Comparative Religion

Comparative Religion

I was about 14 when I decided that I could not be a religious person. The only religion that I knew about was Catholicism, so my real decision was not to be Catholic. There were two basic reasons that stopped me then. The first was the way women and homosexuals were viewed and treated within the church: blocked from the priesthood making them inferior, almost as if helpers. With a budding interest in biology, I found that hard to reconcile with what I saw in nature. The second was the idea that good people who have never harmed another, but who don't believe as I do, would be prevented from obtaining salvation.

For a while, science became my religion and then my life hit one of those inevitable bumps that forced me to stop and take stock of myself. Only in one area did I feel that I came up lacking. I was not a spiritual person. Slightly older and slightly wiser, I took a second look at Christianity and found that my basic reasons for not being a Christian still prevented me from adopting that faith, although I found some good messages that I had no problems with. I looked to other faiths, and found something that really astounded me.

There are some definite differences between the major religions, but for the most part, the message; the essence of the message, is the same. The basic concepts on how to treat others, especially the poor, weak and sick are all the same. I am puzzled, to this day, that people are so ready to kill others, fight others, and fear others based on the mechanistic differences between the religions. I find it strange, because if people truly followed the basic teachings of their religions, this should not occur.

With the gift of technological advances and break-throughs, it seems like our world is becoming smaller and more connected than ever before with increasing contact between people and governments. In this light, we need to recognize the basic rights and responsibilities of individuals, peoples and nations in relation to each other and to the planet as a whole with our newly emerging “united global family”.

No matter where we come from we all have the same needs and concerns, the same prayers and wishes. We all seek happiness and try to avoid suffering regardless of our race, religion, sex or political status. One thing I’ve learned after taking this course is that once you recognize that you have every right to be an abundant loving person, every other sentient being also is entitled to being abundant and loving. But if we are prevented from using our creative potential due to rigid or condemning spiritual dogmas, we’ll stay in the same stagnant energetic space and we’ll continue to pass on that programming to future generations.

After taking this course I came to the conclusion that there are many different roads to the same place, and it matters little where you start and what path you take, the end result is the same.

If there is a satan, an evil sprit, or an incarnation of evil I would give it the name 'fear'. I feel that all the actions of people of good faith that cause pain to others, happens when people are afraid. Fear breeds intolerance, and in my view, intolerance puts up a huge wall on that road to the sacred.

Yet when I see a new life start, a beautiful sunset, hear a child laugh, go to a concert, watch an athlete perform, look at a work of art, a butterfly, a kids painting, I can't help thinking that I have just caught a glimpse of the divine. All these things come from things being fully and completely themselves and being observed doing so. Buying something I want, gaining stature at the workplace, winning a competition, while pleasurable, don't give me that same feeling. At the end of the day they don't really seem to matter as much.

To conclude, I’ve learned the best approach to fostering world peace and interfaith unity is staying centered in your faith, in love and without fear. You have to follow your heart, in love and without fear of being who you are. Hopefully we will all meet again at the end of that road upon which we all are traveling. It is the only thing I can believe on a spiritual level, I guess it is the scientist in me that maintains that if there is a deity that created such a wonderful diversity of life, not just among humans but all across nature, why would that same deity then say there is only one way to reach it? Especially when it has gone to so much trouble to ensure that the same message be received by so many religious and nonreligious scholars alike -- albeit in different forms, and through different filters -- each uniquely suited for a particular cultural condition.

I thought this was an excellent course, and well worth the tuition that I paid for it. After taking a break to let all the new knowledge I’ve gained really sink in, I’ll definitely be looking into taking further courses. The only suggestion I could offer is: instead of sending each discourse in the “body” of an email – send it as an attachment in a word document. I request this because when I go to print out each discourse to add to my binder the email server adds pop up around the text of the discourse and I find it very distracting. So then I thought I’d copy and paste the text on a Word document myself to “clean it up” and make the discourses look nicer – the text and picture get all jumbled up and it looks even worse! So my only recommendation is sending your discourses as an attachment on a Word or publishing document instead of in the body of the email.

Rev. William Gameson

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