My Personal Religious Beliefs
A dear friend often razzes me, accusing me of viewing the world's many religions as one giant fascinating smorgasbord. She does it with a delightfully mischievious faux-French accent, that is an absolute riot! Although I must admit she does have a point.
The best way I can think of to breifly define or categorize my religious beliefs is to say I am a global ecumenicalist. I tend to view the various religions as the proberbial blind men describing the equally proverbial elephant, each arguing that he is right and everyone else is wrong, never realizing they are describing different parts of the same being and that they are all right.
I believe that there is one divine creative power that is the Source of all that is. This power is to vast and complex and overwhelming for the human mind to comprehend. So what do you do when confronted with something to bulky to grasp? Why, you put a handle on it of course! And this is what I believe humans have done since the dawn of time. Unable to comprehend the totality of God, we focus on what we can grasp. We see God in the physical world around us. We see God as our loving Heavenly Father and as our nurturing Mother Earth.
Who can say which handle is the best one or the right one? A sensible answer would be that there is no best or right one over all. That the best or right handle is the one that best fits an individual's ablility to grasp.
All too often people insist only one view can be right and all others must be wrong. Wars have been fought because of this and many people have suffered and died as a result. I'm certain that this caused our Creator great saddness. Over the eons S/He has sent many messengers, prophets and saviors to point out the shortest routes home, but we usually just kill the one sent to us then kill each other over the meaning of the message, often without understanding or even listening to the message itself.
Why should any of us turn to a brother or sister and tell him/her that their vision is wrong, that they must follow a path that is not their own. All paths lead back to our Source. All paths are equally valid. All that's different is the scenery.
I sometimes wonder what our Creator must think of our petty squabbling over trivialities and sometimes in the early morning light, in the stillness between thoughts, I can almost hear soft, rich loving laughter, as one would laugh at the antics of children at play. Children who will eventually tire of their silly games and come home - when they are ready.
