Analyzing Religions - Research Paper Example

Analyzing Religions [Pick the Decent Analyzing Religions Religions have always been important to people of the world no matter if they live in East, West North or South. It is consensus among the historians on the founders of both religions. Christianity was founded by Jesus Christ in Nazareth (currently in Palestine) in year 33 CE (first century) (Lindberg 2009); while Islam was founded by Prophet Muhammad in Makkah (currently in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) in year 610 AD (Maps 1999). Since the start of both these religions, they have always been constantly spreading in all parts of the world.

Some parts of the world geographically represent the majority of believers of some religions. Like European, North American, South American and Australian countries represent majority population who are firm believers of Christianity. Similarly Middle East, South East Asia and some part of Africa represent majority of Muslim population. The people of Asia Pacific countries and some South Asian countries are Buddhism majority countries (DK Publishing 2004). There are more Christian believers (more than 2 billion) in the world than Muslim believers (more than 1.3 billion).

The initial leaders of Christians were Jesus Christ himself and his early believers Peter and Paul (Lindberg 2009). Initial leaders of Muslim era include the Prophet Muhammad and his companions. The four companions of Prophet Muhammad are famous among the majority of the Muslims: Abu Bakr, Umar, Usman and Ali. These four companions of the Prophet Muhammad ruled over the Muslim states one after another respectively (Maps.com 1999). There are a lot of things common in Muslims and Christians. First of all, they are considered as Abrahamic religions.

Both religions hail from Prophet Abraham. Secondly, Catholic and Muslim believe in the same GOD. The basic religious concepts of both religions are similar. For example, the concept of Prophets, Angels, Paradise, Hell, life after death and Fate are same between the Catholic and Muslim. Besides all these common viewpoints mentioned in above paragraph, there are also several conflicting beliefs between Muslims and Christians. The concept of GOD among the Christians is different than Muslims belief of GOD.

The Christians believe in Trinity which defines God as three divine persons (or hypostases): the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit whereas Muslims strongly believe that the GOD is one and only. Some rituals and practices between the Christians and Muslims are of the similar nature and some rituals and practices are of the different nature. Like follower of both religions go to some dedicated places for offering prayers or attending ceremonies like marriage. Similarly the followers of the both religions have a specific day to go to worship place (called Church among Christians and Masjid among Muslims) and offer prayers.

In case of Christians this day is Sunday and in case of Muslims this day is Friday. The followers of the both religions nominate a person (called as prayer leader) to lead some prayer ceremony. This person is known as “Bishop” among Christians and “Imam” among the Muslims (Tomka 2011).In essence both religions have many similarities and very less dissimilarities. Both religions are very much close to each other. The followers of both religions are living together and working together around the globe.

Their beliefs create no problems with one other.BibliographyMaps.com, . (1999). Spread of Islam, 622-750 CE Map. S.l: Maps.com. Lindberg, C. (2009). A Brief History of Christianity. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.DK Publishing, Inc. (2004). The DK geography of the world. New York, N.Y: DK.Tomka, M. (2011). Expanding Religion: Religious Revival in Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe. Berlin: De Gruyter.