When I mentioned to my teenage son I was thinking of writing about the worlds religions, he looked at me with fond amusement and said ” Sure Mum but do you think anyone’s going to want to read that?”

The truth is that many of our children are well past wanting or needing to analyse such things. They have an instinctive understanding of universal truths and an irritating awareness about the self serving and protectionist aspects of religion.

Why are the worlds religions so different in their detail yet similar in the core ideas they express? Almost every religion encourages us to love our neighbours as ourselves then proceeds to pick apart this idea with dogma and detail.

Those of us born in the 1960’s or earlier generally experienced some kind of religious framework in our lives with all the good and bad things that went along with that. The problem now is that the world and we have changed. It has become harder and harder to stay in our own religious box and see others as inherently different or less enlightened than us.

Now we ask; what’s in those other boxes out there? What am I missing out on? We all want the same thing. Where are the real differences?

Christianity and Islam have been in bloody conflict for centuries. Both have their historical roots in Judaism with which both are still in conflict. The big augment is basically about who is the true messenger of God. The Christians say Jesus. The Muslims say Muhammad. No wonder our children lose patience with this naivety. Many of us still see God as some kind of bigger and better version of ourselves with little understanding of the enormous complexity of a coherent multiverse in which every level has a creative and evolving role to play, including ourselves.

Only now is science, physics, evolution, historical archeology (which now includes solid extra terrestrial evidence) and our religions’ collective wisdom, starting to put the pieces of the story dimly together for those prepared to open their minds, step out of their boxes and search hard. More and more people around the world fall into this category. The emerging picture blows everything we’ve imagined out of the water!

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Religion is something man has created in his attempt to understand the universe and there is no shame in that process. But, it is time to accept our own part in the creation of those stories and move forward into a new level of understanding.

We need to move beyond the parameters of separate disciplines and start using everything we know to grow and learn. The compartmentalizing of our existing knowledge (a product of each groups desire to be special) does us a huge dis-service.

There are wonderful truths to be found in the ancient texts, including the bible but also a great deal of self serving nonsense. The days of unthinking acceptance of religious ideas based on parents or cultural beliefs are disappearing and with it those organizations not capable of moving into a world where people understand we all affect one another with our individual and collective choices.

There is an interconnectedness to life that Mother earth is starting to show us very clearly.

We need to learn the lessons she is displaying.

Kristen Claire Jones