Comparative Religion

Final essay Comparative Religion

Rev. Vicki Bennett

I spent many years studying the beliefs of different religions but I found that they wanted my unquestioning belief of their particular Catechism and complete devotion to their particular way of interpreting the bible. It took me nearly 20 years of searching for a place that resonated with my soul before I finally came to Buddhism.

During my studies, I found many similarities in major religions’ basic themes: their prophet or founder was born or conceived in a “special” way and was prophesied by seers. This prophet was endowed with a greater wisdom by having a direct connection to God. They were seen as someone who could intercede on mankind’s behalf and through them, mankind could finally attain “heaven.”

Another major concept I found is the belief that mankind is sinful and needs to be punished. The flood stories from all major religions center around a vengeful, wrathful God who has to constantly reign in His sad little believers. And following that theme is the “judgment” at the time of death and the “final judgment” when Christ will step in and judge them or Muhammad or some other prophet will intercede on their behalf.

Christians all refer to themselves as “God-fearing.” Christ never taught fear, he taught love. So where did the concept of fear come in? Why don’t they consider themselves “God-loving?” Who decided that it would be better if their followers feared God?

This concept of a fearful God, I believe, stems directly from man’s consciousness of living a life of suffering but without the further concept that it is man’s desire for what he does not have and his attachment to his things and beliefs that are the cause of his suffering. So when he cannot attain the material things that he decides that he is entitled to, he blames God for “punishing” him and seeks to eliminate “sin” from his life so that he can have what he wants, never realizing that the things that he wants are the source of his pain.

This leads to hatred and envy of others who he perceives are not being “punished” instead of awakening to the realization that he is causing his own suffering by his desires. Once desire is conquered, then man is free to simply be. And this is the true source of peace and happiness.

Of what we studied, I was most taken with the esoteric off-shoots of Christianity. They are the closest to what I was searching for (“prajna” is the term in Buddhism meaning “wisdom”). This wisdom is the wisdom within us, the Buddha-knowledge that we are born with. [1][1]This is the profound discovery that there is no one and no thing separate from us that can fulfill us. Everything we are looking for, everything we need to live free and peaceful lives is already here within us, at the heart of all beings. And the search for God is not a quest for an external truth, but simply an awakening to the eternal knowledge within us.

All major theistic religions strive to teach compassion, but many fall short I believe because underlying their compassion for one another includes the labeling of others as “different” and “wrong” because they don’t share “our” beliefs. And this labeling leads to fear of others’ beliefs and condemnation of their religion.

While all religions are based on mankind’s need to fulfill a perceived emptiness, a yearning for knowledge and truth, many strive to fill this need with dogma. The need to force members into believing a certain way with the proclamation that you will be “saved” is counterproductive. It is a not-so-subtle way of denying the God within and inducing fear instead of love into their believers.

I believe that fear of death is the main driving force behind man’s craving for some sense of God. Buddhists teach compassion based on the concept that all things fear death and therefore we should not kill even the smallest creature. I think that if man can learn acceptance of death as a natural occurrence and leave his fear behind he can reach enlightenment.

In everything that we do as ministers, I believe that our greatest goal is to teach compassion for others. Patience and tolerance for other’s beliefs is the keystone to bringing mankind together and alleviating fear and the chaos that results from it.

Are there answers to the dilemma of man’s quest for God? Is there a way to bring mankind together and create a peaceful collaboration for all earth’s religions?

Personally I look forward to the day when we embrace all world religions as one…when we finally realize that we all need to find a way to express our own spirituality and no one religion is ever going to serve all mankind. I pray everyday that we can concentrate on our similarities instead of our differences and that I may see the day when we all become ONE.

[2][1] Week 8 Buddhist Morality (Masters in Buddhist Studies, ULC)

Yours in peace and understanding,

Rev. Vicki A Bennett D.D.

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