Abrahamic religions namely Christianity, Islam and Judaism are based on BELIEF SYSTEMS, where they

see TIME as an arrow that only points only in one direction. Each human gets one life to live, the world is
created once and will be destroyed once, God gives missions to individuals and tribes that are meant to
push towards this final apocalypse or salvation, hence the belief in an out of Earth afterlife in either
Heaven or Hell based on the rules one may or may not have followed from religious scripture.

However, Dharmic Religions namely, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism (inc Zen Buddhism) are based on
SELF-ENQUIRY. They view TIME as being more cyclic. In Dharmic religions, people are reincarnated many
times, reward and retribution are not administered all at once in a final afterlife, but rather in the course
of this life or many successive lives thereby making your heaven or hell in your current lifetime here on
Earth. In Dharmic religions, the world may also be created or destroyed cyclically. Abrahmic religions
encourage humans to alter their world in the grand push towards the end of time, while the Dharmic
religions encourage humans to accept a world that is more or less constant and eternally repeating.
Dharmic religions put less emphasis on God as a human-like being with vested interests in events on
Earth as is the case with Abrahamic religions, where God is the central player, stern in his edicts. With
Dharmic religions, God may appear in many different forms with certain moral laws and properties (ie
Karma), but no human-like being overseeing the whole show. Liberation/Enlightenment is the primary
goal where God and Gurus are tools on the path of liberation. EVERYTHING can be questioned, including
God, karma and reincarnation. Social norms keep changing with time, and there is always scope for
change. Dharmas do not have edicts that are forced on. One may choose to be religious or atheistic, and
can practice ones own version of it to suit his nature and abilities.