While studying different religions, I noticed that I started to perceive the simplest things differently. Before, I wasn’t quite aware of the fact that all of the biggest world religions are closely connected. They would all answer the question of “What is religion?” in the same way. For religious people, religion is just as simple part of life as sleeping and eating for those who don’t identify with a particular religion. We used to think that religion is something complicated that requires a lot of knowledge and dedication, but that is not fully true. It does requite a lot of dedication, but it is mostly based on one’s internal feelings rather than knowledge. We are studying religions to understand the religious people better, but they don’t have to study religions and to approach them from a scholarly point of view. Surprisingly, many of my Christian and Muslim friends haven’t read the entire Bible of Quran and cannot answer simple questions, but their faith lies within them. And this understanding made me think differently of what is real and what not. There is no definite answer to the question of real. Some things are real for us and absolutely unreal for our contemporaries. Or, on the other hand, some things that were real for the people of the past may sound ridiculous to us nowadays.
All religions have deep meanings underneath their teachings that certain people cannot relate to. But actually, if we look closer, we can understand that it’s possible to relate to all religions because they are so similar to each other (Catoir, 2004). Let us look, for example, at one term, which seems to be universal: “Spirit in this chapter is the imago dei of Jews and Christians, the Atman of the Hindus, the Buddha-nature of the Buddhists, the Uncarved Block of East Asia, and the “best stature” in which the Koran tells us human beings have been made” (Smith, 2001) For many religions, spirit is the center of the universe, and one has to take care of his spirit throughout his life. Spirit is called differently depending on a culture, but it does have the same meaning. Some of us might be surprised that religions like Islam or Christianity have so much in common, and in fact, I was surprised myself. But learning about them actually helped me connect with people who belong to other religious communities. I started to understand Muslims better as the stereotype about the ruthlessness of it was destroyed for me.
Just like the understanding of spirit that is the same and present in all of the religions, the doctrine of religious escape takes place. It is said that one of the main goals of any religion is to help people escape from the reality in order to concentrate on their spirit and connect with the higher realm. As they move forward in life, people become concerned about life after death. Religion is meant to save people from suffering and bring them to an everlasting peace. It is known that people who had been having troubles found salvation when they dived into a religious teaching that they find especially relatable. That is how religions are able to cure people by granting them with escape. Sometimes people even physically cure from various diseases as their faith makes them stronger and gives them reason to survive.
In academic life, however, things might be different. Scholars still try to find differences between religions and study the religious conflicts that have been reoccurring throughout history. Studying such conflicts helps prevent the new ones. That is as well the reason why religions should be taught at schools. This makes us aware that despite the similarities that we have, we are different, and in order to live in peace, we must appreciate our diversity.
Reference:
Catoir, J. T. (2004). World religions: Beliefs behind today's headlines, Buddism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Taoism. Staten Island, NY: St. Pauls, Alba House.
Smith, H. (2001). Why religion matters: The fate of the human spirit in an age of disbelief. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
