All Religions and Spirituality Strive for the Same Thing

I've been wondering, what if all religions were essentially trying to find the same thing?

What I'm saying is lets look at like the major thing of all religions: God, Enlightenment, establishing harmony with the Tao, etc.

What if all of these were simply different vantage points of the same thing? As I've attended church and talked to Christians and other people of similar faith, they claim God to be an omnipotent being, all knowing, and the epitome of truth, with an emphasis on a personal relationship with God to bring peace and happiness to you and those around you.

Well, what about Enlightenment? Isn't it essentially the same thing? To be free of ignorance and personal desires and finding inner peace?

Taoism, as I understand it, is establishing harmony with the Tao (which is everything in existence). Wouldn't this be the same as a Buddhist Enlightenment, or the Christian relationship with God?

Wiccan and other nature-based beliefs (including my own, Pantheism) stress the importance of Earth, the cosmos, and reverence for all living things.




What I'm getting at is this: what if all religions were striving to "find" the same exact thing, but they have different ways of going about it? Christians call this God. Buddhists call this enlightenment. Taoists call it harmony with the Tao. I and others would call it becoming one with the universe/everything. Sure there might be some minor differences, but I think they all share the same key component: trying to understand something greater and without description in this world of which we perceive.

I'd wholeheartedly agree that most, if not all, religions strive for the same thing. I'd call it "salvation". But I wouldn't say that they're all equally valid or something. If each one claims to be right, the only way for them to all be equally valid would be for them to all be equally wrong.

I wouldn't say that they're exactly the same, as they seem to have different ways of achieving this "salvation". Obviously not all of them believing smoking marijuana like the Rastafarians bring them closer, and not all religions meditate like the Buddhists. I'm not trying to say that every religion is completely equal, rather, that the majority all believe that there is something out there that we cannot comprehend and each has their own way of trying to achieve it.

Originally Posted by Gamzee

I wouldn't say that they're exactly the same, as they seem to have different ways of achieving this "salvation". Obviously not all of them believing smoking marijuana like the Rastafarians bring them closer, and not all religions meditate like the Buddhists. I'm not trying to say that every religion is completely equal, rather, that the majority all believe that there is something out there that we cannot comprehend and each has their own way of trying to achieve it.

Exactly.

That's why I find this "one true way" business hard to swallow, since by and large the majority of the major religions teach people similar moral systems (give to the needy, don't be a glutton, ect.).

I might personally believe that Jesus existed, but I don't believe that everyone who isn't a Christian shall burn in hell forever, especially considering they share similar belief systems.

It would be like saying "The only difference between our religion is that we worship a guy named Jesus and you worship a guy named Buddha. Because you took your moral lessons from this other guy, and I took mine from this guy, DIE."

From a sociological point of view, I believe that religion and spirituality strive for the same thing: Survival and social control as a collective community. In eras where human thought and philosophy had not yet achieved a certain standard of coexistence and personal responsibility, religion and spirituality provided a code upheld by intangible powers; what you cannot see scares you most, alongside with a promise that can only be fulfilled after death, by which point you were no longer society's problem. It also helped as a coping mechanism for those who feared the world in their lack of understanding of its inner workings.

But that's just the sociopolitical view of things; I don't claim that it is a theological truth. ^_^;