.
371549
Fear is right\n\nEarly in their developments the two largest (and most violent/expansionist) religions on earth were competing directly with polytheistic religions.  And by competing I mean subverting, burning and just generally doing nasty things.  In my opinion this is due in large part to the extreme persecution faced by the monotheist movements before they started to come into the majority.  \n\nIn any event the entire concept of multiple deities had to be crushed completely to ensure control.  In both cases deities other than the one "true" god were either vilified or absorbed into the early monotheist movements as something less than what they were.\n\nThe extreme prejudices displayed by members of the two above mentioned religious movements are symptoms of social controls enacted millennia ago by monotheist leaders to ensure the continued control their populace.
332815
This question is a blanket statement "modern religion" is a very large term.  Then you go on to address Christianity.  As a matter of interest, in numbers, it falls number 3 after Islam and Jews.\n\nThe fact is there are many alternates these days because they just don't wish to be guided by an outdated book which the above religions have...each is a religion of the book.\n\nFor an open minded look at what religion can be...guiding, comforting, loving, caring, kindness and acceptance...go to Spiritualism, Unity, Universal, etc. etc.
561697
It depends on what you mean by the origins.  There is the religious perspective (based on belief) and the would-be factual perspective (except there's also no actual proof).\n\nAccording to the Jewish and Christian Bibles (some of this is similar in the Koran), Jews began as a people with Abraham, whose son Isaac and grandson Jacob continued the tradition that eventually led to the Jewish people.  Jacob had 12 sons who became the 12 tribes.  Moses was the primary prophet, who led them out of slavery in Egypt to eventually settle the land of Israel.\n\nSome archeologists believe that there is evidence that a number of (possibly 12) different social groups combined to form the Jewish people and that the Biblical record is man-made.\n\nChristianity was founded by followers of a then-prominent Jew about 2000 years ago named Jesus.  There is some scientific evidence of his actually having lived, but it is not definitive; again, it is a belief.  Christians believe that their religion exists to replace and complete Judaism.\n\nIslam grew out of the teachings of the Moslem prophet Mohammed (different spellings exist).  His writings, inspired by God, became the Koran (ditto).  Moslems believe that theirs is the final religion, the culmination of the religions that came before it (Judaism and Christianity).
762456
I personally don't believe any of them,without some actual proof I see no reason to bow my knee to what is nothing more than mankinds feeble attempt to explain his existence. That said I find it interesting that the earliest translations of the Bible refer to the making of man as "we will make him in our image" which of course others have said referred to God the father and his son, but since this was before the fall of man it makes no sense. And if there are no other actual Gods then what of the admonition that "you will have no other Gods before me" a statement made clearly in a way that would lead one to clearly believe that there are in fact other gods.\nGood question though,and to answer the questtion posed by migz 07 the reason half the world worships based on the monotheistic ideal(Islam Judaism and Christianity) is because these are the three religions that not only teach but enforce their religion upon their people,in different parts of the world at different times rejection of these religions could mean societal rejection or in many cases even death,that's a pretty strong incentive to worship as required.
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Judaism, from a historical perspective (which is important in understanding it's philosophy) even though it's considered "Western", has it's origins in the Middle East, of course.  It is the spiritual ancestor of both Christianity *and* Islam.\n\nIt is a religion of the people of Israel and includes faithful devotion to one God (the God of their tribes) and believes that Divine teaching was revealed by this one God to the fathers and mothers of the people of Israel through Moses and the Prophets and Sages.\n\nThe goal of the Covenant between the Jews and their tribal God is relatively simple as it's base:\n\nA good life for all, through obedience to God's teachings (Torah) and Commandments (Mitzvot); harmony on earth (individual and societal) culminating in peace and well-being for all humanity, through all peoples' acceptance of their God as the primary/universal/only God.  This acceptance does NOT mean conversion, however - it means that non-Jews must simply abide by the moral laws (separate from the covenant between God and the Jews) that God requires of them.\n\nJudaism is classified as a religion of deed, of acts, rather than faith. God needs the faithful (Jews) just as much as people need God.  It is through the right actions of the faithful that the order of the universe is maintained and chaos is held at bay.\n\nIt is a "Way" by which humans are capable of understanding and responding to the teachings of their God.\n\nAs Judaism developed, the concept of God as their tribal God changed into a "universal" God, who was responsible for a universal Creation , with a universal Revelation to Moses and the people at Mount Sinai, leading to the Redemption of Israel and all humanity.\n\nThere is a vast body of teaching and lore that has grown up over centuries, much of which takes the form of interpretation of the oldest biblical texts; the Halacha or "Way", and the Aggada, a collection of stories, homilies, parables, and poetry.  The Talmud is a rabbinic text (meaning "Teaching"), and is second only to the Bible in importance.\n\nThe mystic teachings of Judaism, collectively, is the Kabbalah (the received tradition) which teach of the emanation of the Godhead into the world, the experience of communion with God in transcendence of the self, and the maintenance of the balance and order of the cosmos through human action in Covenant with God.\n\nIn this way,  Jews are panentheists - that is to say, for them, as in  many other religious traditions, God is both in everything and beyond containment in anything.\n\n********\nNote: I'm not Jewish, just a student of religions.  I'm more than willing to be corrected on anything here that I've misunderstood.
138190
I believe the very first record of monotheism occurred in ancient Egypt under the Pharaoh Akhnaten in Amarna.  He declared that all must worship only the Aten - the solar disk - and he ordered all other deities destroyed and no one was allowed to worship any but Aten.  This was a short-lived movement, ending with Akhnaten's death.\n\nZoroastrianism is usually considered a dualism, but in some ways it resembles monotheism, and it is quite old.  It was the Persian religion at least by the time of the Persian empire, but its roots go back much further to the Prophet Zoroaster, or Zarathustra.  He taught that there is one Great God, the Wise Lord, called Ahura Mazda.  But there is also a Satan-like figure, Ahriman who is evil and is in battle with Ahura Mazda, but in the end, it is good that will win out.\n\nOf course, Judaism is well known as an early Monotheistic religion.  But originally, Judaism is better described as "henotheistic" which means that while the Israelites themselves only worshiped one God, they believed in the existence of other gods, that would be worshiped by other nations.  The real advent of true Monotheism did not begin in Israel until probably the time of the Prophets, starting from around 700 and really taking form by 500 BCE.
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It's relatively modern (20th century onward) and based more on politics than religion per se.  Ironically, there is more similarity between Judaism and Islam that Judaism and Christianity.  Neither Judaism nor Islam beleive in a trinity, for example.\n\nThe person here who said that nobody warred against Jews during the Crusades is wrong -- the Crusaders killed thousands of Jews in the name of Jesus Christ before moving on to invade the Muslim lands.  In the Jewish cultural memory, the Crusaders are remembered as a bunch of barbarians who did such things as smash the heads of Jewish babies against stone walls, cut open pregnant women and sew live cats inside them, toss babies up in the air to catch them on their swords, etc.   So horrid was the treatment of European Jews by the Crusaders that whole families chose to commit suicide rather than fall into the hands of the "Good Christians."   (You will find references to these events in any good book on Medieval Jewish history.)\n\nThe Muslims of that time, on the other hand, treated Jews very well.  Under Muslim rule in Spain, there was a golden era of science, art, philosophy, medicine, mathematics, etc.  in which Jews and others fully participated.  The Muslims of that era were the "progressives," founding, among other things, the first modern universities.   There was also a certian amount of sharing among mystical groups, which is why there are similarities between kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) and Sufisim (Muslim mysticism.)  \n\nBut all this ended when Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Spain and expelled all the Jews and Muslims from that country in 1492, the instituted the Spanish Inquisition under Torquemada (who was Isabella's Father Confessor) to ferret out secret Jews and Muslims under torture.   A high percentage of the "heretics" killed by the Inquisition were Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism but who secretly practiced Judaism.  \n\nAfter the Expusion, The Sultan of Turkey, Bayazid II, opened the doors of his country to take them in.  He is reported to have called Ferdinand a foolish king because "He impoverishes his own country while enriching his enemies!"  (Hitler, BTW, did the same thing when he expelled the Jews.  Because of Nazi antisemitismn, the Allied nations got many top scientists, etc.  who happened to be Jewish.)  \n\nTo this day, Turkish Jews of Spanish descent (called Sephardim) speak a language called Ladino or Judeo-Spanish.   From Turkey, the Sepharigrated to the Balkan countries and also to North Africa (Morocco, Iraq, etc.)   BTW, the first synagogues in the USA were also Sephardic -- built by Spanish Jews fleeing the Inquisition, which was still burning people at the stake in the 1700s.\n\nThe animosity we see today between Jews and Muslims centers around the State of Israel and whether or not it has the right to exist.  During the Cold War, this was inflamed by both sides -- with the USA supporting Israel and the USSR supporting the Palestinians, and both superpowers arming both sides.   (Premier Khruschev was reported to have said that Israel was the "sore toe" he could stomp on whever he wanted to put pressur eon the United States.)   Unfortunately, even after the Cold War ended in 1989, the animosity has continued.  However, recent polls show that on both sides, people are tired of war and if the extremists would stop fanning the flames of hatred, we could have peace in the Middle East.
733463
According to the religious hypothesis called Islam, everything is under God's thumb. Muslim means something that submits to God's will. Technically everything in creation is "Muslim" ie. a subject of God. However, humans and a parallel race of beings called djinn are the only beings that posses free will. Thus, they are the only elements in creation that may be Muslims (submitters to God's will) or Muslims in denial (rejectors of God's will). Hence the other posts indicating Jesus, Abraham and the other such hypothetical and/or historical imaginings listed were "muslims" because they supposedly submitted to God's will in the context of Abrahamic faith. \n\nThe Quran suggests Mohammed was from a polytheistic (pagan) Arab people. \n\nMuhammad's story is long and complex. Muslims defer to a compilation of writings about his actions called the Sunnah and others about his life found in Hadith. There are English translations on the net for you to read if you want to do more research.\n\nReligion is wonderful tomfoolery.
1038297
I know that it’s a widely-followed monotheistic, Abrahamistic religion centered around the words the prophet Muhammed/Muhammad, believed to be the last prophet of God. There is a high concentration of Muslims in Asia and North Africa. They follow tenets the same way most other organized faiths do and pricipally they aspire to maintain a lifestyle of purity, integrity and peace. Like most religions of the same tone, Islam promotes an afterlife that will be reached upon death if one has measured up to the qualities desired by God in His people.\n\nI also know that Islam is attractive to extremists because it is considered very “across the board” and, in limiting interpretation, leaves the door wide open for individual interpretation of the core meanings of the will of God.
577357
There will be no argument if everybody study the Original version of ..Talmud and the Torah(Judaism), Bible (Christian) and Koran (Islam)...\n\nBecause It came from One God..
801073
Could it have anything to do with the fact that for hundreds of years, polytheists were tortured and killed if they didn't convert to monotheistic religions?\n\nCould it be because monotheistic religions built their early churches on top of polytheistis temples and shrines?\n\nCould it have anything to do with the lies told by monotheistic religions that demonized polytheist gods and beliefs?\n\nFor about 700 years, monotheism was the only "acceptable" form of religion in the western world. Even in the first few centuries in American history, the "great melting pot" of cultures and religions, monotheism was the only acceptable form of religion. It has only been in the last 80-100 years that polytheists have been recognized and accepted into the mainstream of western society. \n\nIt took Christianity some 300 years to gain acceptance as a valid religion. Considering that, polytheism is making a pretty effective comeback into society. \n\n-SD-
1051134
A lot of religions share similar themes. Most have taken ideas from past religions and sort of reformed them.  It can be confusing with so many religions out there.  I take a anthropological mostly agnostic view on religion.  I know there is something, but who knows what, and who knows which religion is the one to follow.
629154
Judaism:  The Religion of the Hebrews\n\nThe Jewish religion was unique in the ancient world because it was monotheistic.\n \nAlmost 2,000 years ago, many Jews were forced to leave their homeland in Palestine. This diaspora, or scattering of people, sent Jews to different parts of the world. Wherever they settled, Jews maintained their identity as a people by living in close-knit communities and obeying their religious laws and traditions. These traditions set Jews apart from other people. Yet they also helped them survive centuries of persecution. \n\nJudaism is numbered among the world's major religions for its unique contribution to religious thought as well as its influence on two later religions, Christianity and Islam. Both these faiths, which also emerged in the Middle East, were monotheistic. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all honor Abraham, Moses, and the prophets, and they teach the ethical world view developed by the Hebrews.