Most people
do not find fault with religion, whether it is Christian, Muslim, Buddhism,
Judaism
or any of the many others even though many wars have been fought and
millions killed to establish them. But, as many have said: What would the
world be like without religion. I guess we will never know the answer
to that.
If
religions served no purpose, they would not exist but since they
give us answers to questions we ask ourselves such as; why do we even exist,
what is the purpose of life, is there other life out there in
the universe, is there life after death. All
are haunting questions that we try to answer for ourselves. Religions give
us many answers and, hopefully, at least some of them are the right answers.
And
religions set up rules of behavior that we try to follow. This is probably
just as important as the many other reasons for establishing a religion. How
did people behave before religions sprung up? What are some of the rules we
should follow as we live our lives?
How about a "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Of course
the Golden Rule sounds good on paper but if you try to work it into someone
blowing you up with a bomb, this does not work out too well. How about the
Spanish Inquisitions? Again, problems. So, it can be seen that the Golden
Rule is not applicable to most of today's religions.
Are religions just beliefs or are they facts. They are usually referred to
as religious beliefs but it appears that the true believers considers their
beliefs to actually be facts. This of course means that if you try a
religious conversion on one of the true believers, you will fail because
facts cannot be changed -- facts are facts.
Can people of different religions live together in peace? A student of
history would have to say that it is possible sometimes even for extended
periods. Recently in Ireland Catholics and Protestants managed to put an end
to their war against one another. Of course both were just branches of the
same Christian faith so perhaps it's a little early to celebrate especially
if one looks to the Muslim countries.
Will people of different religions ever be able to live together in peace.
The answer may be just a simple, "Have faith."
