I spent the past few months trying to learn, or at least understand a few things about the timeline of the abrahamic religions.So i finally felt like I had something I could say or add to the questions my history professor asks.As I pointed out something regarding Abraham, my prof Stopped me and asked me to tell him a source. I have nada in the sources or official knowledge department. So can y'all pls suggest a credible book or multiple books that can at least let me start to understand the starting history of Abrahamic religions or Abraham, or Judaism to begin with. If you think I should start with something else as a topic. Pls do suggest. Thank you.

Let's say death is just death, nothing happens to this awareness you experience right now. It just goes "dark" for the rest of eternity. There is no reincarnation, there is no heaven or hell, no afterlife.

Would you continue following your religion? Do you think others would continue to follow? Would you modify your practice if you stayed? What do you think the average follower of your religion do?

Edit: to clarify, let's say your religion's prophet or founders clarified there was no afterlife or reincarnation, that all those terms were metphorical and not meant to be taken literally.

Edit 2: I'm trying to determine if you feel that as a believer, your religion is rewarding in and of itself to follow without the reward of heaven or liberation from the reincarnation cycle (or whatver afterlife you're promised.)

hello r/religion ! I try to do one of these every two or three month now to educate :) I practice Kemetism, which means I worship the Ancient Egyptian gods / goddesses (primarily Hathor though I worship a few others) I also practice Heka (the closest equivalent to magic) and study ancient Egyptian history and culture generally, It's a pretty "niche path" nowadays, so I'm always down to answer questions and talk education !! AMA about my faith in the next 48 hours :)

Hello everyone,

I am a Christian from Germany and I have an assignment that requires me to learn about Islam from the perspective of practicing Muslims.

I would be very grateful if any Muslims in this community could share their thoughts on the following questions. I am not looking for a debate or an argument, but for a better understanding of the Islamic perspective.

1. What should Christians keep in mind when interacting with Muslims?

2. How does Islamic faith influence everyday life?

3. What significance does Jesus Christ have for a Muslim?

4. Why do you believe Islam is true?

5. What, from an Islamic perspective, is wrong with Christian belief?

6. In what ways do you think Islam is better than Christianity?

7. Are there any aspects of Christianity that you think are better than Islam?

8. How should the violence of Islamic terrorists be understood and evaluated?

9. How can a person's sins be forgiven according to Islam?

10. What happens to a Muslim and to a Christian after death?

11. How do you view a Muslim who has become a Christian?

12. In your opinion, what does Jesus' statement, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends” (John 15:13), tell us about the nature of God/Allah?

I understand that this is a long list of questions. If you would like to answer only some of them, that would still be very helpful.

Thank you for your time and for helping me understand your faith better.

You have a meeting with these various religious leaders, and are required to ask them a question. This is a one by one situation, and it curious what your question will be for each.

This is also assuming that these people are historically real. Although we don’t have to assume the theologically are.

Adam

Noah

Abraham

Moses

David

Peter

Paul

Muhammad (pbuh)

Joseph Smith

Brigham Young

Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha)

Confucius

Zoroaster

Guru Nanak

Mahavira

Billy Graham

Mother Teresa

Baháʼu'lláh

Mahatma Gandhi

Yong (Sun) Myung Moon

Or at least answer the ones you know. Look forward to hearing from you.

I was a very religious Muslim but on the past time i got kinda suspicious of it but i wanna hear you guys opinion. Like there are 4k+ religions and each of them tells us "im the only true religion".

I am wanting to learn more so I can compare the ancient Near East religions to the stories, religious structures, rituals, and laws of that influeneced the Old Teatament authors.

How have you come to develop them and how do you deal with people seeing you as a heretic?

Recently, there has been a death in my town that has really shook us up. And with everything going on in Oregon I just feel so defeated with all the violence in the news, as well as all the violence around me, that I just have this feeling to pray. I don’t believe in a god, I don’t believe in heaven or hell, I would like to believe in reincarnation but idk. I’m just not a religious person. But, whenever I hear about a passing all I can think about is praying over them, hoping that they rest in peace and their family heals. I don’t know who I’m praying too, just curious if I should pray despite not being religious. If there’s anything you do that substitutes praying during times like these please let me know. Thank you.

I've been thinking about this lately as a Bahá’í. 😊

One thing I appreciate about the Bahá’í teachings is the emphasis on putting spiritual principles into action, rather than just talking about them. Kindness, honesty, patience, forgiveness, and service to others are all wonderful ideals. ❤️

But here's the thing: it's easy to talk about being kind when everyone's nice to you. It's a little harder when someone cuts you off in traffic, your coworker drives you crazy, or a family member knows exactly which button to push. 😂

So here's my question for people of all faiths, and those with no religion at all:

How do you know if your beliefs are actually making you a better person? Is there a particular habit or experience that has helped you grow morally or spiritually?

And honestly, do you think it's possible to become so focused on following a religion that you forget the very values it was supposed to teach you? 👀

I'd love to hear your experiences and perspectives!

What are the Iranic and Turkic speaking ethnic groups that are Buddhist by religion ? I know there are some Buddhist Turkic speaking groups, but are there any Iranic speaking ones at all ? If there are, how did they receive Buddhism, and how did they remain Buddhsit until today ?

In western India, there is an old practice of calling ancestor spirit possession as "Bala ji" ("ji" is just common honorfic). Balaji is local protective deity, representing ancestors. Though, in recent times it's getting appropriated by classical Hindu deities.

I noticed there are similar traditions in south India too. However, in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, spirit possession was part of old tradition, however, considered negative and evil in modern religion shadows (Christians and Muslims, even modern Hindus).

Curious on how common was/is this tradition across the world? And, how is it surviving? Has the connotation changed from positive ancestral to negative evil spirits?

For more context on west India's tradition: Why we must remember

Do most religions believe if you take your own life you go to hell or that religions version Or does GOD understand why ppl would ? Idk is there any downsides religion talk about when taking ur own life?

I’m a Christian, but I’ve been thinking about this lately and the more I look at it, the more it feels like we’re all arguing over different chapters of the exact same book.

Like, if you take a step back, the big three religions literally share the same God. They share the same ancestral roots with Abraham, the same values, and mostly the same prophets. We're basically praying to the same Creator but using different names and arguing over the timeline.

What if we just stopped the division and combined them into one faith? Let’s just call it Abrahamism.

The biggest roadblock is always going to be Jesus, but why can’t we just compromise? We all agree he’s an incredibly important, central figure. Let's just officially accept him as a massive prophet across the board, and then leave it up to the individual person to decide if they believe he's the son of God or not. It doesn’t have to break the peace.

I know theologians and strict traditionalists would probably lose their minds over this, but from a purely human standpoint, the world is already so divided. Wouldn't it be beautiful if we just dropped the labels and united under one banner?

Am I crazy for thinking this, or does anyone else feel like the borders we've built between these faiths are just unnecessary at this point?

Hello r/religion,

I had a dream recently and I’m wondering if anyone with greater biblical/religious knowledge could tell me if there is any religious undertones or if I have just associated some completely, irrelevant, weird dream with something else. If this does turn out to be the case I apologise for wasting anyone’s time :)

The Context:

Much like I’m sure most of you do every night before I go to bed I say thanks to God for the blessings I receive, etc. through the day. However this time I have experienced some events in my personal life that have caused me to really struggle and feel like I’m going through these things alone, because of this I asked God to give me a sign that he is with me and will give me strength as I get through this experience.

The Dream:

It started with me being lost in this big shopping centre type of place, I must have been walking around, lost, for ages. I was all alone and I’m not even sure what I was looking for. But I distinctly remember the feeling of being confused and lost .

After I while I turned a corner and saw a food vendor (the only thing and person I had seen the entire time), the vendor was a Persian man selling middle eastern food (I don’t remember any of the meals).

What I do remember was that this man was incredibly welcoming, and as soon as I saw him I felt calm and comfortable. Without offering, he cooked me a meal from whatever cuisine it was, and he sat down with me and the entire time I felt completely safe and at peace.

I can’t remember any dialogue, if there was any, and I woke up soon after.

Maybe I’m silly for thinking it might be anything more than a weird dream and if so I apologise for wasting anyone’s time. At this current time a sign that someone is travelling right beside me and giving me strength would be very comforting so maybe it’s wishful thinking.

If anyone wants any further information I will do my best.

Thank you for your help.

i believe this

I have been following God properly for over a year now and feel that through this time period, I have had to learn and experience a lot of things.

Some were amazing, and some weren’t, but they were necessary in order to grow me and I’m glad that they happened now when looking back it.

Due to this, I have had to learn a lot of things, questions that I used to have now make sense. So seriously, if you have any questions about God, who He is, what He does, why He’s real, how He works etc, then just ask. All are welcome!

Hi so as the tittle states I’m a sunni Muslim and want a few tattoos I always wanted to be tatted it was my dream before I learned about Islam and was told by my family it’s haram. Plz don’t be mean about it but if I do it is it super bad? Like I’m not religious but omg my parents would have a heart attack even tho they’re not religious too it’s a “if it’s haram it’s haram” for specific things yk? So I just want to know on the spectrum from 1-5 1 being not bad at all 5 being I’d be tortured in hell to the max can u pin point roughly how bad it would be? Again plz plz plz dont be mean ik i can do henna but i dont have the talent for it plus i want something permanent 🫶🏻. If u ever had this feeling what have u done that helped?

Sahih hadiths mention she was married at 6, have seuxal intercourse at 9 and that she was still playing with dolls during that time. I have seen people say it aas different time back then if this the case, isn’t Islam supposed to be eternal and muhammed as the prefect man who told to strive to be like him? The hadith mention thst his msrriage of Aisha was command from Allah.

Are there any religions with love for one’s neighbor as the central element? Not faith, but instead action love.

alternatively, what are the positions of the different religions on the topic of action love?

I’m only familiar with Protestant Christianity, which (from my likely wildly ignorant understanding) seems to put loving God with faith first, then loving the self, and loving the neighbor as the self. Indeed, loving the neighbor with action love can be sin, as it shows a lack of faith?

one doesn’t need religion or a belief system at all to have faith. They do generally need faith to say “I’m going to not care about others and instead focus on my selfish needs and God will make it all work out.”

Even in advanced pre modern societies, the main historical figures who brought down holy texts or started massive religious movements were overwhelmingly male. If the ultimate divine source is truly formless, transcendent, or completely beyond human gender constraints, what are the best historical, sociological, or theological explanations for why we rarely see female forms taking on these universal messenger roles?

One potential counterargument is that ancient societies were deeply patriarchal, meaning a female prophet simply wouldn't have been taken seriously or allowed to spread her message. However, if a message truly originates from an all powerful Divine entity, shouldn't that divinity be capable of transcending or shattering local cultural biases to choose whoever they wish? Alternatively, does the overwhelming historical prevalence of male prophets suggest that religions are purely human, sociological constructs heavily reflective of the patriarchal eras in which they were born? I would love to hear both the theological justifications and the secular/sociological arguments on this dynamic.

I mean no disrespect i still consider myself a muslim but i can't control my thoughts

I went from rejecting some hadith to rejecting most to rejecting all hadith, I could not accept the fact the prophet married a 9 year old, that shaytan hangs out in my nose at night, stonlng etc.

I went quran only for a few months but still praying the hadith way, eventually I was like but if hadith can be fabricated and still considered fully sahih, who's there to say the quran wasn't.

So i went into a deep dive looking up all the miracles again that kept my faith strong and now i'm a medical school student almost a doctor who's also studying astrophysics in his own time, i checked all the miracles and i saw that all of them were common knowledge or atleast things being talked about at that time. Some "miracles" were just stuff that aristotle and galel mentioned centuires ago, and since mecca was an important trading place there were a lot of cultures and different people with different belief there. The sun doesn't set in a murky water, the sky isn't an object, then i read about the inheritance divisions some come up to 112.5% some less than 100% and all of them were either "metaphors" or "god knows" but why would god send a book that nobody understands?

Also if god knew hadith would become so problematic where it would lead people to leave islam, why allow it at all? If they are true then why not let the prophet compile them himself so we wouldn't have to reject 593000 of them?

Then i thought about animals, it is believed that the first animals have existed 500 million years ago, humans only 300 thousand years. What was the point of letting animals eat eachother, get tortured for 499700000 years?

Also the "men mentioned 23 times women 23 times so it matches the chromosomes" that is common pattern recognition that can be done in any book it's just not a miracle. Then the fact that the prophet conviniently received surahs exactly when he needed them, like telling his guests to leave, telling his wives that he can choose between who he hangs out with but also that is only for yim not for the rest of the muslims? And also slavery, I never knew islam mentioned slavery cuz scholars hide it, until i read all the quran myself and some hadiths. I always imagined the prophet as this perfect human as this example that would never allow such stuff

Also what is the point of testing us? Genuinely an All powerful god has no need to test anybody, he knew billions would end up in hell why create them? I can't fathom that.