By: Steve Patterson
Submitted: 2010-05-20 08:40:28 | Word Count: 480
Religion is the most unifying movement in the contemporary world. Over the years religion has undergone a lot of transformation although the beliefs and practices have remained the same. All religions believe in some supreme powers ruling over mankind. The major religions in the universe are Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism among others. Christianity and Islam are the two mostly followed religions which have various similarities and differences. In the contemporary world both Christianity and Islam have been playing critical roles in various sectors not directly related to worship such as governmental issues, international relations, community development, and legal issues among others. Furthermore, the world peace process has always featured prominently in the religion, for example, the war between Israel and Palestine, conflict between America and Iraq or Afghanistan have all been related to religion conflict. It is due to these roles played by religion that comparison and contrast between Christianity and Islam needs to be evaluated.
Both Christianity and Islam believe in one supreme God who is above all. They believe that there is a supernatural being that can not be seen by the human eye but is able to control all mankind and other creatures of the world (Jackson, 2009). According to them, God is the creator of all beings and things on the universe and that communication to God by man is through prayer which has to be conducted privately or during the worship times that both religions have set such as Friday for Islam and Sunday for Christians.
Christians and Islam believe in existence of prophets and prophesy. In addition, both Christians and Islam believe the existence of Jesus as the word sent by God and that was pure as well as believing that was born from Virgin Mary; and that he (Jesus) performed miracles during his time on earth. Moreover both Christians and Islam are on the view that some prophets existed such as Abraham, Moses, Noah and Adam. The also believe in angels as messengers or servants of god.
Both religions believe in the existence of heaven and hell and also the final judgment. This means that both the Christians and Islam think that there is end to the world and that judgment will come at the end of the world, with the pure heading to heaven while the wicked perishing in hell. In addition, they believe that the hell is controlled by Satan while heaven is where God is sitting waiting for the judgment day and watching over those who sin and those who are righteous. Moreover, both religions have set aside a time for celebration at least once a year.
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Despite these similarities, both Christians and Muslims have many differences. First, although both religions believe in one God, Christians claim that God is divided into three parts namely God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
