A thread on a forum I frequent has motivated me to wonder something about the so-called Abrahamic religions, i.e. those which look back to the patriarch Abraham as a founder, directly or indirectly. What I wonder about them may strike some as disturbing or even blasphemous. I wonder whether there is anything peculiarly good about them; whether, in other words, they in themselves contain or preach anything good, that hasn't as it were been borrowed or assimilated in the course of their histories from elsewhere.
Above is a picture in stained glass, I think, depicting Abraham about to sacrifice his son in accordance with the will of his God. I sometimes think of the God of the Old Testament as a kind of colossal, unsleeping cat, toying with his creation as a cat would a mouse. A cat without a cat's usual charm and grace, though, and without its vast capacity to sleep, and doing no harm by doing so. Whether urging the chosen people to destroy the Canaanites and take their land, laying waste to entire cities, flooding the world, or playing torturous games with Abraham and Job, he's perpetually doing something to us. He seemingly made us to be the objects of his whims.
A particular belief in a particular God has been the cause of much violence and many wars, it's true. But was it so, is it so, when one of the Abrahamic religions is not involved? As far as I know, the pagans of the ancient Mediterranean didn't war against each other because one group worshipped Isis and one Mithras, for example. Tolerance of religious beliefs was characteristic of the Greco-Roman world, except, of course, when it came to the Jews and Christians.
Greeks and Jews we know rioted against each other in Alexandria. Roman suppression of the Jews in the two "Jewish wars" was ruthless. The Roman state, periodically and with varying degrees of seriousness, persecuted Christians, but with nowhere near the seriousness depicted by Hollywood and others. But violence against Jews and Christians was not motivated by the fact that they believed in Yahweh or Jesus as opposed to one or several of the pagan gods. It was motivated by the fact that they believed themselves to be exclusively in possession of that which is right and good by virtue of the fact they worshipped their particular god and refused to recognize as right and good and indeed despised anything they did not think right and good--including pagans, the Roman state, and pagan institutions. They were considered anti-social, as they were against pagan society and culture. They appeared to subvert society, traditional religion and the government.
Jews and Christians were exclusive, sometimes militantly so, and intolerant. Once Rome became a Christian Empire, it persecuted pagans far more relentlessly and effectively that the pagan empire persecuted Christians. Islam, once founded, was similarly exclusive and intolerant, and engaged in great conquests in the name of its God. Christianity was an imperial force as well. All over the world, people were "saved" by being made Christian.
There are works of art inspired by religion, and they can be said to be goods peculiar to particular religious beliefs. What of wisdom or ethics can be said to have resulted only by virtue of the Abrahamic religions, however?
I would say nothing, not really. All that was or could be said on those topics was said before Christianity or Islam existed, and developed independent of Judaism, primarily due to the ancient Greeks. If one discounts unsubstantiated claims such as Plato or Solon got lessons from Moses, there's nothing to indicate the Greeks were influenced by Judaism in any significant respect. That Christianity borrowed extensively from pagan philosophy is clear.
It's often claimed that Christianity brought with it the idea of love, something said to be absent from paganism. Readers of Plato's Symposium might find that surprising. But Christian love has much more often than not merely been given lip service. If there was such a teaching, it's been ignored as a practical matter. And arguably, the love touted by Christianity has never been capable of realization. One simply does not love everyone. Respect and dignity were accorded to all by the pagan philosophers; a much more achievable goal.
Well, that's what wondering can do. But what can be expected from religions which hold themselves out to be the only way to God, the only way to worship God, but conflict in the name of God until all believe the same?
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