Regardless of our religion, caste or denomination, regardless of whether we are believers or non-believers, we are all one people. We were all either created by a single Creator or we all evolved without a Creator.
Thousands of years ago early religions formed, each in their own part of the world, to unique peoples and cultures. The oldest religions still in prevalence, Hinduism and Judaism to mention two of the major original religions still prominent today developed in isolation from each other. These religions grew and matured unhindered by other major religions. They had no competition outside of themselves (Hinduism for example had competition from followers of individual Hindu Gods). From these source religions, either derived from, as a reaction to, or influenced by, other religions developed. Christianity and Islam are the two major religions that followed Judaism. Buddhism and Jainism are some major religions that followed Hinduism. These later religions though felt the need to compete not only with their predecessors but also their new peers. These latter religions proselytized using either the power of the word or the power of the sword. Jainism spread through India, Buddhism spread outside India to China, Japan, Sri Lanka, etc. while Christianity and Islam spread to the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
For a while religions were somewhat separated by geographic boundaries into loosely speaking religious zones. Islam and Judaism prevailed in the Middle East, Christianity dominated Europe, Hinduism prevailed in the Indian Subcontinent and Buddhism took hold in the Far East. These zones where somewhat insulated from each other by time, distance and segregated social, political and economic structures. The competition and contention in these zones were thus limited within the zones themselves with not much spillover to other zones. The Crusades for example at its time did not have an impact beyond the Middle East, The Inquisition did not have much of an impact beyond Europe nor did the Turkish conquests in the Mediterranean. Likewise the Persian invasion and the establishment of the Mogul empire did not have any significant impact beyond the Indian subcontinent. Major conflicts in one zone had little or no impact on other zones. It took weeks if not months for a person or goods to move from one such zone to another while today with air transport it takes hours. It took weeks if not months for information or messages to move from one zone to another while today with Information technology it takes seconds. As the 2008 sub prime crisis clearly demonstrates, any change whether economic or financial in any place on earth can have earth shaking consequences all over the world. We cannot safely assume this global impact from local circumstances is limited to finance and economics.
The logical implosion of space and time on earth causes an ever increasing friction between peoples subscribing to different religions, morals and values, which will unchecked eventually result in an explosion.
We can let things deteriorate to a point where our world explodes (bear in mind that several countries have nuclear armaments) or we, people of all faiths and cultures can band together to change the course of this world, if not the Universe. The choice is ours.
By embracing a new bold thinking - Intelligent Faith, Monism, Creation, Evolution and our acceptance and understanding of the various dimensions we live in and are surrounded with (space, time, cultures, history, religious beliefs…….) but most importantly acknowledging there is only one Creator of the Universe - we can change this world from a crucible of destruction to a crucible of love with manking of all races, religions and cultures working in harmony to advance creation and evolution in the direction or Creator would want.
Before embracing these elements of the bold new thinking let us understand them.
Intelligent Faith
If I was blind I would have to depend totally, have absolute trust and faith, on someone or something else for me to “see”. I would have to have “Blind faith”.
I am not blind. I see everything real around me, but I also see mirages (in the distance as I drive down a road on a hot day), reflections in mirrors, projections on movie screens and television. I find a need for me to separate the real from the unreal and to do this I have to apply intelligence. I then need to have confidence in my thinking, my intelligence, and have faith in my understanding of what is real and what is not from what I see. This to me is “Intelligent faith”.
I think intelligent faith embraces all peoples regardless of color, race or religion. I see Buddhists, Christians, Hellenists, Hindus, Muslims (and all other religions) working together with Intelligent faith to create a world were we all respect each others’ intelligence and faith (although others’ faith – not intelligence - may be different from ours). If all of us humankind embraces intelligent faith and respect each others’ beliefs (including those of Agnostics and Atheists) we may ultimately arrive at a common core belief built upon a process of trust between all of us.
Blind belief is static. It follows word for word – without any intellectual engagement – the words of the Bible, Koran, and other holy books. Intelligent belief on the other hand is dynamic. It will change as our knowledge and understanding increases. Intelligent faith therefore is by its definition not absolutely right but the best belief we can hold at any given time based upon the extent of our knowledge and understanding.
Wikipedia’s definition of monism is: “any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry, where this is not to be expected. Thus, some philosophers may hold that the Universe is really just one thing, despite its many appearances and diversities: or theology may support the view that there is one God, with many manifestations in different religions”.
From a theological perspective Christians believe in the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit as one God. Hindus, despite their many Gods believe in one Creator. In Islam the Suffi believe in Monism. According to Wikipedia “Sufi orders trace their origins from the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, through his cousin Ali or his father-in-law Abu Bakr”. In Judaism the Kabbala supports Monism.
One thing is clear: Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims and all other religious followers were not each created by their own God (each God responsible for their own creation and in competition with other Gods). There is only one creator of all of us, the same creator who created Earth, the Solar System, Galaxies and the entire Universe.
If all people of Intelligent Faith accept the fact we are the products of one and the only Creator and that killing another human being in the name of the same one Creator or God is an oxymoron this world would be a hugely better place being a catalyst in God’s creation rather than destroying it.
Sri Sankaracharya is a phenomenal example of the success of Monism. Following are excerpts from the book The Greatness of Sringeri (A publication of Sarada Peetham, Sringeri)
“He was able to perceive that there were many points of view, contrary because no one had a full perspective of the Reality. He was prepared to say to both of them ‘You are right’. He felt that they were right so far as they went. He disagreed only when they presumed to say that their conception of what was right exhausted all.”
“The great Acharya…..was able to reconcile all the warring creeds and sects.”
Adi Sankaracharya in his brief lifetime of 32 years (788 to 820 AD) traveled the length and breadth of India, unifying Hindus, the followers of many Gods, with this philosophy.
Our World has imploded in dimensions, exploded in population
Today we can travel at least 25 times farther in the same amount of time than we could 500 years ago when traveling large distances. It is as if the earth has shrunk equivalently.
While the world has not changed its physical dimensions at all, in terms of human experience it is much smaller today than it was 500 years ago. During this same period earth’s human population increased dramatically. The end result is that a markedly increased number of humans subscribing to conflicting beliefs and values are compressed into a smaller experiential space. This naturally results in increased friction which is clearly demonstrated by 9/11, the invasion of Afghanistan, the occupation of Iraq, the Madrid Train Bombings, the London bombings and recently the Mumbai carnage.
The technology that made the “shrinking” of the earth possible also increased the speed and distance we can communicate. Today we can communicate from any point on earth to any other point within seconds. This makes it possible for people to organize and execute these kinds of attacks from great distances. Technology also increased the destructive power of weapons available to people. 500 years ago weapons used were swords and similar weapons. Today RDX has been used and it is entirely possible for weapons of mass destruction to be used.
Unless peoples of all faiths, creeds and ethnic differences purposefully band together to avert it the human race is on a path of self destruction. Left alone the logical future is an ever increasing frequency of such attacks with ever increasing magnitudes of mayhem until such time as we humans wipe ourselves out of the cosmos. I think it was Bertrand Russell who said that from a cosmic point of view this means nothing. The rest of the Universe will go on. In fact, once we humans have annihilated ourselves, this planet will probably recover from the destruction we humans have done to it. Perhaps life will develop or be created somewhere else in the universe and hopefully this life will be more intelligent than us humans.
As a human I find it difficult to accept the annihilation of the human race even if it means nothing from the cosmic perspective.
If this path to destruction of humankind is to be avoided, turned around, I think the best amongst us need to, while retaining our religions, our cultures and our values embrace Intelligent Faith and Theological Monism and work together to resolve the social, economic and other gaps that divide us and move our human race and our environment on a constructive path leading to better place whatever you call it: Heaven, Nirvana, Omega state or any other. Whatever you call it, it is the end goal of creation. I’ll call it the cosmic goal.
All religions have a social context with a goal to both enhance their follower’s life on earth and lead them towards the cosmic goal. If people of all religions retain their own faith and values yet respect and accept others’ faith and values, if we people of all religions all created by the same Creator work in harmony in a Symphony of Religions this world will become a wonderful place for all of us – a paradise. If you are a person of Intelligent Faith who can accept Theological Monism and want to do something to make this world, maybe this Universe a better place please leave a comment.
With making the case for unifying the world's religions you make a good case but the main reason why they are often divided is a very simple one. The founders of the world's great religions knew God and communed directly with it. Many of the followers of those great people have only had a belief in God and used their intellects and five senses to try to understand God. As a result they have often created clever dogma to ensnare followers into rigid ways of thinking that does nothing to help their followers to actually know God for themselves. The little ant that we may find scurrying about in our gardens may know the terrain in its own limited range but it cannot know the world's great mountains and oceans. Unless religious leaders know God then they can't teach the science of God communion (by science I mean step-by-step process that produces definite and measurable results) This is for me the greatest challenge in my life. If I want to bring unity to the
world's religions I must first know God.
What's truly fascinating is that God is omnipresent inside of all creation and beyond it; yet it cannot be detected with the matter bound five senses or any scientific instruments based on them because it is much too subtle and fine. But God craves to be known by its children and has engineered the only instrument on earth capable of detecting it: the human nervous system. But for that to happen it must be refined and tuned to God properly. At first it begins to detect God's omnipresence as a feeling of bliss or ever-new joy that we can never, ever get used to unlike the pleasure of acquiring some material item that we soon tire of. It eventually results in a person knowing themselves fully as a soul with eternal life with full knowledge of God and it's kingdom of indescribable eternal bliss. Such people succeed in uniting their consciousness fully with God's consciousness. The science I'm writting about is the science of yoga (God union) meditation and it is comes from the ancient rishis of India who thousands of years ago set out to find a scientific means to know God. As unconditional love is a manifest part of God's eternal consciousness it rewarded them with its grace so the way was made known to them.
By trade routes it influenced Judaism. For instance in the old testament it is written 'Be still, and know that I am God' (Psalm 46:10). This one sentence describes the whole objective of the science of yoga meditation.
Posted by: Paul Sinclair | 04/25/2009 at 04:27 PM