The Connections Project

Judaism

Catholicism is a direct descendant of Judaism. Jesus basically hijacked the Jewish holy writings, claiming to be the savior prophesied in the Torah. After his martyrdom, he left a cult of radical devotees. At first, they lived in hiding, but eventually the religion was co-opted by the Roman Empire (who wasted no time twisting it to fit their own agenda). This led to the establishment of the Papacy and Catholicism in general.

The biggest difference between Judaism and Catholicism is the differing opinion about the Jewish savior. Catholics believe that the prophesies were fulfilled by Jesus, whereas Judaism holds that the savior has not yet come. Catholics worship Jesus and his mother Mary, whereas Jews worship God directly.

There is a large overlap between the two religions' holy literature.

In a way, protestantism is a partial return to the roots of Catholicism: that is to say, there's a lot more similarity between the two than there is between Judaism and Catholicism. The biggest difference remains the differing interpretation of the prophesied savior: protestants believe Jesus fulfilled the prophesies, Jews believe the savior is yet to come.

Modern day protestants selectively pick and choose things from Judaism to support whatever preconceived worldview they already have: thus homophobic protestants like to cite Deuteronomy, a Judaic text, to support a view directly opposed to their own text (the New Testament). At the same time they conveniently ignore many verses from Deuteronomy which would be very unpopular. In short, the average modern protestant doesn't even know what's protestant and what's Jewish.

The relation between Shinto and Judaism depends largely on one's interpretation of Shinto. The confusion rises from the fact that the Japanese word for "god" can also mean "spirit". Thus, Shintoism can be viewed either as a polytheistic paganistic religion, or as a spiritualistic philosophy. The former is radically, violently at odds with Judaism, whereas the latter is perfectly compatible.

The biggest difference between Judaism and Buddhism comes down to authority and law. In Judaism, a jealous tyrant-god would impose absolute control through a strict code of laws. In Buddhism, there is no arbitrary law, instead there are principles of cause-and-effect, thus the Buddhist avoids stealing because it would make his world more miserable, whereas the Jew avoids stealing in order to placate his wrathful deity.

The whole idea of a single all-powerful creator God is conspicuously absent from Buddhism. In fact, according to Buddhism, even if the Abrahamic God is real, He will eventually die and pass, just like everything else.

While Islam is a direct descendant of Judaism, nonetheless, the believers of the two religions can never get along with each other, and are constantly fighting. Like Christianity, Islam is basically an extension of Judaism: to a Muslim, the holy books of Judaism are quite true, it's just that they're missing the prophecy of Muhammad.