Dogmatism and Abrahamic Religion

One common thread through the history of religion is violence. Amongst Abrahamic religions all three have been at odds with each other at some point, and currently still are in some areas. Jerusalem is still a source of turmoil over who rightfully deserves the promised land. All three of these religions have their own scripture (some of which overlap) but interpret certain sections differently thus leading to separate religions. It's not the fundamental views of any Abrahamic religion that causes this conflict, but rather our inability to separate the true original meaning of religious doctrines from it's politicalized, dogmatic counterpart. Merriam Webster defines the term dogmatism to mean “a viewpoint or system of ideas based on insufficiently examined premises.” Religious dogmatism perpetuates rivalry amongst religions by infusing politics with religion, promoting conflicting ideals, sociology of religion, selective interpretations of scripture (or readings), and in the growing gap between why rules were followed originally and why they are followed now.

Throughout all of history Religion has been an extremely controversial topic for nearly every civilization. It is inevitable that throughout history certain belief and value systems will clash with others, and it is important to understand why. The three most popular religions today: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all stem from a similar belief system but, are all still notorious for their conflict with each other. According to website Religioustolerance.org Christianity makes up about a third of the entire population with over 2 billion people, Islam has approximately 1.5 billion followers, while Judaism only has about 15 million followers. All three of these religions are known as Abrahamic religions meaning that they trace their roots back to common ancestor known as Abraham. Although three religious texts maintain several consistent characters they all have unique interpretations of what...