Argh! I hate AP Chemistry and all things related to it! Why must the hard tests come right before the end of the semester? Why?!
So, I recently found out that one of my friends is a Wicca. Wicca, witch, pagan, whatever you’ve heard it called, this friend is it. This got me on a big theology kick with my parents after I told them about this friend. I don’t exactly know how it all started with the discussions about God and all that, but I got to thinking about religion in general. I’ve taken a few classes on the major religions and I’m gonna take Comparative Religions next semester at school. People laugh at me for this. No clue why.
What I found is that every major (and most minor) religions on Earth have three things in common: be good to yourself, be good to others, and make the world a nicer place. Sure, this sounds like the basic tenets of Christianity, but it’s also the basis for Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Wicca, among others. I’ve deduced that there is one “god”, if you will that speaks to all of us. How we interpret this god’s words are up to our culture.
Christians believe that God sent his only son, Jesus, to save us all. Jesus preached peaceful resistance to aggressiveness. Don’t hurt other people, give your life to helping others, do unto others as you’d have them do unto you, etc.
The Jews believe that the savior hasn’t come yet, but he will. The Ten Commandments given by God to Moses (Christians also have these) say: do not kill, use God’s name in vain, ignore God, disrespect ones parents, murder, commit adultery, steal, give false testimony, or covet anything of one’s neighbor. In essence, they say to be good.
In Islam, the savior was Mohammed, who came after Jesus (who, in the Muslims’ eyes, was just another prophet). He also told people to avoid killing, stealing, etc.
For Buddhism, the big guy is the Buddha, not really a god, but still the founder of a religion. He was big on pacifism.
Hinduism has the whole karma and reincarnation thing. Basically, it forces you to do good. If you do something bad, you receive bad karma. Do something nice, you get good karma. When you die, it all adds up. If you have more bad than good, in your next life, you’ll be born into a lower caste. More good than bad, you’ll be born into a higher caste. Sort of a divine rewards system.
Even Wicca has the same thing going for it. Their Thirteen Goals of a Witch say pretty much the same about being good to yourself and others. Also, they have The Rule of Three, which states that if you use magic to curse or hurt someone else, whatever you did will happen to you, times three. Basically, it’s a warning to not hurt others regardless of what they do to you.
So what happened over time is that as humans spread across the world, their surroundings not only shaped their skin color, language, and culture, it also changed they way they practiced religion. I may be grasping at straws, but it’s the most logical thing I’ve heard regarding religion in a long time.