Three Peace Principles That Can Change The World
As I see it, to bring people everywhere together in deep unity and harmony and create a sustainable world peace, there must be a dramatic change in the way we view God, mankind, and religion.
a) We must come to recognize that there is only one Creator, though He has been called different names throughout history such as Ahura Mazda, Brahma, Adonoi, Father, Allah.
Whenever someone asks me “What God do you worship?” I always reply: : “The same God you worship. There is only one Creator.”
b) We must embrace the fact that mankind is one family. There is only ONE race — the Human Race. We are all a beautiful human flower garden. Our diversity is to be accepted and appreciated, not condemned and destroyed.
Furthermore, I believe the world’s leaders and the peoples of the world must fully recognize that in a world of interdependent nations, the good of the part can best be reached through the good of the whole.
No one has the power to stop the increasing interdependence of the nations of the world, just as no one has the power to stop the rising of the sun. We must embrace and appreciate our interdependence!
c) We must change our views of religion from being narrow and exclusive to a universal view that is totally accepting.
Currently, with so many religions and denominations claiming to be the only way to God, this makes no sense. I see it as an illogical contradiction.
Moreover, usually a person’s religion is determined by the country where he is born and how he is raised by his parents. Often he is then taught that his religion is true and all others are false. This too makes no sense.
The result has been hatred, prejudice, self-righteousness, literal interpretations of symbolic statements, fear, superstition, extremely great distortion of the original teachings of the Founders of the major world religions, and wars fought in the name of religion.
This cannot continue if we are ever going to achieve a lasting universal peace. On the contrary, we must be willing to open up to a universal view of religion that is totally accepting and makes sense.
Baha’i Temple on the north shore of Lake Michigan in Wilmette, IL (a suburb of Chicago). Like all the Baha’i Temples around the world, this Temple symbolizes unity, and unity in diversity with the different gardens
This will be very challenging because it goes against what we are taught about religion. That said, something must be done to permanently change the way we view religion and how we feel our religion is superior to all other religions. This self-righteous attitude must be totally eliminated for true peace and unity to come about among the followers of all the major religions. Otherwise, lasting world peace will never be achieved.
Here is a universal view that makes sense to me:
Logically, one Creator can have only one religion. He is not in competition with Himself.
However, I believe that God has revealed His one religion not once, but MANY times throughout history. God’s Messengers have been the Founders of the major world religions: Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Christ, and Muhammad.
Hence I believe ALL the major world religions are Divine in origin, one in essence, equally true, equally important, equally valid, and all part of ONE progressive process.
A universal loving Creator does not play favorites. He wants ALL His children, whenever and wherever they have lived, to know of His existence, to love and obey Him, and in so doing, to develop into the spiritual human beings we were all created to become.
As I see it, God, through His Messengers, has ADAPTED His one religion to meet the needs of each age in which it has been revealed.
I view the major world religions as many chapters of one book. If a chapter were missing, the book would be incomplete.
These three principles — the oneness of God, the oneness of mankind, the oneness of religion — come from the universal teachings of Baha’u’llah (1817-1892), Founder of the youngest of the major world religions, the Baha’i Faith that began in Persia (Iran) in 1844.
You might be interested to know that the watchword of the Baha’i Faith is “unity in diversity.”
I’m proud to be a World Citizen! God bless the Human Race and Planet Earth!
Visit the Baha’i website to learn more: https://www.bahai.org
