Is There One True Religion
There are many religions in the world; and there is a tendency that people residing in various geographical areas mostly practice religions that are typical of those areas: in Saudi Arabia the government claims that about 100% of the population is Muslim; Indians are comprised of 80% of Hindu, and in the US 75% is Christians. Moreover, if to consider only Christianity within a single country, there are often thousands of individual “Christian confessions and denominations” (Reluctant Messenger, 2012). In this essay, an attempt to understand the essence of true religion, if there is a one, is made. There are various ideas about the lack of necessity of persuading people of various religions about the one that is opposite to their beliefs: “It is useless for the Christian to quote the Bible to a Muslim, or a Buddhist when one or both reject the Bible as authoritativ” (Roark, 2012). There has to be something else to undesrtand this contradictory question.
When children are born in some religions they are baptized and thus, they do not have a choice of religion or even confession or denomination when they come of age. They are actually able to change it, if they like, but that would be considered a sin. In such analysis, it is also very impotant to undestrand that religion is the same as culture: there is no good or bad religion, they are just different from each other; and they are not less complicated if one tries to research inside one religion. The case of Moscow and Kyiv Patriarhate came to my mind, when the priests from Moscow Patriarhate in Ukraine were involved more in politics than in religion itself, trying to persuade laities who to vote for during the upcoming elections. Many would wonder if those so called Christians have God at their hearts. Time has passed, some have changed the patriarhate, others go to the same churches.
There is an important question of the essence of God that is to be understood Every religion explains His extistence in various ways, trying to explain why the God is hidden from us and why we can not perceive Him by sensors. There could be arguments that God is everywhere and everything, God is inside us, God is love. This fact that we can not see God is called Deus absconditus in Latin and is considered to be a cornerstone in many dialogues between various religious traditions. There are many ideas of why people can not see God, but the only fact is clear that “The only true religion is having a relationship with God” (Reluctant Messenger, 2012). The other question is how, when, how often, whether with the help of a mmediator or on somebody’s own can those practices be implemented? The relation to God is also a very subjective. Thus, we can divide it into two levels: the first is the relationships with God as it is, and the second is the essence and result of those relationships.
As for me, I relished a chance to live in the host families of Baptists and Lutherans. They both seemed to have a strong connection with God, but there would be ten times more youth in Baptist church and more adults in Lutheran, although the year program and the place where activities could be held resembled each other greatly. The question whether Lutherans practice less relations with God or Baptists know better methodologies how to be closer to God Is to be answered.Of course, there could be more discusssions aboult which religion is true in its nature. The main thing to keep in mind is that every religion is a unique attempt to balance society, to make it more obedient to the rules and regulation we are to adhere. It is important to have God in yourself and to sincerely believe that He leads us through life and that other religions are not separate worlds we should run away from.
The main thing is to realize your own position and to be prepared to understand the world, which brings the knowledge of your own self.
