Do religions share common beliefs?

Yes, many do. For instance, most Christians (Catholic, Baptists, Protestants) believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior and son of God.

Jews and Muslims believe Christ existed, but that he was a teacher and example, but not the son of God.

Satanists worship Satan, but also believe in God because they worship the opposite.

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I remember meeting a man years ago who had taken many years to study about all religions at the time. He said that what he came away with was that they were all after pretty much the same things.

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Most religions have a common need which is to KNOW GOD.

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The Abrahamic faiths, which include Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share many common beliefs, prophets, and historical events.

Judaism, and therefore Christianity and Islam, share many beliefs with Zoroastrianism, the religion of Cyrus the Great, who released the Jews from their Babylonian Exile. Just a few of the beliefs that we know came from Zoroastrianism are the beliefs in angels, Satan, heaven and hell as places of reward and punishment, and the end of times, when the Saoshyant or Jesus will lead humanity in the last battle against evil.

Zoroastrianism shared its origins with Hinduism, so there are even some parallels between all the above religions and Hinduism.

There are also many beliefs that are common to many organised religions simply because they are valuable to the religious experience or to the priesthood.

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The existence of an supernatural realm and some sort of continuing out-of-body "self" seems to be one of the few common threads in religions. The role of a god or several gods is a frequent motif but not present in all religions (e.g. Buddhism)

The role of altruism, love, and other positive social interactions is often pointed out as points of commonality for religion but studies indicate this may be due more to genetic inheritance than philosophy (See BBC Human Series: Human Instinct) and so might not be a common point in religion but a common point in being "human"

The role of common iconic figures is apparent in the three interlaced religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) due to the single origin of their traditions until the schisms as Christianity and Islam split off, but not in other religions.

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Some religions believe that there is an immortal spirit who lives many life times. Many religions believe in some god. Some religions believe in telling someone your sins and that can help one feel better about himself.

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The beliefs of many religions have a common ground in that they believe that there is a supreme God or Gods. There is the belief that after death, a person goes to a better place or heaven. When you take two religions, and compare them you'll see the similarities. I remember for religious education, my teacher was highlighting the similarities between Christianity and Hinduism. both are very similar. Both have a trinity idea. Two festivals which hindus celebrate, has ties with what Christians celebrate. Divali is the festival of lights. Christmas has lots of light. Divali is a time of giving and sharing, doesn't christmas do the same thing? Then we have easter. Hindus have holi. It's around the same time, and the both festivals have the same common thread in it.

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First answer by Lkysmy. Last edit by MattWilkins. Contributor trust: 59 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 57 [recommend question]