God, Part III

It’s been more than a couple of days since my last installment - sorry. I’ve written and rewritten this about 73 times.

That said, let’s recap for just a moment, shall we! Using logic and reason - two things many people don’t generally associate with the topic of religion (but they should) - I made what I believe was a fairly compelling case for there being only one god, divine entity, mighty creator, etc. presiding over things here on earth. Following that same bulletproof line of logic and reason (if I do say so myself), I put forth the idea that a Methodist praying to their Creator and a Muslim petitioning Allah - it will turn out - are lifting their reverential voices to the same being, just with different names. 

While it’s my personal contention that Divinity did establish a particular religion, let’s consider the possibility that she/he/it/they didn’t at all; the Divine design was to have myriad religions and concepts of a god that fit with different parts of the world as seen through various cultural lenses so the human population had variety - each of us could walk up to a spiritual smorgasbord and choose what we felt would sate our hunger, and we could make additional trips either to double up on what we chose originally or get a clean plate and go in a completely different direction. 

Whether you want to consider this possibility of “no one religion is THE ONE” or your faith is such that your soul KNOWS the religion you have followed IS the one, the concluding part of my thesis is the same: live your religion . . . well, religiously, and encourage your colleagues, neighbors, family, and friends to do the same. Whoever you worship, that god wouldn’t want it any other way, right?

Imagine the state of the world if every single person who follows a religion were to live by the principles and doctrine to which they subscribe AND encourage others to embrace their respective churches! No matter how strongly we believe in the teachings of the religions with which we have aligned ourselves and the responsibility we feel to share them with others, if we looked at one another as fellow “religionists” or travelers simply on different paths to the same destination rather than askance and thinking of others as spiritually off at best or as potential spiritual foes at worst, just think how much more comfortable we would feel around one another, if we would allow it.  

Why did I tack that qualifier onto that last sentence? Let’s be honest and acknowledge that in our own churches/religions there’s an implied obligation not only to proclaim that ours is THE ONE but to be devout to the point that all others are lacking in some way or another. There are members of every religion - mine included - who translate that devotion to a charge to convert or condemn. Almost 1000 years ago, that took form in The Crusades, and that spirit of contention has continued. 

Many of the experiences in my life ranging from the subtle and mundane to “holy cow!” (a nod to the Hindus) have confirmed my faith. Those same experiences, though, have helped me come to respect the dedication, discipleship, and determination of friends, colleagues, family, and neighbors who are members of their chosen religions - and I have come to know, with a great deal of study of my own church’s teachings, that Peter won’t be “checking IDs” at the Pearly Gates and turning away anyone who doesn’t have an LDS membership card. 

As I wrap this up, allow me to remind you of this simple fact: not until we die will we DEFINITIVELY learn the answers to the BIG THREE QUESTIONS, agnostics and atheists included (I didn’t forget about you).  While we’re still breathing and walking around on this rock that makes an annual trip around the sun, let’s take religion off the table as one fewer thing to argue with one another - THAT will make for a far better existence, don’t you agree! By doing so, when we eventually pass on, we’ll see our neighbors and friends with whom we enjoyed our earthly journey and smile as we learn together how it was all meant to turn out - unlike the combatants in The Crusades who, perhaps, died within minutes of each other and then found themselves in the SAME “waiting room” - AWKWARD.

God, Part II

Show of hands: anyone believe at the end of the last installment, I was setting you up to be punked, that I was trying to convince you that there is only one religion that’s right with all the others wrong to one degree or another? Sorry. That wasn’t my intention.  In fact, my true hope for this entire thing is to encourage EVERYONE who reads this to stay strong to the religion/belief system in which you take strength, and let it make you a better person. 

Around the time humankind was weening themselves off of riding around on dinosaurs, I served a two-year mission in New York City for the church to which I have belonged my entire life and still belong (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  My “job” during that time was to teach people about our religion and invite them to become a member of the LDS Church.  I didn’t win a set of steak knives with every tenth person I was able to bring into the fold – I wasn’t paid a dime to do any of that but actually paid to maintain myself on the mission out of personal funds. 

With that as background informing who I am today, you would think it’s weird to hear me say this: none of us KNOWS which combination of religion and Creator, if any, has it RIGHT.  That’s not me expressing doubts in the religion in which I’ve invested over a half century of my life – it’s a statement of practical fact.  I’ve not had a personal appearance from Deity telling me that I’m in the right place – like everyone else, I have faith in something that’s bigger than me and feel I’m on the right path for me.  And I’m reasonably certain most, if not all, of you haven’t had a heavenly visitation either. 

(Side note: there’s an inherent and unintended problem with postulating which church or religion or belief system is THE ONE because we, as human beings, reflexively infer that if one is correct, then that makes all others false, wrong, counterfeit, etc. Such an inference pits us against one another with nothing but negative results. That’s a big part of the reason for my writing this.)

Here in our earthly existence there are seemingly countless iterations, names, and concepts of a Supreme Being/Creator: Heavenly Father to the Christians, Jehovah to the Jews, Allah to the Muslims, Ahura Mazda to the Zoroastrians, Izanagi and Izanami to the practitioners of Shinto, Brahma to the Hindus, and Buddhism has a view of creators that is difficult for me to understand and even harder to try and describe in a few words - that’s not a slight or a negative comment but an admission that I haven’t invested myself and the respectful amount of time to learn more about their beliefs. The common thread that runs through all this, though, is a belief that some form(s) of Divinity, by whatever name(s), created us. My contention is that the most logical answer is that we humans were created by one Being – this Being is one in the same for each of us who lives, has lived, and will ever live on this earth. (For atheists and agnostics, you get a free pass in this exercise – I’m not going to try and convince you of God’s existence. You’ll find out with the rest of us whether there is or isn’t a God, by whatever name, after we die.)

Going back to the conclusion of my last installment: Death will be the great equalizer – the big reveal – when it comes to the BIG QUESTIONS. That will be the moment when we come to KNOW for practical fact who the Supreme Being/Creator is, whether she/he organized a specific religion, and which one (if she/he did).

Every single person who considers her/himself religious needs to buckle up for this next part. When we die, we’re eventually going to see the face of our Creator. (I’m not saying it’s going to happen the very moment we breathe our last and our souls leave our bodies; we may have to go through some type of admissions process that requires a lot of paperwork, but my money’s on the timing being relatively short.) It’s possible that the Creator will be Brahma . . . and those of us who have dedicated ourselves to a religion OTHER than Hinduism are now screaming at me right now to tell me how wrong I am in the strongest terms possible. Not wishing to leave the Hindus out of the chance to yell at me, I’ll posit this:  It’s equally possible it’s Allah or Ahura Mazda. Now I’m really digging myself into a hole with everyone who subscribes to one of the “Western” religions, right? However, following the logic I’ve outlined above that there can only be ONE Creator, anyone who has lived a life influenced and informed by any religion must accept the possibility that the name and identity we’ve attached to our Supreme Being is incorrect. I hope what I say next will get you to back away from the edge.

That same logic tells me this: the moment we see the face of our Creator, we will look at her/him as if we have known them since before we were born to earth – because we have. Whatever set of dogma, gospel, tenets, etc. we have faithfully followed in our sojourn here on the Big Blue Marble made us better parents, neighbors, co-workers, and fellow servants, and the Creator will know that. There won’t be even a scintilla of a moment of our thinking we messed up and chose the “wrong” religion. The Creator’s smile upon our reunion will override any thoughts in that direction, and we will instantly feel grateful that we DID follow our chosen religion; we’ll present ourselves to the Creator as a flawed but fervently purpose-driven child who tried to be better each day.

Before anyone decides to burn this article (or me) for heresy, sit down and take a few deep breaths. This is not meant to cast doubt on your life plan or your decisions to live by a particular moral code. As I said above, my intention is just the opposite: to encourage you to stand firm in your faith and live a life of good that your religion teaches. Now why would I put it that way when I just tossed out the possibility that billions of us are going to be “wrong”?

It’s quite simple, really: all adherents, acolytes, worshippers, and witnesses, in whatever religion we may be, are taught to be the best versions of ourselves. Every woman and man who truly lives the teachings and precepts of the church they attend is living a good life, one that is worthy to be emulated and looked upon as positively contributing to society.

Ironically, though, what constantly divides and causes us to believe we need to convince everyone else of the “correctness” of our chosen religion is our belief in who the Supreme Being is and what she/he/it expects of us. And if there were multiple “competing” deities governing our souls, we might be justified in this battle of wills. However, regardless of your religion at present, it only makes sense that we earthbound beings – ALL of us – have ONE common Creator. We ARE all brothers and sisters, children of that source. As the world is right now, we act like a highly dysfunctional family who is so off the rails that Joe Rogan would refuse to book us on a show because he couldn’t smoke enough weed to keep his cool.

Every religion has aspects that run the gamut of appearing mildly weird to wildly bizarre to persons who are not members of that religion. I can think of a number of examples with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that I believe and accept with my whole soul that may cause others to think I’m delusional. I accept that and don’t lose ANY sleep over it – I don’t need to prove the veracity and/or reality of those things. My reason for mentioning this is to encourage everyone to let people believe what they believe – as long as they aren’t taking away your right to believe and live as your conscience dictates, what does it matter?

Even with my upbringing in the LDS Church – our doctrine holds that we ALL come from the same God – admittedly it’s sometimes difficult to wrap my brain around the fact a police officer in Japan, an import/export executive in Uganda, a voodoo priestess in the Caribbean, and I (a sales rep in the US) are related to one another in sharing a common Creator – if for no other reason than our looking SO UNLIKE one another and living in such disparate cultures. And when you tune into a news channel, you see wars being fought and unrest constantly aboil because one religious group contends with another – that makes it hard to think that we all come from the same premortal place. That may be viewed by many as one of those wildly bizarre beliefs I mentioned above, but it is a belief to which I hold strong despite my difficulty to comprehend it fully.

Let me wrap up this second installment with a bit of a recap, if you will: logic dictates that there can really only be one Supreme Being, which means that when an Episcopalian prays to Heavenly Father and a Hindu offers a prayer to Brahma, those requests for aid, comfort, solace, guidance, etc. are being heard and answered by the same deity, whatever the true name may be.  Further, for all of us who live our lives according to a particular set of commandments, principles, ethics, or fundamentals as outlined by our respective religions/belief systems, none of us is wrong in doing so – our obedience and discipline please that Supreme Being.  Let that percolate in your brain box for a little while and see if it has you looking at the people around you a little differently in a good way.  The next installment will come out soon. 

God, Part I

Never discuss politics or religion in mixed company, wisdom suggests. Obviously, politics present a minefield. Religion, similarly dangerous, deals with souls and questions that extend beyond whether it’s acceptable to wear white after Labor Day.

How many different religions and sects are there on the earth right now? Not sure but probably more than ten. Whatever that number is, though, it’s the same number of different answers to the BIG THREE QUESTIONS OF LIFE:

1. Where did we come from?

2. What’s the purpose of life?

3. Where do we go after we die?

In many cases, not only do religions differ in their answers to these questions, they (meaning: we as the persons who populate them) make great efforts to “prove” that the others are wrong – which is a really weird part of the human condition, one which really shouldn’t be present when religion is the topic because of its attempts to elevate us to a higher plane and get us to think more like the deity we worship in our chosen religion.  That said, though, our humanness has a hold on us, so we have to deal with it head on like the relative who always comes drunk to the family party and says things that are hurtful but spot-on true, if we’re being honest. 

For the next little while, humor me, please: let’s say every single religion/sect’s explanations of the BIG THREE are flawlessly correct – there’s no inherent human need to call them into question. Accepting this as my premise, the only way to reconcile that possibility would be to acknowledge that this earth is watched over by innumerable and wholly individual gods, spirits, intelligences, and/or amorphous beings – and we, by our proclamation of faith through a religious rite like baptism, are only subject to the will and oversight of the god, spirit, intelligence, and/or amorphous being to whom we pledge our worship. Sort of like summer camp where each cabin is its own individual group who only has to listen to the counselor assigned to them – and, quite often, some of the cabin members go out of their way to rebel against the counselor or even seek to align themselves with another group. 

On the question of our origins, assuming each religion is correct, I can think of two conditions that would HAVE TO BE accepted as fact: (1) the earth began as a cosmic melting pot of extraterrestrial immigrants, an Ellis Island of the universe, if you will – and possibly points beyond; (2) these supreme beings had a meeting before the world began and came to an agreement on how “humans” would generally appear and function: two eyes that see, a nose that smells, a heart that pumps blood, etc. Obviously, there was a great deal of latitude given as to how people would actually look, which explains different races and attendees at county fairs.

Further, the after-life destination for the different religions: Nirvana, Paradise, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, Reincarnation, etc. – one such destination awaits each of us depending on how we followed or didn’t follow the tenets of our particular religion. Assuming that as a given, we HAVE TO accept that there exists some type of a “trading floor” somewhere out in the cosmos for the simple but fundamental reason that while we’re here, many of us change religions from the one in which we were raised to another that addresses our spiritual needs at some later time in life, and possibly a third and fourth time.

John Davidson is born in Detroit, MI, to a Catholic family, and as he grows up, he undergoes the rites and ceremonies associated with his family’s religion – he’s a member in good standing. Fifty years later, he goes through something that causes him to reassess his religious views and decides to join Islam, and he’s all in. Catholic or Muslim, he’s a good man, a good husband, a good father, a good citizen, etc. While not making light of his decision or choices, I promise, I must point out the obvious: he’s traded the Catholic God for Islam’s Allah AND his after-life destination. And from what I’ve learned about those two destinations, they’re not just slightly different like Dallas and Ft. Worth.

Back to my point: this would require that somewhere out at the back of the beyond in space is a trading floor, perhaps tucked behind Pluto. Catholic God’s agent, Trevor, walks over to his equal under the auspices of Allah while pushing along a dolly loaded up with a couple of Bankers Boxes filled with paperwork and says, “John Davidson has decided to align himself with you lot, so here are all of his records and files. From the looks of things, he’s a good egg. Never gave his guardian angel or any of the saints any trouble. The incident involving Saran Wrap on the toilet seat shouldn’t be counted against him; that nun had it coming to her. At any rate, you’ll like him. If you have any questions, I’m available via email, text, or phone. Good to see you, Ahmed. Let’s do lunch soon.”

I’m not being sacrilegious, I’m confident of that; a bit glib, perhaps, but only to underscore this point: accepting ALL religious concepts as correct – that they got it spot on – requires looking at the universe in a VASTLY different and wholistic way. If you’re good with that, you don’t need (or want) to read on.

If you don’t (or won’t) accept that all religions and sects are flawlessly correct in their doctrine, the ONLY alternative is that there is ONLY ONE. There can’t even be two – as we’ve cross-examined the possibility above, more than one would present us with numerous existential and logistical challenges that are insurmountable and frankly impossible. Thus, there can be only ONE divine entity who created EVERY one of us here on earth from the dawn of time through today and up until the end of the earth’s existence.

If you’re not readily inclined to agree with that assertion, that’s okay, but think about this: no matter how SURE any of us is in our belief of where we came from, what is the purpose of this life, and where we go when we die, we’re ALL going to learn the ACTUAL answers AFTER WE DIE: we’ll find out who is the Creator, her/his name, and whether or not this Supreme Being had, in fact, directed that a certain specific religion be established here on earth at her/his behest.

Let that sink in and rattle around in your noggin for a few days – I promise to publish Part II soon, and I'm confident you'll be intrigued . . . or, at least, entertained.