Comparing and contrasting Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. beliefs Essay

Comparing and contrasting Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. beliefs from given documents - Essay Example It is upon us to appreciate the similarities and differences in these religions, as the writer will show in this paper. Christianity is based on Jesus and the Bible; everything that Christians practice is found in the Bible as interpreted by Jesus (Spirin 13). On the other hand, Islam is based on Muhammad’s teachings as revealed to him by angel Gabriel. Hinduism is based on medieval revealed texts like the Upanishads and the Vedas, and their existence cannot be associated with any single source. The central message in the Bible is love and forgiveness, while the central theme in the Quran is peace and brotherhood. In Hinduism, the central theme is that all beings – animate and inanimate- are divine and that God manifests in all things (Barker, Gregory, Gregg, and Tutu 38). All three religions discourage war and hate, and encourage peace and love in all beings. All three religions believe in the existence of an omnipotent and omnipresent being who watches over us day and night. There are other shared themes like respect and forgiveness, and that a final judgment will be passed on all man kind based on our actions on earth. Further, all three religions believe in some form of heaven and hell, where people who disobey their teachings will suffer forever and those who are obedient will live forever in happiness (Spirin 56). While Christians and Muslims do not believe in impersonal Gods, Hindus do. Hindus believe in an impersonal God called Brahman who pervades all mankind but also stands apart from all mankind. It is absolutely impersonal, in sharp contrast to Christianity and Islam which do not have any impersonal gods (Spirin 19). Hindus believe that Brahman is completely beyond human knowledge, understanding, or thought. According to Hindu beliefs, Brahman is neither a thing nor a non-thing; it is neither a person nor a non-person; it is genderless and numberless; and it is infinite (Spirin 32). On the other hand, all three religions teach the