In what ways does studying religion and different beliefs or traditions enhance our ability to understand and appreciate diversity?
Responses (4)
People who claim to study more than one religion are kidding themselves. First, nobody can wrap their head around a suitable definition for 'religion', so they don't know what they are talking about right from the start. Second, let's define 'religion' as believing something; if you don't believe, then by definition it makes no sense. Third, it is famously difficult to get straight information about a religion, since many of them have no scriptures, so you are studying somebody's OPINION of the religion.
Now let's talk about Christianity, since I have studied that, and there is a stable source of written information. People don't read it. They look at the words and recite things that strangers have told them the book says. Almost everybody casually discusses the six days of creation. That's not in the bible. Genesis 1:1 says "in the beginning". Almost everybody thinks God killed somebody. The English versions say that, but not the Hebrew texts. People think Jesus was crucified with two robbers. The Greek text clearly identify two robbers and two "evildoers". A word was added to the English version to change the meaning. There were five crosses, not three.
So even with the best documented religion, you have to study for a lifetime to get the story straight. And you want to do that for religions that are even harder to learn? Like I said, you are kidding yourself.
We may study all religions, beliefs and traditions but we will only be going from one kindergarten to another kindergarten. Kindergarten only teaches us the ABC of God. It will teach us one mythological tale and then another. If we really want to graduate, we must go to the university of Spirituality. Spirituality is not another religion, so we don't have to change our religion. But we have to go beyond theology, we have to ask questions - who is God, where is God, what is God? Until we ask, we investigate, we will not realize the Truth. Who am I…why am I here? These questions are more important than anything in the world. Don't get paralyzed by superstitions. Start a new journey to reach a new destination.
When we try to understand different religions, cultures and belief systems or traditions, we get a perspective of the Truth. We get to understand what civilization believed in thousands of years ago, what happened before Christ, what happened before Hinduism developed from Sanatana Dharma; what happened to Judaism, how did all these start? When we ask questions and we investigate, then we realize the Truth. We realize the meaning of ‘God lives in the temple of our heart,‘ or the ‘temple of God is within’, this is what the scriptures say. We realize the true meaning of Tat Twam Asi, Thou Art That, Neti Neti - you are not this body, you are not this mind. When we understand all religions and scriptures, we come to the ultimate Truth, the ultimate goal that we are the Divine Soul.
When we study different religions, beliefs and traditions, it opens our mind to the truth. It makes us realize that there is one God.It makes us realize that all religions believe in the same principles, that we must believe in God, we must love God, we must love our fellow beings. But because we are fanatics, we only believe in our religion, we are closed to even reading scriptures of another religion or understanding other religions. We don't realize the Truth. We live in ignorance and we die and we suffer. Therefore we must study all religions to realize the Truth about the universality of God, that God is everywhere, in everything. God lives in the temple of our heart.