What if God was One of Us? by Damien Barner

According to a census taken by the World Religion Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, July 2019), approximately 78% of the world believes in a Supreme Being or Cause of the universe and practices some sort of religion. The other 22% are either nonreligious, agnostic, or atheist. Despite this overwhelming agreement it seems that out of the ONE came many perspectives of that ONE, and these perspectives often come into conflict with other perspectives. How is it that such a unified Force could produce so much division? What gives one religion the authority to declare all others, including so-called denominations and sects of itself, false flaggers? Is life really one big "crap shot" to where one must chose the "correct" religion within their lifetime or perish into eternal damnation? After all, it is all faith based.....is it not? How do we know what we believe is actually true? Does dogma really matter as much as the TRUTH which inspired it?

Let us take an excerpt from the book of Genesis, where we read "Let Us make Adam [which is often interpreted as "man"] in Our Image and Likeness", then It blew Its breathe into him (Gen. 1:26; 2:7). This statement is quite significant, yet it is a common ideology among many religions, including the more ancient religions of yore that the souls of human beings are the spark of the Divine. Now with sound, right reasoning, assuming that the Supreme Being has an all encompassing knowledge, when this omniscience is given in a minute fraction to a human being it becomes limited to an individual perspective in accordance to his or her inclinations and aptitude for comprehension.

According to the Islamic Qur'an (Ibrahim (14):4; Al Hajj (22):67), "We sent not a messenger except in the language of his own people, in order to make things clear to them", and "to every people have We appointed rites and ceremonies which they follow" [religion]. "Let them not then dispute with you on the matter [.....]". Every nation of people received a revelation from The Source according to their language, customs, culture, and traditions. This means that every nation had their own religion describing an aspect of the Creator that was conducive to their respective culture. Imagine a Creator Who neglected the fact that It created human begins to have different facets of knowledge, understandings, and perceptions. Why would It come to the Chinese speaking Spanish, to the Jews speaking Greek or Latin, or to the so-called Africans speaking Arabic. And are we to believe that the so-called African did not have a messenger come from among his/her own people? Or that the ones that did were all false prophets? Think on this a moment.

Perception is like a wheel in which a central hub is surrounded by an extension of spokes that help to support the integrity of the wheel. In this analogy the hub would be Deity, while the spokes would be the various perspectives of Deity being individualized as persons. Likewise, imagine if an individual was to stand in the middle of a circle, surrounded by a group of other individuals. If each one were made to describe the individual at the center of the circle each description would differ from the other. Some would see the front of the individual, while anothers might have a side profile of him/her. Still, others might see only the rear parts of the individual. Such is the description of Deity when accounting for the many perspectives of all the human families of planet earth.

We all have been given our portion of the revelation. To paraphrase a saying from the great prophet Noble Drew Ali, every man must worship under their own fig tree. With that being said, it should be understood that faith is inextricably linked with one's culture (way of living), and, arguably, with one's race if the histories noted within most holy books are taken in consideration. For example, the "chose people" of Deity in the Torah were the Children of Israel. This came to mean the Hebrews, then the Jews, and then it took on a spiritual significance, applying to anyone who was a "practicing Jew". In Christianity Jesus came exclusively for the Lost Tribes of Israel, but after he passed form Paul extended his message to the Gentiles.

One of the most peddled fears among people is the forming of a one world religion, which is ironic because most adherents want their religion to be that "one world religion". So the religion that was once circumscribed by a particular culture of people, from which it originated, is later sent by their "messengers" to influence other cultures, believing that all other cultures are operating in error. It would be like me, who likes chocolate ice, going around convincing people who prefer other flavors that not only is my preference superior to theirs, but they are in error for even having their own preference.

In the mathematics of Algebra there is an operation called the transitive property of equality, meaning that if a + b = c, and x + y = c, then a + b = x + y. So let's say that 7 = The Creator. There are many mathematical equations we could come up with to equal seven. For example, one person says that 1 + 6 = 7, another says 2 + 5 = 7, then another says that 3 + 4 = 7. Now how silly would it be for one person to say that their "1 + 6 = 7" is more righteous than another's "3 + 4 = 7"? This is about the same amount of ridiculousness that is brought about when comparing religions that are designed to establish some connection with the Creator.

What is lost to a lot of people of religion is that although there is one Creator, there are many paths toward that Creator. Just as there are racial supremacists who believe that their particular race is superior to all others, there are also religious supremacists (i.e., a Jewish supremacist; a Christian supremacist; an Islamic supremacist; etc.) who believe that their particular religion is superior to all others. It is the ideology of religious supremacy that prevents one from attaining the universal perspective of Deity.

Just as "social distancing" is a means by which we can lower the spread of COVID-19, religious distancing is a sure way to lower the spread of love, tolerance and understanding. Only by uniting and learning about our respective ways of connecting with the Creator can we see the transitive property of equality within them. If Christianity = RIGHTEOUSNESS, and Islam = RIGHTEOUSNESS, then Christianity = Islam. There are a lot of "challenges" being posted these days. Some of them inspire positivity, but most of them are just stupid. I have a challenge for anyone willing to accept, whether you are a religious supremacist or not: First find a person that practices a religion other than the one you practice; next find a scripture from each of your holy books, and find a scripture or verse in one book that is similar to one in the other book, or some code of morality and ethics of righteousness that can be agreed upon. For example some moral ethics would be:

"If man sings of God and hears of Him, and lets love of God sprout within him, all his sorrows shall vanish, and in his mind, God will bestow abiding PEACE." -- Sikhism

"A Muslim is one who surrenders to the will of Allah and is an establisher of PEACE (while Islam means establishment of peace, 'Muslim' means 'one who establishes peace through his actions and conduct')." -- Islam

"The Lord lives in the heart of every creature. He turns them round and round upon the wheel of Maya. Take refuge utterly in Him. By his grace you will find supreme PEACE, and the state which is beyond all change." -- Hinduism

"The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting PEACE." -- Judaism

"All things exist for world PEACE" -- Perfect Liberty Kyodan

"Blessed are the PEACE makers for they shall be called sons of God" -- Christianity

"PEACE.....comes within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their openness with the universe and all its powers and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Tanka, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us." -- From The Sacred Pipe, by Black Elk, Lakota Sioux Medicine Man.

Help to inspire others and please post your challenge on your social media and share it with us on this blogsite. Its time that we start building friendships upon what we have in common instead of destroying potential relationships with our petty differences. The Creator is ONE, so we being in the Image and Likeness of that Creator should also be ONE. Unified in our faith in a Supreme Being, no matter what we may call It, or what language we might use to describe It. This is Ankh Nekti! Hetep! Spread the word!

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