When we hear the word "religion," our minds conjure a kaleidoscope of images—from the serene pagodas of the East to the solemn icons of Jesus Christ. In this diversity lies not only beauty but also a profound and challenging question. If many traditions speak of one God, why are there so many different religions? How did the world's spiritual paths diverge so dramatically, even when they seem to be reaching for the same ultimate truth?

At the heart of religion is a state that can be described as a sacred awe or a holy reverence. Yet, the expressions of this feeling are strikingly different, not just in their outward symbols but in their deepest meanings. Consider Christianity and Shintoism. The first is built on the concept of a single, omnipotent God who created and governs the world. Shintoism, in contrast, is rooted in animism—the belief that a spirit, or kami, resides in every rock, river, and mountain. The very idea of a single, all-powerful creator God is absent. The values, rituals, and temples of these two faiths are fundamentally different in almost every way. The only thing that truly unites them is that shared feeling of sacred awe. To say they are talking about the same thing would be a mistake.

A Tale of One Family, Three Faiths

Let’s look at the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. At first glance, they seem remarkably similar, all tracing their origins to Abraham, the ancient prophet revered as the patriarch of the Jewish people. It was with Abraham that the one God is said to have made His covenant, making him a pivotal figure for Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike.

According to tradition, Abraham was married to Sarah, but they were unable to conceive a child. Abraham then had a son, Ishmael, with Sarah's maidservant, Hagar. Together, Abraham and Ishmael are said to have built the Kaaba in Mecca, the most sacred shrine in the Islamic world. Later, however, Sarah miraculously conceived in her old age and gave birth to Isaac. At Sarah's insistence, Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael into the desert. From Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael, it is believed, came the numerous Semitic peoples, including the Jews and Arabs.

This shared story contains the very seeds of their divergence. In a defining test of faith, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son on a mountaintop. In Jewish and Christian tradition, this son is Isaac. In the Quran, the son is not explicitly named, but many Islamic scholars believe it was Ishmael. In all versions, just as Abraham raised the knife, an angel stopped him, signifying that the test was passed. This single, powerful event is understood differently, highlighting the unique paths these faiths would take.

A Legacy of Devotion and Division

For all Abrahamic religions, unity with God is the ultimate goal, yet they disagree on how to achieve it. Though they revere many of the same prophets and texts, each claims a unique and exclusive truth. For instance, Muslims, who believe in Tawhid (the absolute oneness of God), view the Christian concept of the Trinity as a departure from pure monotheism. Christians, in turn, do not recognize Muhammad as a prophet. Orthodox Judaism sees both Christianity and Islam as younger faiths that have strayed from the original covenant established with Moses.

This conviction of being the sole "correct" path has, tragically, been a source of conflict for millennia. The persecution of Christians in the late Roman Empire gave way to the persecution of pagans. The Muslim conquests of Southern Europe were met with the Crusades. The wars between Catholics and Protestants, culminating in the devastating Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), tore Europe apart. While large-scale religious wars have subsided in Europe, the friction remains. In Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque stands, is one of the holiest sites in Islam. For many Jews, rebuilding their ancient Temple on that very spot is a cherished dream. In this ongoing conflict, religious conviction plays a powerful role.

Why do such closely related faiths clash? Firstly, because religion remains a deeply significant part of human identity. People will defend what is sacred to them. In highly secular societies, where religion has become more of a cultural tradition than a matter of eternal salvation, conflicts over creed are virtually nonexistent. Secondly, faith has often been used to achieve political and economic ends. Napoleon, a man of little personal faith, understood he could not win the support of the people without the Church. He therefore signed a concordat, a formal agreement, with the Catholic Church, restoring its public role to secure his own power.

Two Ways of Understanding the Diversity

So, how do we reconcile the idea of one God with the reality of countless religions? There are two primary ways to approach this question.

The first is theological. It posits that God is one, but human understanding is flawed. People are prone to error, so their conceptions of God can be either true or false. The glaring weakness in this model is that every religion naturally asserts that its own understanding is the correct one. This lack of consensus exists even within faiths; for example, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism each see themselves as the truest expression of Christianity.

The second answer comes from the study of religion itself, from fields like anthropology and cognitive science. Scholars, setting aside the question of God's actual existence, observe that religion emerges objectively from human and societal development. The anthropologist Pascal Boyer, for example, explains that religious ideas are easily absorbed by the human mind. They are just unusual enough to be memorable, yet familiar enough to be understood. This is why concepts like ancestor worship and belief in spirits appeared independently in cultures from China to Mesoamerica. Societies often arrive at similar ideas on their own, but with crucial differences that cannot be ignored.

An Illusory Contradiction

Ultimately, the contradiction between one God and many religions may be illusory. It is impossible to be both a Christian and a Buddhist at the same time, because to accept one is to accept its core tenets, which differ from the other. The world's religions bring a stunning diversity to our lives, and more often than not, they teach universal values: love, compassion, mercy, and humility.

The real path forward is not to try and merge them into one, but to foster a respectful dialogue between them. We are the ones who define our path, and in a world as interconnected as ours, a durable peace is unimaginable without mutual understanding and respect. And that is something truly sacred and important for every one of us.

References

• Armstrong, Karen. A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Ballantine Books, 1993.
  This book provides a comprehensive historical overview of how the concept of a single God developed and was understood within the three major monotheistic religions. It supports the article's discussion of the shared roots and subsequent divergences of the Abrahamic faiths, detailing the theological debates and evolving interpretations of God that define each tradition.
• Boyer, Pascal. Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. Basic Books, 2001.
  This work directly supports the anthropological and cognitive science perspective mentioned in the article. Boyer argues that religious beliefs are a natural byproduct of the human brain's cognitive systems. He explains how concepts like spirits and gods are memorable because they are "minimally counterintuitive," fitting our mental templates with just enough variation to be intriguing, which corresponds to the article’s point about religion arising objectively from human psychology.
• Wilson, Peter H. The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy. Harvard University Press, 2009.
  This reference substantiates the article's claim about the devastating real-world consequences of religious division. Wilson's detailed account of the Thirty Years' War illustrates how deep-seated theological conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, combined with political ambitions, led to one of the most destructive conflicts in European history.