Summer is a time for relaxing, going to the beach and resting up before the next school year. Some people use the time to make money, take classes or both.
I enrolled in three classes to fulfill Liberal Arts Core requirements. One class explores the Middle East and Islam and their impact on the world. This class discusses the role of religion in the lives of people in the Middle East. We are asked to consider the differences between Islam, Christianity and Judaism.
All three religions are monotheistic and teach that if one doesn’t believe in the “one true faith” that person is going to suffer eternal torment. Some sects within each major religion even believe that the other sects will be damned. It makes me wonder about the nature of religion.
With all the divisions of faith and all the bloodshed that results from intolerance, misunderstandings and prejudice, it’s interesting to learn that many of the sects teach tolerance of others.
This brings me to the most important concept–that we all worship a different god. The first discussion of my class was based on the statement “The god that Christians and Muslims worship is not the same god.” Many of us agreed that it is the same god, but worshipped in different ways. After all, if Judaism, Christianity and Islam each had their own god, that would either mean that more than one god exists or that a large number of people are doomed to eternal damnation.
But when you really think about it, a single god interpreted in multiple ways makes more sense. Take all the divisions of Christianity as an example.
The divisions of Christianity teach belief in one God, who sent his son to die for human sins and believe that Jesus was divine. The divisions have occurred as people disagree about how this God should be worshipped.
The divisions don’t mean that more than one God exists, but that people can’t agree on a way to worship him.
I believe this strongly, but on a larger scale. I see all religions as different ways of showing respect and admiration to the same omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal being.
Another way of explaining it is that “god” is a many-faceted crystal and each facet is one concept of this god. One facet for Roman Catholicism, another for Sunni Islam, another for Buddhism–the list is endless.
The only exception to this, at least in my view, is religions that preach of harm to others. While I am fairly open to alternate views, the idea of harming another being as part of a religion is abhorrent to me.
Religions have many differences, but also have many commonalities. They all reach to a greater power for one reason or another and many teach that love, peace, tolerance and helping others are good things.
If people can learn to tolerate their differences better, perhaps the world can be more peaceful overall.
Commonalities more important then differences
Published: Thursday, June 11, 2009
Updated: Thursday, June 11, 2009 10:06
2 comments Log in to Comment
I'm not a religious scholar, heck, I'm not even sure I know the differences between the denominations in my own religion, but I was told (and correct me if I'm wrong) that the main difference between the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths is the prophets. Jews believe that the prophesied Son of God has not yet appeared, Muslims believe in Mohammad, and Christians believe in Jesus. The idea that each group is just understanding God in a slightly different light is, I believe, a rational conclusion seeing as each is technically worshiping the same God, just going through a different channel to reach God.
Atheistic views, like those apparently held by alex are much less popular than some type of faith- statistically speaking, fewer people claim atheism or agnosticism than some type of spiritual belief. Every culture (at least all those covered by my anthropology class three years ago) has some form of Religion, and a commonality in many is protecting the social structure of a particular society. The trend you've noticed as far as preaching patience, tolerance, kindness, love, ect. may be a type of social insurance- people throughout history may have been seeking higher meaning in life, and found a way to promote socially healthy relationships as well. People have a harder time following hollow rules than acting in accordance with their beliefs, so if God says "love thy neighbor", you'll get nicer neighborhoods than if you just expect people to behave appropriately by themselves.
Casting sinners into eternal damnation, however, is none of my business. If God in fact is willing to condemn that many of his creations to an eternity of conscious separation from him ( whoops-there I go, giving God a gender), it will do us little good to spend our lives arguing about who will be cast into the pit, instead of trying to uphold the principals that would lead us into a closer relationship with whatever God we understand. If we are trying to live as God would wish us to live, we can't afford to quibble among ourselves. I believe in God. alex doesn't. Big whoop. It doesn't mean I can't be friends with him. It doesn't mean I have to badger him about religion. All I can be is an example for my particular conception of God.
Thank you for the article. I enjoyed thinking about this topic, and I too hope that tolerance will continue to grow in our society.
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