Is Christianity that different from Islam?

I contend that they aren't. When i refer to them being alike i do not refer to the exact text but too their philosophies, roots and social evolutions(the way each has evolved/evolving).

I will state my thoughts on why i think they truly aren't that different, during the debate.

I want this to be clean and to stay on track.

Thanks all for Participating

Shinsengumi89

PS theres a bonus Unrelated bonus Question!

What I think, though I'm not a crazy religions major or something like that, I find them both the pretty similar. They both have similar ideas and stuff as that.

Just on a note, don't just think that Islam is just all terrorist and stuff like that, those are the extremist and same goes with Christianity such as the KKK. (not refering to anyone but just note this is for ignorant people to read)

Both Christianity and Islam have saviors. Both saviors, have images that are not their true visages. Both religions were originally and intended to be teachings, not religion. After both prophets died, both sets of teachings were shaped into something they both did not originally mean to convey. Christianity meant to preach good will towards man, and after Jesus died, ironically, Rome accepted the New Testament and Christianity as their religion, not to mention Christians persecuted everyone unlike them.*cough*Catholics and Protestants*cough* Islam has many sects that fight over who are the true descendants of Muhammad, and that continues today. Both Islam and Christianity shares Jerusalem as their holy city, and they fought over it in the Crusades as well. So if anything almost all religions are the same.(' A ');

I think they both share a history or something like that. I'm no history teacher or theologist but I think that they share the same god. Am I wrong?

I think they are related its just that Jesus cheated death.

they are the same thing.... although they tend to be more extreme

Quote by ProgramZEROI think they both share a history or something like that. I'm no history teacher or theologist but I think that they share the same god. Am I wrong?

They both are continuations of Judaism, which i find highly ironic because both groups in the past and present have been highly antisemitic.

Shinsengumi89

(Ok, please forgive me if anything is incorrect... this is just what I remember from school and my own self study.)

To my understanding, and from reading both religious texts... yes, they are very different. Islam will claim that the Christian God is not theirs. Islam believes in just a single entity, God/Allah. Christians seperate three entities into one God. A God with 3 parts, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three are one God, but can act seperately (different roles) yet are the same God.

Islamic followers believe that they are decended from Ishmael and Christians are desendants from Issac. Islam holds Mohammed as their major prophet... they do hold Jesus as one, just not as the son of God. Christians believe that Jesus Christ was/is the son of God. Both God and man.

God for Christians, is a God of Love. Islam believes Allah is a more of a vengeful God to be feared. Islam, according to the Koran, believe that Allah commands the faithful to kill all those who reject Allah. Christians, in accordance to their Bible, believe that God wants them to love one another and make peace... this will bring them to know and love God. Brothers and sisters in Christ... so to speak.

The Koran talks of doing good things/deeds/actions to get into heaven. After death, they may even get a second chance to throw the balance of good deeds in their favor. Also, they believe that they will get their own palace and many virgins to have as their afterlife wives.

The Bible states different. Christians believe that they are not saved by good works or deeds, but by their faith in Jesus as the son of God through faith, by the grace God. When Christians die, they believe that they will be judged and will spend eternity with God in heaven. Also, they believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for their sins... as payment for the wages of sin.

I again apologize for anything I've left out. Its been awhile since I've read either text completely. I really do believe that they are different in their beliefs about God. A little, means a lot... to a religion... or anything. Thanks for reading. ^^
I will go on to say that both religions have begun wars in the name of their God... which isn't right at all... but this thread isn't about war its about their differences. ^^

You are correct that text wise they are different, but as i stated in my first post, this is more about the development socially, the philosophies each has or is showing in the world today, it really isn't about the technical stuff". But again you are correct about there prophets.

In response to the fact that the Koran has negative violent versus, i would like to mention that God in the Old testament killed every first Born Egyptian, and the Egyptian army(this is what Christians believe). I see this as very simalir to any violent Muslim texts.

Another thing to contemplate about would be the fact both religions say homosexuality is a sin,

Also at an early period in it time Christians would stone "sinners" Muslims also had the very same tradition.

Both religions believe sex waits until marriage.

Along with all of this both have had Holy Wars, and have specific definitions for them.

I agree with yothsothgoth. Islam and cristian are different. But if this forum talks about development socially, I think all religion has the same way...to bring their people to the goodness..

Well that was very precise yothsothgoth-san. I agree with most parts. What I want to add is that the religious differnces (slight or major) might have been caused by cultural and regional issues.

Quote by Shinsengumi89
In response to the fact that the Koran has negative violent versus, i would like to mention that God in the Old testament killed every first Born Egyptian, and the Egyptian army(this is what Christians believe). I see this as very simalir to any violent Muslim texts.

Arabs are Warriors by nature, whether in past or today. As for Judes, they had to fight to survive. I agree that some things are quiet similar between Islam and Judism. As matter of fact this is Christianity which I believe has the less similarity with the other two.

Quote by ealpha-scorpioWell that was very precise yothsothgoth-san. I agree with most parts. What I want to add is that the religious differnces (slight or major) might have been caused by cultural and regional issues.

Quote by Shinsengumi89
In response to the fact that the Koran has negative violent versus, i would like to mention that God in the Old testament killed every first Born Egyptian, and the Egyptian army(this is what Christians believe). I see this as very simalir to any violent Muslim texts.

Arabs are Warriors by nature, whether in past or today. As for Judes, they had to fight to survive. I agree that some things are quiet similar between Islam and Judism. As matter of fact this is Christianity which I believe has the less similarity with the other two.

By Nature? that sounds very prejudice. Well you could say the same thing about Europeans who are mostly Christians, and Americans who are Mostly Christians. But you forget that not all Arabs are Muslim and not all Muslims are Arabs, in fact the worlds most populated Muslim country is Indonesia a non Arabian nation, it's located in the region of the world called "Oceania" .

An example of Christian Hostility, the Crusades, the Christians did not merely kill Muslims, they also killed Jews.

Another example would be the Spanish inquisition, and if you know your history Spain was a nation controlled by the Catholic Church, so they killed all who did not convert... Sound Familiar yet? It sounds a lot like what Muslims have done.

To profess that Christianity is much more peaceful is just not true.

But to go back to your "by Nature, if i was an Arab and A Christan came to my house and killed my family and took my lands just for "the holy land" i think i would be highly angry.

I would need to learn more about Islamic and Christian history before I could really say much about this, since most of what I know about Islam's history based off an overly simplified (and probably false) explanation of the history from my social studies class. Not to mention I forget some of the details.

Basically, what I was told was that Muhammad was relatively well-off and lived in Mecca. Since Mecca was a trade city, there were many religions. Muhammad took some properties of these religions and added his own stuff that he said he got from the angel Gabriel when he was isolated in the desert for a while. When he came back, Mecca wouldn't except his religion, so he went to Medina and helped keep the rulers of Medina in power. So they gave him an army and he forced Mecca to become Islamic.

Not really similar to Christianity in its early history except that the teaching of both Jesus and Muhammad weren't written down for a "long" time. However, the religion itself has a lot of things in common with Christianity.

I don't know much about both religions, but as far as I can see, they're not entirely similar nor are they completely different.

I guess they share some similarities in terms of believing in their one true God, and a few other things, but other than that, I guess they differ from each other.

as much as i dislike saying it, my favorite religion is the lag of religion, purely becasue there cannot...and i reinstate that fact
THERE CANNOT BE condradictions of whats morally correct or incorrect. no one cna argue about 'purose' 'why's 'hows' etc

it makes the mind more stable, but then again, this is alot like buddhism and inner peace, as buddhism is nearly every religion, yet is none (if you get what i mean)

Kai~*

Well,this is a hard subject to argue,I would understand more about Islam as it is the main religion in my country,Malaysia,though we are allowed to have our own religion,culture and so on.

From what I know of Islam as I study about it's history in my History lessons,it is a very holy religion,not all Islam-believers are bad,it depends much on their own personality and attitude.Whether it's the same or not is not important.What is important is that you do not disrespect them.They have their belief and so do we.Why create enmity towards each other just because of different religion or opinion? We,Malaysians(I'm not saying all Malaysians live in peace,some are still racist)learned this lesson a long time ago,we do not want the history to repeat itself and there was no need for any.

Actually they are very different and at the same time very much alike. They follow similar early time lines (only stands to reason since they were basically born from the same man being Abraham) and they have very similar beliefs. However at the core level the difference is very profound (basically being Christ as the Son of God vs Mohammad as the mouth piece/prophet of Allah)
This being said, as far as their development is concerned Christianity began to stagnate (non-acceptance of the changing world) first and was followed fairly quickly by Islam. Today the difference is that Islam for the most part has remained fairly stagnant (kinda a shame really since during the time when the stagnation of Islam occurred they were among the brightest and most advance people in the world) while Christianity has started to reflect the changing times

I haven't read the Koran or even the New Testament, but i think that if they are both monotheistic religions (even ignoring the fact that the god is essentially the same), they have to be pretty similar.

As for the poll question, my favorite religion is of course no religion! For me, there's no point in believing the types of things religion wants you to believe. But if I had to pick one, I guess it woul be Buddhism..if only for the lack of overt theism.

Wow, finally a thread involving Islam (yay). I'm Muslim, and I know a lot about Islam. I also know what people think about Islam. Were extreme, were terrorists, we hate non-Muslims, blah blah blah...none of it's true. Just because there are some horrible people claiming to be Muslims who do bad things, it doesn't mean the real Muslims support it. If a Christian person does a terrorist act, the person is blamed, not the religion. Islam is actually about peace, however the media portrays us so badly nowadays that it's impossible to convince other people.
Okay, I'll stop preaching now, but if anyone has any questions about Islam, please please ask me. We're normal nice people, you know
Now getting to the point, I believe that Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon both of them) delivered the same message to people. Yes, the same message. However over time, both religions have changed a lot, so nowadays they're like night and dy. I know a lot about Christianity also, it's history, what was taught, what happened to it, what it is now, and now it's very different from Islam. Islam believes in one God alone, who is the God of everyone. Most Christians believe that God is actually three; the father, the son, and the holy ghost, each are separate but together they make up "God". This is probably the main thing that makes the two religions different.
Anyways I could say a lot more but I'm out of time.

Quote by ASH-Hikari
I know a lot about Christianity also, it's history, what was taught, what happened to it, what it is now, and now it's very different from Islam. Islam believes in one God alone, who is the God of everyone. Most Christians believe that God is actually three; the father, the son, and the holy ghost, each are separate but together they make up "God".

U said u know alot abt Christianity...but u're wrong. Hm, 3 GODs!? Where there hell do u got the ideas abt 3 Gods?
so, before i go further...Islam & Christian is totally different.
----------------------
Christianity and Islam share much common ground. Both trace their roots to Abraham. Both believe in prophecy, God's messengers (apostles), revelation, scripture, the resurrection of dead, and the centrality of religious community. This last element is especially important. Both Christianity and Islam have a communitarian dimension: what the church is to Christianity the "umma" is to Islam.

Despite these significant similarities, however, these two
world religions have a number of significant differences as well.

The Understanding of God
Muslims and Christians believe there is only one God / Allah.
The basic testimony of Islam is called the 'shahada', the first clause of which states that "la ilaha illa Allah" -
"There is no god but God." This is certainly a statement that Christians would affirm. Muslims insist that
there is no distinction within the Godhead. God is sublimely one.
Thus the Islamic polemic against Christianity has centered on the doctrine of Trinity. This is the central doctrine that causes problems for Muslims when they consider Christianity. Muslims have caricatured Christians as tritheists guilty of "shirk", that is, attributing an associate to God. By believing in the Trinity, Muslims say, Christians believe in three gods. No Christian (including Catholic priests and mainline Protestant Ministers) believes there are "three gods in one". Christians believe there are 3 persons, all having the same substance. These 3 persons are infinitely coexistent, coeternal, and coequal. They each have their own "natures". (God has
revealed himself as Trinity, i.e the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. )

The Understanding of Revelation
Christianity believes that God revealed Himself in order to
redeem us, to save us -- that is to lead us to a fullness of life, freed from the bonds of sin both in this world and in the world to come. According to Islam, on the other hand, revelation is not for the purpose of redemption, but for the sake of "guidance". That is,God's revelation is meant to provide guidance for living in this world.
In Christianity, revelation is mediated. We believe that the
Bible is the Word of God, but we do not believe that God
mechanically transmitted it through certain people as if they were"channelers" of some sort. Christians hold that the Bible was written by human beings under divine inspiration, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The divine revelation was thus "filtered" through a human lens and written in human words and within human history. That is why our scriptures refer to historical circumstances; it describes not some mystical, ahistorical revelation of God but rather chronicles God's wonderful intervention in human history.
In Islam, on the other hand, the Qur'an is considered the
"unmediated" word of God.

The Understanding of Sin and Salvation
Christianity teaches that the effects of
original sin have corrupted the world and the human beings who exist in it. In Islam, however, there is no such a thing as original sin. The Qur'an does indeed state that Adam and Eve sinned, but according to Islamic belief, they repented and were fully forgiven so that their sin had no repercussions for the rest of human race.

The Religious Community
Christians and Muslims both consider themselves as accountable to a community of faith. It is not enough to believe in isolation; we must link our lives to brothers and sisters in the faith.
Nevertheless, there are some noteworthy differences between the Christian and Muslims visions of religious community. There is no ordained ministry or "hierarchy" in the Islamic umma.
Also, in the Islamic umma there is more stress on homogeneity -- on a common pattern of life throughout the Islamic world, regulated by the 'sharia', or religious law -- than in the Christian church at
large. Christians have attempted to "incarnate" Christianity as much as possible in local culture. For example, the Bible, hymns, and liturgical texts are translated into the local language and adjusted to the local culture. On the contrary, one must learn Arabic if one wants to be a good Muslim. The Qur'an is considered to be "untranslatable"; that is, to the Muslim the message of the Qur'an is inextricably link to the original language. Yes, one can
attempt to render the text of the Qur'an in English, French,
German, etc., but then it is no longer really the Qur'an, only an interpretation of it.

Well, i think that's all for now n I know that there are too many people out there opposing these two world religions. Btw, correct me if i'm wrong.

Most religions, as most cultural ethics despite popular belief, are fairly similar in many ways. But the similarity between Christianity and Islam is not surprising because they have the same basic roots, began near each other in somewhat similar cultures, and actually use alot of the same texts and teachings.

They are distinct, however, in many ways as well. The most key difference of course is their understanding of God and who God is. Christians have the Trinity, which is the core of their faith, and within that Jesus Christ is God, The Son. Muslims do not have the trinity, and do not believe Jesus to be God, although they do believe him to be the son of God, but in a way on the level of Adam, and generally they don't believe in the resurrection either, which again is core and foundational to all of Christianity. And there are many other differences in this area.

Otherwise, more in line with their cultural and political development, Christianity has the focal character of Jesus Christ who rejected the idea of the Messiah as a political and military leader who would conquer and lead Isreal out of roman rule, and instead was crucified, died, and resurrected, and his followers later began evangilizing in like manner and most the leaders of which died in a similar fashion, many believing themselves to be dying for Jesus and participating in the life of Jesus through their death.

Islam has Mohamad, who was rejected then did come back as a military leader in his land, and did not die in such a matter, nor am I aware of his followers dying for Mohamad or anything else in the same sense.

Western Christianity is highly philisophically different from Islam. Although Eastern Christianity doesn't bear this difference as strongly. This is much due simply to the diffence of Western and Eastern philosophy.

They do both usually believe in peace, and in service to others and the poor, and observance of worship and love of God, and so on.

merged: 08-19-2007 ~ 01:10pm
I guess i should throw in that many things I said simply agrees with nejika.
Especially I agree that Christians do not have three gods. This is simply a misunderstanding of the nature of the Trinity.

nejika, first of all, don't just copy and paste stuff from websites. You need to put quotes around it and source it. Islam and Christianity are both very different and very similar. Apparently ASH-Hikari knows more about Christianity than you do, even though you're probably a Christian. Most Christians believe in the Trinity, that is, that God is three different entities, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It even says that in the article you copied, so I'm guessing you didn't even read it. ASH-Hikari, unlike that article, didn't not imply all Christians believe in the Trinity because that is untrue.

Also, Islam and Christianity both are Abrahamic religions that are of Middle Eastern origin, that alone is a very important common factor.

Quote by alexjohnc3nejika, first of all, don't just copy and paste stuff from websites. You need to put quotes around it and source it. Islam and Christianity are both very different and very similar. Apparently ASH-Hikari knows more about Christianity than you do, even though you're probably a Christian. Most Christians believe in the Trinity, that is, that God is three different entities, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It even says that in the article you copied, so I'm guessing you didn't even read it. ASH-Hikari, unlike that article, didn't not imply all Christians believe in the Trinity because that is untrue.

Also, Islam and Christianity both are Abrahamic religions that are of Middle Eastern origin, that alone is a very important common factor.

The Trinity is NOT that God is three different entities. Three different PERSONS, One Being. There is a reason for that particular and exact phrasing, if you say entities, its not accurate and can easily be construed (if not intended) that there are three seperate beings, which is NOT the Trinity.

And all CHRISTIANS do believe in the Trinity. Maybe not all people who call themselves christians, but there are lots of people that call themselves christians that don't have any idea what they're talking about anyway. But, if Christian is used in terms of what it was concieved to describe, all christians most certainly do believe in the Trinity, for that is the very core of ALL of Christianity. As C.S. Lewis says in his book Mere Christianity, where he compiles what makes Christianity what it is in its most basic form which does not differ even between denominations, some people may somehow be closer to the goals of Christianity, or closer to Christ, or better spiritually, or a number of things, who do not believe in these things, such as the Trinity, than those who do, but thats not what makes them Christian. If it did make them christians, the word itself would cease to be useful, since it would not longer tell you anything of what they believe as it was intended to.

heresthe tru answer simplified yes they are difrent but muslam and jew are almost exactly alike i mean they were started by brothers the kids of abraham ishmal and the other one no one rembers very well