Nadene Goldfoot
Most all of us accept the idea that G-d is a word standing for "The Supreme Being," Most primitive societies developed this concept, wondering, where in the heck they are and why they are here, and they got a lot of creative ideas at night by looking up at the sky full of stars, something very few of us earthlings do nowadays. The ancients were mostly thinking along the lines of a polytheistic G-d relationship simply because they realized that it took many of them to continue living in such a dangerous environment and needed all kinds of people. Surely, there were many gods in charge of all the effects they experienced.
A lot of bad things happened to people in the beginning and also in this period. People didn't want their maker to bring on bad events for them, so wanted to know how to appease these gods. It's how they created ways of pleasing their idea of gods that grew into tradition of their beliefs and marked them as to who they were.
Jews, who started back with Abraham, his son Isaac and grandson Jacob, who fathered 12 tribes that developed into Israel, had a surviving state of one of the 12 states called Judah. That's the people who are called Jews today. They spoke and wrote in Hebrew. G-d to them was a non-mythological character. He had no body, no kindred and no human needs. All depended on Him and He depended on nothing. This was a revelation compared to the thinking of all others. All Nature and Life were related to the one Creator and only G-d. G-d was ambivalent, evoking different, even contradictory responses. He is majestic and condescending, terrible and kind, destructive and loving, punishing and forgiving,. To Jews then, G-d is non-human.
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Keeping Kosher is a sign of respect for G-d for Orthodox Jews. Most of the kosher dietary laws can be found in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. In these passages, God lists which animals the Israelites were allowed to eat (referred to as “clean”) and which ones they were not allowed to eat (referred to as “unclean”). The animals are further divided into four major categories: Land, Aquatic, Birds, Insects.
- "Symbolic meaning: Beyond just dietary restrictions, the distinction between clean and unclean is seen as a way to symbolize the separation of the Jewish people from other nations and their commitment to a holy lifestyle. "My comment is that today only the orthodox keep kosher with a few conservatives, but we are separated from other nations. It's the nations through the UN that separate themselves from us! This is not because we have some of us keeping kosher! It's because of religion with Christians (Romans) taking over Israel, their laws of unacceptance of us, and Islam taking over our ancient land of Judah and fighting to keep us out. We are living with a commitment to be a holy and fair people with very high morals even after 3,000 plus years of living as Jews.
- Examples of clean animals: Cattle, sheep, goats, deer
- Examples of unclean animals: Pigs, camels, rabbits, shellfish
According to Jewish belief, God is one, all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving:
- Monotheistic: God is one and cannot be divided into different parts.
- Omnipotent: God has the power to do anything.
- Omniscient: God knows everything, past, present, and future.
- Omnibenevolent: God is all-loving.
- Omnipresent: God is everywhere at all times.
- Transcendent: God is above and beyond the material universe, and is not limited by time and space.
- Immanent: God is present in the world and actively involved in it.
- Eternal: God has always existed and will always exist.
- Creator: God made the universe without help.
- Lawgiver: God created humans and gave them laws to live by.
- Judge: God judges everyone and punishes those who disobey the laws.
- Merciful: God shows compassion and forgives those who make mistakes.
Jews believe that God communicates with believers through prophets, and that God rewards good deeds and punishes evil. They also believe that God is personal and accessible, and that God sometimes speaks to individuals in unexpected ways. 
Abraham's children spent 400 years as Egyptian slaves, exposed to Egyptian gods. Here, an Egyptian God, one of many; a few are:
- Anubis: The god of the dead, embalming, and funerals, who was often depicted as a jackal
- Aten: The sun disk deity who became the focus of the monotheistic Atenist belief system that lost popularity
- Bennu: A solar and creator deity who was depicted as a heron
- Geb: An earth god and member of the Ennead
- Hathor: The goddess of motherhood, beauty, and joy
- Horus: The falcon god of kingship, who was often shown as a human child Moses during Exodus, speaking to his people
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Moses (1391-1271 BCE) , a descendant of Jacob, rescued his people from Egypt after they had seen HIS interceding and helping Moses. They had remembered Abraham and his lessons in that there wasbut one G-d which was quite a job after what they had gleaned from Egyptian beliefs.
Christians
Paul (Saul)
A new religion grew out of Judaism called Christianity for a Jew who stood out witha few ideas that differed from rabbis of his time. He was referred to as Jesus. I note that this was a common Hebrew name used during this period. This was at a time of Roman conquering Judah and their capital, Jerusalem. He died in the year 37. A new count on the calendar started withhis birth according to Roman record-keeping. Records became the New Testament, with Paul at the helm. He was Saul of Tarsus who died about 65 CE. He converted. "The New Oxford Annotated Bible claims, "Scholars generally agree that the Gospels were written forty to sixty years or longer after the death of Jesus" by the apostles. They thus do not present eyewitness or contemporary accounts of Jesus's life and teaching." Tarsus was a hellenistic city in Asia Minor (Syria). Paul had studied some Greek philosophy with mystery cults popular at the beginning of the era. He did not understand Pharisaic Judaism and had been a persecutor of the new Christians but had changed.
According to the Bible, while Jesus never explicitly said "worship me as God," he did make statements that could be interpreted as claiming divine status, such as identifying himself with God the Father and accepting worship from his disciples, which could be seen as implicitly asking to be worshipped as God; however, this interpretation is debated, particularly within Jewish traditions where the concept of worshipping anyone other than the one God is strictly forbidden. The Christians were spreading their view of G-d using Jesus as G-d's son and what he said and accomplished, to a people who came from a line that worshipped as Greeks and Romans did, believing is many gods. This is something that they understood. In their old religion, they also had half gods; with a god as a father and the son as a human. 
Hercules: half-god
In Greek and Roman mythology, some prominent examples of half-gods with a god father and human mother include: Heracles (Hercules), son of Zeus and Alcmene, Perseus, son of Zeus and Danaë, Aeneas, son of Venus and Anchises, Aeacus, son of Zeus and Aegina, and Theseus, son of Poseidon and Aethra.
- Heracles (Hercules): One of the most famous demigods, known for his immense strength and completing many legendary labors.
- Perseus: Renowned for slaying Medusa, a monstrous Gorgon.
- Aeneas: A central figure in Roman mythology, considered the ancestor of the Roman people.
- Aeacus: Often depicted as a just and righteous ruler.
- Theseus: Famous for his exploits in Athens, including slaying the Minotaur.
They differed from Judaism in several ways, even though Jesus and his followers were said to be Jews. They believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but then later on it became quite different. Paul held that the Christians were the true heirs of the promise to Abraham but anticipated the eventual conversion of the Jews to believe in G-d as they did.
Christians spread their religion as a new faith though they regarded Hebrew Scriptures as a natural outgrowth of Jewish models. They stopped thinking of themselves as Jews. In Mark 7:17–23, Jesus teaches that what goes into a person does not defile him, but rather the evil thoughts of the heart that come out. Mark 7:19 says, “In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.” By fulfilling the Mosaic Law (Matthew 5:17), Jesus freed us from adherence to the kosher dietary laws. We are free to eat whatever food we want, as no food is considered unclean—all foods are now considered “kosher.”
The Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The 4th Gospel is hostile to everything Jewish, like it's teaching anti-Semitism at the beginning stage. Some Church fathers denied that Israel had ever been the CHOSEN PEOPLE as stated in The Bible verse most commonly cited to describe Jews as the "Chosen People" which is found in Deuteronomy 7:6 which states, "For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth." The Romans made Christianity compete with Judaism, and had the power of the day to keep Jews from accepting anyone into their faith while they spread Christianity. .jpg%20Arch%20of%20Titus%20menorah%20Relief.jpg)
Arch of Titus in Rome showing what they stole from Temple, forcing Jews to carry to Rome
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They separated themselves from Jews along with Israel being overcome by Rome and the Temple being destroyed, and the Bar Kokhba rebellion against Rome of 132-134 over Jerusalem. In other words, they stayed with the winning group, the Romans. To show this, they substituted Sunday, meaning the Lord's Day, as the sun was thought to be Zeus, king of the Roman gods, for the Jewish traditional Sabbath, and even dated Easter so that it should no longer coincide with Passover.
They treated Jews of Europe with degradation as a warning of the terrible fate overtaking those who rejected salvation through the Christian savior. That's the main thing that they expected; to accept Jesus as G-d's son; like the Greek and Roman view of G-d for they had to have salvation. They divided their thinking into Catholic and Protestant viewpoints, varying greatly, all trying to proselytize Jews. Luther, kind at first, was very harsh against Jews when he saw they maintained their own religion.
Muslims 
Islam is the newest religion of the three. Instead of Jesus, they follow Mohammad, their prophet. He lived in Mecca and Medina in Arabia but often met Jews and Christians on his treks of Meccan trade caravans. He couldn't read or write but had a good memory, enjoying stories he heard told by the Jews who would gather a crowd around their tent and told the biblical stories to people. At the age of about 40, he also meditated on G-d, from the stories he had heard, and thought about the Day of Judgement which he believed to be close at hand. He thought that G-d had revealed Himself to other people through His prophets. He became convinced that he had been chosen as the Arab prophet, and publicly proclaimed the revelations which he claimed to experience through the intermediation of the angel GABRIEL; which became the book, The Koran. So Islam is built on Jewish lore and tradition in his tenets of faith and religious precepts.
He thought that all Holy Books were copies of a heavenly model and all revelations were essentially one revelation, having been distorted in several ways by the people reading them. His mission, he thought, was to confirm what had been revealed to former prophets and to correct the distortions, like everything concerned his people; not the Jewish people. It was Ishmael who was almost sacrificed by Abraham, not the Jewish Isaac. He borrowed much of the story for his own people. His early conviction that there existed no essential difference between Judaism and Islam led him to the hope that the Jews would welcome his mission and join his religion. In his attempt to win over the Jews, he adapted, in Medina, the ritual of his community to theirs in some points, adding a 3rd daily prayer, introducing a day of fast corresponding to the Day of Atonement, fixing a day of public prayer after the model of the Jewish Sabbath, and directing his followers to turn to Jerusalem during prayer. Then he saw how stubborn Jews were and would not accept any other religion but their own. So he changed some of the new rites and was hostile towards the Jews of Medina. Jews were either annihilated or expelled. He married Safia, a Jewish woman, however.
Comparisons
Jews have a written law and Islam has the Koran. Jews have the Oral law and Islam has the hadith. Traditionally, Mohammed's original legislation was markedly similar to Jewish halakhah, but when the Jews of Medina failed to acknowledge his mission, he introduced laws calculated to emphasize the difference between Islam and Judaism. Christians have the New Testament.
While Muslims agree with Jews that there is but one G-d, and Jews have questions about the Christian concept that includes Jesus being more important than G--d as so many pray to him or use his name, the three have different ways of showing G-d that they are talking to HIM, and different ways of interpreting the message. Their method of prayer is different.
Death
Christians are very concerned on what happens to them when they die, where they go, thus the salvation enters the concept. According to Christianity, when a Christian dies, their soul goes to be with God in the afterlife: Souls go to God . Christians believe that when a Christian dies, their soul goes to be with God immediately. This is because the soul is immortal and returns to God, who gave it life. Souls are made perfect The souls of the righteous are made perfect in holiness and go to heaven to be with God. Bodies return to dust. The body returns to dust after death, but the soul lives on. Final judgmentThere will be a Day of Judgment when everyone will stand before God and give an explanation for their actions. Eternal life: Christians believe that people will spend eternity in either heaven or hell. Those who die apart from Jesus go to hell and face judgment and suffering. Christians believe that Jesus' death and resurrection solved the problem of sin, allowing those who trust in Jesus to have hope for eternal life.
Jews don't worry about that but try to lead a model life doing mitzvot (good deeds) that count at judgement time. It's a way of discipling oneself.
Muslims According to Islamic belief: When a Muslim dies, their soul is taken by the Angel of Death (Azra'il) and enters a state called "Barzakh" where they remain until the Day of Judgement, awaiting their final judgment based on their deeds in life; those who lived righteously will experience peace in the grave, while those who did not may face torment from the angels who question them about their faith; ultimately, they will be resurrected and either enter Paradise (Jannah) for good deeds or Hell (Jahannam) for bad deeds
In 2022, 17% of respondents to a Gallup poll said "No" when asked "Do you believe in God?".
In 2023, Gallup found that 12% of respondents replied they "Do not believe in" God and 14% replied they were "Not sure about" the existence of God.
In 2023, 4% of Americans identified as atheists in a Pew Research Center poll. However,
a 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 28% of Americans identify as "nones", of whom 17% identify as atheist and 20% identify as agnostic. Two-thirds of "nones" say they question religious teachings or don't believe in God.
Atheist: : a person who does not believe in the existence of a god or any gods : one who subscribes to or advocates atheism.
Agnostic: a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.
As our population has advanced techniques, so has the science of genetics. Agnostics haven't noticed that Jews, who include many atheists and agnostics in their midst, have the highest percentage of awards for their intelligence, which is about 10 points above the average IQ. Look at Einstein with an IQ of 180. They in turn are the longest believers of their religion, which has always been evolving along with them.
God gene: The "god gene" is a hypothesis that a specific gene, called vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2), influences a person's spirituality and openness to spiritual experiences. The hypothesis is based on the book The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into Our Genes by Dean Hamer, a molecular biologist at the National Institutes of Health. In the book, Hamer argues that: Spirituality is a nearly universal human trait ; Genetic factors influence a person's predisposition toward spirituality ;The VMAT2 gene is one of many genes that may affect spirituality 'A variation in the VMAT2 gene, where an A is changed to a C, may be a marker for a more spiritual version of the gene ;The "god gene" may have evolved as a result of natural selection, and may offer an evolutionary advantage by reducing stress, preventing disease, and extending life ;The VMAT2 gene encodes a transporter protein that moves neurotransmitters into vesicles in the brain. Changes to the transporter could affect the levels of neurotransmitters, which could alter brain function. Thus: Prophets!
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
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