Think about all you know about religion. Not any one particular denomination, church, ideology or dogma. They are all the same in the foundation of what you see in the practices and beliefs. All religions, faiths and spiritual paths are all myth to someone and truth to a different someone else. All beliefs have certain things in common. When you break the common down to the bare atoms of what they all look the same.

What are the parts of belief?

A power greater than human: all faiths have an element of power that is bigger than you, the insignificant human. Nature, Being, The Absolute. Whatever name man chooses, there is but one ultimate power.

A Journey or path to enlightenment: Buddha doesn’t hold the single rights to the journey to enlightenment. All faiths have a progress or a path for the believer to follow.

A connection to the spirit: all religions connect you to the spiritual realm. All people and all things are of one essence.

A problem to solve or correct: Christians identify the problem as sin, and the solution is salvation. For Buddhists, the problem is suffering and the solution is nirvana. All belief systems have different ways for moving from problem to solution

A set of rules to follow: do this to get to the end or to reach perfection.

Forgiveness of self or others: the thing humans must do is to forgive wrong within themselves or others.

Law of reciprocity or respect: a cornerstone of religious understanding that the suffering, existence and respect of others is important. Generosity and charity will open an individual to an unbounded reservoir of riches.

Sacred texts and rituals: All the atoms of religion are kept in tidy books and rituals. To say one is more true than the other will require proof.

“Study the words, no doubt, but look behind them to the thought they indicate; And having found it, throw the words away, as chaff when you have sifted out the grain.” — Hinduism

Faith of the unseen and unknowable: trust in all the parts as truth, that whatever you choose to believe in is real, exists and will get you to that end point where the spirit is.

With all these common parts it makes me wonder why religions cause people to get so angry and narrow minded. Why do some sects believe that they have the only way to follow the path to the end of this journey we call life?

Here is what links them all, even if it is unspoken, there is only one God.

One God in many forms. One supreme power that is not different for different people. God is eternally the same. We are different from each other. We see God through our own experiences and beliefs. God provides for each human culture what is required to love God.

How you get to God is up to you. It is the ultimate gamble.

That is why I believe that although there are many different religions teaching many different things, there are common divine truths that exist in every religion.

But….What if all religions are wrong?

What if there is only one right way and I choose the wrong one? Maybe it is Wicca, Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism and I chose Christianity.

Now what?

Faith.

Faith is the key to the entire mystery of religion. Faith through love is what makes religion real in life. Not forcing people to believe in your one right way with fear and intimidation.

All religion is a make believe myth until some event happens in the life of the individual to cause that person to believe the myth is truth.

When you are faced with the truth of God, you will know that it is true. You were created to know God when faced with Divine love. There is one truth and it will find you.

~Lori