Why does it matter the name that we give the Creator of ther universe? The difficult but unvarnished answer is because every religion thinks that ALL other religions are heretical and false. And since each religion has it’s own name for this Creator, to even verbalize the name of another religion’s God is tantamount to anathema. In other words, you will be run out of your church, denomination, or religion on a fast rail.
Why are so sensitive, biased, prejudiced, judgmental, and intolerant? That’s a lot of adjectives!
One of the most well know religious historians is Huston Smith. Huston Cummings Smith was born in 1919 and is among the preeminent religious scholars in the United States. His work, The Religions of Man (later revised and retitled The World’s Religions, is a classic with over two million copies sold, and remains a common introduction to comparative religion. Not too shabby, eh?
Well, Huston is recognized as a life-long Christian!
What’s not so well known though is that he prays to Allah five times a day. Say what? How can that be? Is he skitzo, confused, or just a compromiser? How about none of those? Let’s add to the mix that he also practices yoga. So what else you might ask?
How about his Zen meditations? Zen is much easier to swallow when one really understands that Zen does not recognize or worship any God. Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism notable for its emphasis on mindful acceptance of the present moment, spontaneous action, and letting go of self-conscious, judgmental thinking. Now that’s something worth practicing.
C.S. Lewis, one of the most well-known Christians realized that much of Christian thought came out of the Axial Age and previous philosophical concepts wherein he wrote, “I can’t say for certain which bits came into Christianity from other religions. An enormous amount did.” The stench of exclusivism is a foul ordor indeed.
So, maybe Christians should ligthen up a bit and love everyone since God did create everyone and Genesis 9 indicates that God, Allah, or Creator of the universe is not too happy with how we have been treating one another (can you say Crusades and Inquisitions?). Regardless of the name or the rituals, there’s just ONE GOD!
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