Abrahamic religions and their approaches to values and decision-making

Introduction

The Abrahamic religions are faiths monotheists who recognize a spiritual tradition identified with Abraham. The term is primarily used to refer collectively to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but also includes other religious communities, such as Samaritans, the Mandaeans, the Druze and Bahai. Abrahamic religions account for just over half the population of believers in the world, some 3,800 million adherents. The major non-Abrahamic religions are religions of the world dharma of India and East Asian religions centred on the idea of Tao. The term "Abrahamic" is not universal and has proved problematic for many reasons (Burns, pp. 67).

Discussion

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are usually considered in integrated religious studies. This is true because Christianity and Islam are genetically close to Judaism. This theme is mainly aimed at developing understanding of the origin and evolution of such influential today, religious teachings, which often today can not peacefully coexist in the same area. The Abrahamic Religion carries great importance for many people who pursue the theories in identifying their values and decision making process. The importance of Abraham is discussed below (Lazarus, pp. 16).

Abrahamic Religion and intermarriages

Global religious pluralism has created new possibilities for intermarriage between diverse traditions, such as Hinduism and Judaism, or Christianity and Islam. However, against this trend, there is concurrent disaggregation of religious identities and systems, creating in turn global conflict and contention between faiths. From birth until death, the rites and passages observed within a human's life cycle all become points of potential contestation. Within certain traditional religious establishments, the view is held that intermarriage is detrimental to the values, identity, and overall continuity of the religion. Some religious leaders, however, welcome the expansion of their faith and view intermarriage as a natural expression of their beliefs and as an opportunity for spiritual growth.

The faith in which children are raised often becomes a source of conflict. For example, even though all three Abrahamic religions arguably recognize intermarriage within the bounds of their doctrine, each also has strict rules regarding children and which parent's religion the child will follow. While different movements within Judaism have differing views regarding children and who can be considered Jewish, traditionally, Jewish status passes through the mother. A child is considered Jewish as long as the mother is Jewish. In Islam, all children must be raised as Muslims regardless of which spouse is Muslim.

Within the dharmic traditions, Buddhism and Hinduism allow interfaith marriage. This is because Buddhism is not a family-centered religion, and marriage is not viewed as a religious act, duty, or obligation. Some of the reasons why Buddhism does not possess doctrinal standards or institutionalized models of the family are the role of renunciation, detachment, and the individual's pursuit of enlightenment. Hinduism teaches that the Ultimate Reality can be worshipped in many forms and thus allows interfaith marriage. Because the Abrahamic faiths do not allow worship of iconography, however, complications in an interfaith marriage may arise with forms of worship involving puja, or offering ...