Common Goal Of Explaining The World

Religions in general share the common goal of explaining the world. Religion creates an understandable reality around believers and practitioners. Before there was science to explain why the sun rose in the East, seasons changed, and what sickness is, religion was there. More importantly, however, religion explains why there is bad in the world; it explains why there are wars and mass slaughters, why there is any death at all. The Abrahamic religions set down guidelines on how to live, and what happens when life is over. These rules are reassuring, they give a path to follow when life is unsure. These are three major aspects of religion, explaining the world, explaining human life, and guiding that life. All these aspects make life more comfortable;

But the Bible says “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!’ says your God” (New International Version, Isaiah. 40:1) and the Qur’an says “whatever of comfort ye enjoy, it is from Allah” (Pickthall 16:53). The Abrahamic religions tell each hurting, confused individual that someone cares about him specifically. These religions say that human pain serves a greater purpose than can be imagined. Their goal is to lift people out of their lives to find solace in divinity.

There are a few aspects of the Abrahamic God that lend themselves to the purpose of comfort especially well. The first is omnipotence; the fact that the Abrahamic God is all powerful means that everything that happens in the world can be credited to him. Since he is all good, everything, even the seemingly evil, must be for a greater good. Here is where the famous Christian saying about God not letting a sparrow fall unnoticed comes in, as does the second aspect that lends Abrahamic religions to comfort:

To Christians, God is human and inhuman, and he can be befriended; Christians can derive comfort from the feeling of familiarity. Muslims and Jews insist that God is beyond any form of comprehension, and that he cannot be related to, but he is a comfort because he is always there. When friends leave, and a people is exiled, God is still there.

The Christian and Islamic beliefs in an afterlife could be considered one of the most comforting aspects of the religions. No matter what pains and disappointments suffered in this life, people can look forward to another, better, one. No loved friend or family member is lost forever. Any loss, any pain is part of God’s plan; it was God’s plan, some said, when hurricane Katrina hit, and when the Twin Towers were hit. Though Judaism has little belief in an afterlife, it too gives comfort by telling practitioners that there is a purpose to their lives, and to their pain - God’s