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Anyone who
follows a religion naturally thinks his religion is the best, otherwise
he wouldn’t follow it but would turn to another. But how many people
have really investigated and understood their religion—instead of merely inheriting it from others—so that they are able to compare it with other religions, and can
therefore say they have chosen their religion intelligently? Very, very
few, it can be safely said. Most people have no basis for thinking and
saying that their religion is the best; they just make unqualified
statements and build castles in the clouds. Thus, it is not surprising
that, even today, religion is largely a thing of dogma and superstition.
If religion is
not to become an anachronism, it must be firmly based on fact, and,
since it concerns our relationships with others, we must see beyond the
differences between us and focus on the obvious similarities, things
about which we cannot disagree. If we do not, or will not, then
religious conflicts will always be with us—often about things no less stupid than the war described in the story of
Gulliver’s Travels between those who opened boiled-eggs at the
big end—the ‘Big-Endians’—and those who opened them at the small end—the ‘Little-Endians’!
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All
living
things
are united
by the
Lowest
Common
Denominators of
Birth,
Aging,
Sickness
and Death.
Is there
not,
therefore,
a firm foundation for
cooperation
and peace?
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