World Religions

Going along with my common theme that we are all imperfect beings that just do the best we can with what we have, I find it impossible to believe that any religion is either entirely wrong or entirely right.  Most of them have redeeming qualities and many of them actually come from a similar history.  Few people, for instance, seem to know that Islam is simply a denominational split off from Christianity, in a similar way to Christianity being a split off from Judaism.  Or the same way the Mormon church split off from Christianity.

All of these religions actually have the same God they serve.  They just see things playing out differently.  So to say Allah isn't real is to say God isn't real.  Allah is every bit as real as your Christian God, the major difference is how you perceive him, as well as how you perceive the history of religion in general.  Mohamed believed that the true chosen line from Abraham was through Ishmael rather than through Isaac, which is the heritage of the Jews.  This is the bloodline that followed through until Mohamed.

There are many stories in even ancient religions that are no longer practiced that reference stories very similar to the Bible stories, which I believe only proves that they are intertwined.  Surely it's very prideful to think that the only people God revealed any of himself to was the Jews before Christ came and the Christians after.  Why couldn't he also revealed parts of himself to other people all over the world?

There are pieces of Godly wisdom to be taken out of many other religions, and I again, my biggest caution would be to continue to measure everything against the concept of Love and Grace, and the idea that all people are only searching for truth.

This is not to say that I believe there is no truth.  I want to be sure to make that distinction.  I do believe there is ONE truth.  But I don't believe we will know exactly what it is while we are among the living.  And we may indeed be seeking it for all eternity.  Most importantly I am absolutely convinced that no denomination, religion, group of people, or individuals have it all right, and to believe otherwise is thinking very highly of yourself.