http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Dome_of_the_Rock
The above link to an article about the Dome of the Rock highlights the problem of 3 religions (Islam, Judaism and Christianity) and their deities claiming rights the a piece of land in modern day Israel.
In times past a prophet could claim to hear from god and round up a local following that would eventually find the desire to create a new religion and worship the prophet and his words and life, but the world would go on and do it's best to assimilate and accomodate the new religion and the believers. Time would pass and a new prophet and a new religion would seek believers in honor of the new deity. The problem for the world at this juncture is that this has happened three times in one place in history and now "Houston we have a problem". Who has rightful claim to the land on which the Dome of the Rock sits? The world sits and watches as we now have 3 different deities competing for the rights to a piece of ground. First, the jews built a temple where animal sacrifice and worship to Yahweh centered their culture for centuries. Then came Jeshua, an iteranite jewish prophet who claimed Yahweh for his own and taught new teachings and a new religion. Four hundred years after his death a chapel was built on the destroyed temple mound to honor this Jesus. Two hundred years later, muslim conquerors leveled that shrine and built the dome on the rock mosque. It is said to be the place where Mohammed, their prophet was welcomed into paradise by his god Allah. Fast forward 1400 years and you have passionate followers of these gods claiming ownership of the holy ground. Passionate sermons and ministries are founded to push for the rebuilding of the temple so Jesus can come back to earth. The jewish Israeli's who have dispossed the palestinians of their homes, land, water and freedom in order to occupy the country given to them after World War II believe that nothing less than a pure jewish state is their right, given to them by their god, and the muslims revere the dome of the rock as one of their most holy sites. What is the solution to this collusion of deities? How many gods can one piece of land accomodate?
The fundamentalists of all three of these religions have no appetite for compromise and no one is backing down from loyalty to their ancient prophets and stone age gods and their "supposed" but unproven miracles. A substantial lack of proof for these "divine revelations" seems to hold no bearing for a modern man committed to his ancient gods. In a shrinking world possessed of atomic bombs it does not appear that any of these three gods is capable of stopping the other god of destructive genocide and domination by right of the "largest bombs" and "largest military" and most passionate believers willing to die for their deity. Why modern man clings to these ancient gods who did not advance the cause of mankind by simply explaining the "germ theory" of disease when they walked on the earth speaks of their total lack of knowledge of knowledge. The deities guiding them were content to let mankind suffer in ignorance for centuries. The 1800's began to bring about advances in science in spite of every attempt by religion to stop the progress of science. These deities never felt the need to speak of the human rights of slaves or women and both suffered for 2,000 years after the death of jesus. What good is a deity that encourages the death of any person who does not "believe" and condemns creation to an eternal place of punishment for skepticism and honest doubt? Without science mankind would be back in his illiterate stone age, but with these ancient religions mankind may end his planet all together with weapons of mass destruction. I vote we give up the confused and unenlightened deities and follow reason and logic and justice and disarm and call it a new day without stone age illiterate prophets who claim to speak for their god to be silenced in our minds and in our hearts.
