Universal religion?

Question

Muslims may be right
Christians may be right
Jews may be right
Jehovahs Witnesses may be right
Atheists may be right
Hindus may be right
Sikhs may be right
Taoists may be right

If one of them is right, then the others are wrong, and billions of people have been very misguided. If they are all right, then there is no need for conflict. Surely we, the human race, should seek to find the common denominator of all religions, so that a common understanding can be reached. Do you agree that a unified belief is possible? Please specify your religion when answering.

Sorry for ommitting any religions from the list. All beliefs are included in my question.

Answer 1

There is a difference between religion and belief. Religion is an organized society, it has members, it is man made and man ordered. So you are proposing the setting up of a new religion. There have been many attempts to do this, perhaps the most recent and most successful is the Baha'i Faith, which claims to be the culmination of all the other religions.

Belief on the other hand is what people actually believe. This is often very different from the tenets of the religion they profess. It is often governed more by culture and history than by theology.

Religions seem to have a tendency to split up into smaller and smaller sects, possibly part of the motivation for this is to make a unity between religion and belief.

Religion is generally a signifier of difference rather than anything else. Attempting to make a unified belief is a waste of time, people do not want this, they want to belong to a group which is superior to other groups. If you did set up this new unified faith, sects would split away from before you sat down again.

I belong to no religious organisation.

Answer 2

Hi, I'm a Christian (since you asked).

In Christian teaching, the main rule is to love others. But we also believe that everybody is equal and TRY to remember this. I'm not sure what other religions teaching is on this, but I think the probalems arise when people forget this. Blair and Bush are supposed to be Christian, and they may feel that (in the long run) war is the most compassionate way to deal with things, but they are looking from the point of view of trying to control people. If they also remembered that we are all equal, and have equal rights (and if Saddam Hussein had also done the same) I think they may have come to a different solution.

I think that the one common thing between all religions is love and compassion to others. This should be enough for a unified belief, but we also need respect for each other.

Answer 3

I believe that the Universe is what we perceive as God. The Universe is eternal and is always evolving, changing. Furthermore, this Universe is a part of other Universes that exist in innerspace, inside every atom of your body, and in outerspace, way out there.

Can we have just one religion that we could all agree on? Perhaps. But I don't think the Universe plays an active role in our everyday lives. While it may have some form of intelligence, it does not answer our prayers, nor does it understand the words we make when we speak. Some believers need to have a Father Figure, if you will, to protect them and let them know their life has purpose. Well, their life does have purpose to others on this planet right now. It has nothing to do with God.

Answer 4

Universal religion is not possible. Simply because if you 'believe' you don't know. Not knowing results in people believing in things differently and in different degrees based on their background. Mostly this belief is in the form of a mightly power that will reward or punish. The closest you can get is individualism in religious beliefs... which will mean no religion while personal and societal values play roles.
I am an atheist but got some interest in the teachings of budism and hiduism.

Answer 5

You've been beaten to this idea. The Baha'i faith follows this line (apart from agreeing with atheists - they're a bit self-excluding) Nobody else takes much notice of them.

The problem is that most religions are revealed. They believe that God has a message for a particular people at a particular time. The religion seems to work even though times and people change - but it tends not to work too well if you do a pick and mix.

(Catholic theologian)

Answer 6

I'm Christian.

All religions could be unified into one EXCEPT Christianity. Religion, for most people, is following a set of rules and regulations and performing rites and rituals in the hope that God will take special notice of them. They do what they do because they think / believe / feel that they ought to do them.

Unfortunately, many Christians also practice their faith this way, but it should not be like that. The Bible teaches that when we receive Jesus, we actually receive His Spirit. And if we allow Him to fill us with that Spirit, we will do what we do because God moves us to do them.

If we will do that, then the Bible says our lives will demonstrate "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Therefore we don't need rules to tell us what's right and wrong. Living by God's Spirit will cause us to do what's right by nature - His nature.

Answer 7

Yeah, that's right, leave the Zarathustran fiath out of it, despite being the oldest, and the template from which the Bible was lifted, much later.
How about the Foundatioalist viewpoint: The creative force behind the Universe, is not something we would probably be able to understand, even if we were presented with it.

Now explain your cars' fuel injection system to your dog, just once more. Capische?

Answer 8

They are all wrong. We need to abolish all religion and look at the world and what we know today instead of listening to people who lived thousands of years ago.They thought the earth was flat and the sun went around us, we now know that is not the case, so why do some people still believe in all the other things written down so long ago. Religions today are just something that the politicians hide behind to further their own causes and as long as there Are people still gullible enough to believe in it you will always have evil people hiding behind it

Answer 9

Universal religion should be based on a universally accepted and mother-child relationship is one such. Egyptian and Indus Valley had Godesses D B Saxena

Answer 10

We'll have a "universal religion" when Christ returns to set up the Kingdom of God on earth in place of the "false" religions you mention. See http://www.gnmagazine.org/booklets/GK/ Because those false religions are very wrong, billions of people are misguided. It's definitely going to take Christ's return to set up God's Kingdom on earth to straighten out the serious problems in the world. All else has failed. What other hope do we have?