While superstition deals with the petty beliefs of day to day living, religion tends to answer the big questions of life and death. A religion is revealed knowledge handed to man from above. Whereas science is the discovery through gathering of facts, and although science also looks to answer the same questions about death and life, science tends to look at how, and not why. In religion, the questions and answers of life are, why are we here? What happens to us when we die?, and is there an ultimate goal? Are we all that we are? Science deals with facts, religion requires the faith. Unfortunately, ancient man’s belief that certain gods were responsible for good crops and abundance of food, it was science and observation that provides the answer in looking for the right soil, the right time of the year to plant and the right seeds. Religion dealt with questions that ranged from how to treat your neighbor to where do we go when we die.
Both Islam and Christianity are derivative of Judaism, as they worship the same God. Like the first Jews and Christians, the faithful of Islam originated as the descendants of Noah, through the line of Shem. That lineage continues down to Abraham and to his first son, Ishmael, by his wife’s handmaiden, Hagar. Islam and Christianity share many of the same prophets, including Jesus. Muslims, however, think that Christians went too far in that, from the Muslim point of view, Jesus was raised to the level of deity. Like the Jews and ancient Israelites, Muslims believe that there is only one God, and he has no children, other than humanity. Like both Christianity, and Judaism, that same God is also involved in shaping the lives, history, and the civilizations in this world.
Robert Barbere 