Opinion of these Abrahamic religions

[Aurelius]

I could make a case for any of three options for each of these religions depending on what angle of interpretation I want to take. Should I give it a go?

[Aurelius]

FF for Judaism, HP for Christianity and Islam even though there are aspects of both religions that I respect. Over the past week my perspective on Christianity has completely shifted. The New Testament is essentially an awkward combination of egregious slave morality ("the meek shall inherit the earth"... who actually believes this? When someone hits you, turn the other cheek toward them so they can hit it too... this is one of the dumbest pieces of advice I have ever heard. When someone hits you, hit them back. Defend yourself, don't be a wallflower.) and completely arbitrary and capricious restrictions on things like homosexuality and women teaching, extracted from or in reaction to a society 2000 years ago with a completely different social context. My objections to Islam are pretty much the standard right-liberal ones.

Judaism does have its flaws - it's very awkward to have a monotheistic religion claiming its god is the only one, yet disclaiming proselytization and proclaiming a particular "chosen people". It's no surprise therefore that now and then you hear about weird ultra-Orthodox rabbis proclaiming that goyim are subhuman and ought to be enslaved, when you don't really hear other religions declaring this about those who don't follow their religion. But I much prefer the moral and ethical framework of Judaism to the slave morality of the New Testament or the naked might-is-right conquering spirit of Islam.

I spent the better part of my life deathly afraid of Christian hell, even though I didn't believe it, wasn't raised to believe in it, and most people around me didn't really believe in it. It was a sort of tyrannical Pascal's Wager that became a parasite on my mind. Well, I have finally overcome that fear. There is no life after death, and I need not let fear of such a thing rule as a tyrant over me. It really is incredible how you can use the prospect of eternal conscious torment as a cudgel to force people to conform to practically any moral system regardless of its actual soundness or utility. I think that one thing that demonstrates the greater soundness of the Jewish approach is that it manages to prescribe a system of correct behavior without having to use fire and brimstone as a crutch to compel obedience.

[Aurelius]

Strongly approve of Christianity, strongly disapprove of Islam and Judaism.

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.  Any religious system which denies his deity and/or his status as the Messiah is false and puts people at risk of eternal damnation.

Doesn't Christianity put people at risk of eternal damnation because it doesn't have an agreed, cross denominational set of criteria on how one can escape it?

Some Christians, no doubt, also take the idea of eternal fire literally (and why not*).
Why would anyone want to believe in a Supreme Being that would torture someone forever?
(*eternal fire is mentioned in the Bible, although maybe not that often)
Rejecting such a being would put someone in danger according to traditional Christianity.

All of this was discussed at length in the "is Anne Frank in hell" thread:

https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=120269.0

Yeah, any moral system in which Anne Frank is to receive eternal suffering as punishment is not one that ought to be respected.

[Aurelius]

Strongly approve of Christianity, strongly disapprove of Islam and Judaism.

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.  Any religious system which denies his deity and/or his status as the Messiah is false and puts people at risk of eternal damnation.

I hope you don't need me to explain to you why "strongly disapproving" of Judaism even from within an extremely conservative and traditional belief in Christian salvation history is a formulation that many people would find alarming to say the least, RFayette.

As someone who is suddenly feeling much more connected now to my ancestral Judaism than I have in over a decade, I really genuinely do not care if someone views it negatively. That's their right, and if someone thinks that one particular religion ought to be free from the analysis and criticism extended to all others, then I would say they ought to grow a thicker skin.

[Aurelius]

Strongly approve of Christianity, strongly disapprove of Islam and Judaism.

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.  Any religious system which denies his deity and/or his status as the Messiah is false and puts people at risk of eternal damnation.

No, he was a false messiah and garden-variety sorcerer, a warmed-over proto-communist preaching an upside-down morality in which bad things are good, good things are bad, and suffering is exalted over virtue. Your hell does not exist, and I don't particularly care if someone thinks I am eternally damned.