The warp and woof of God.

The divisive elements that are fundamental to the monotheistic religions need to be examined. If we are able to understand that the basic premises on which all religions rest are the same – and if we are able to sift out the core episteme patterns which form the warp and woof of all religions, then we will be able to realise that all religious systems actually articulate similar thoughts.  

The following story about Creation is an extract from The Genesis (Old Testament):

Chapter 1

[1:1] In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,
[1:2] the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
[1:3] Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
[1:4] And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
[1:5] God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
[1:6] And God said, "Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters."
[1:7] So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so.
[1:8] God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

 

A similar story is told in the Aiterya Upanishad:

 

1.              Om! In the beginning this was but the absolute Self alone. There was nothing else whatsoever that winked. It thought, ‘Let Me create the worlds.’

 

2.              S/he/ It created these worlds, viz. ambhas, maríci, mara, ápah. That which is beyond heaven is ambhas. Heaven is its support. The sky is maríci. The earth is mara. The worlds that are below are the ápah.

 

What is the purpose of stating that all religions actually are the same; we can conclude that there is but one God and how we name that God is just different. Yes – this might just throw those men who run religious institutions out of business – but who gains if these men lose their jobs? What if the Vatican was made to become a defunct institution? We, the people would gain. We could reclaim God and re-read the religious texts in order to create gender parity around the world and subsequently, bring in some form of peace and stability. This reinterpretation of all religions would put an end to the Culture Wars that are being waged all around.

 

There are civilizational wars being fought in the present; these wars cost a ton of money and are being waged at the expense of the next generation. The question we all need to ask is this: what will our children inherit? – social structures that are very divisive and drawn out within very specific socio-religious systems and these are actually creating irreconcilable differences. Our children might just inherit a world that is filled with war zones.   

 

 

John Donne --Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, "Meditation XVII"

 

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. … any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."