While pondering why religions sometimes are the source of such deep divisions amoung us, I begain wondering what is it that they have in common which should bring us closer together.
The five points of commonality propounded by Lord Herbert of Cherbury:
The existence of only One God
The duty to worship that God
The centrality of “virtue” in that worship
The obligation of repentance for departures from that virtue
The prospect of a life to come with rewards for virtue and punishments for “sin.”
Everything else was secondary to these five tenets: doctrine, authoritative institution, and even the founder, be he thought of as human or as divine. The constitute a common faith among Jew, Christians and Muslims.
