by Pat Grant

Created on: August 28, 2008

I began a study of the world religions when I was in college. I was Catholic at the time and very involved in my church. But something was lacking and so I went to see what others offered, including non-Christian faiths. I was amazed to find that while there were many differences between them, there were also many similarities. For instance, each of the major world religions, including Buddhism, Taoism, and others, in addition to the larger more known faiths, have a version of the "Golden Rule". It is worded differently in each case but carries the same meaning: treat others as you want them to treat you.

Each religion is based on a set of morality laws and guidelines for living the best life you can. The prime law of each faith is to obey God. There are laws against theft, murder, and adultry in all faiths.

Interestingly enough, one other thing they all seem to have in common is a misunderstanding of all the other faiths, as well as devout belief in the absolute truth of their own religion and belief that the others are wrong. The acceptance of those of other faiths seems to be of varying degrees between religions and even between sects of each of them. This all confused me in my search, as I am sure it has confused many others. Is one of them right and the others wrong? How do I know I am following the "right" path? They say to "follow your heart" and to "trust in God to guide you." Well, we are still human and can make mistakes. I didn't want this choice to be a mistake. As far as I was concerned, this was the most important choice of my life.

In my search I came across a faith which seemed to make sense of all the others and give an order to all things. The more I learned, the more I understood that all the major religions are true. This was the Baha'i Faith.

Baha'i's believe that comparing the world's religions is akin to comparing grades in school. Which is more true and correct, grade school or high school, or even college? They are all right for their time in your life. You wouldn't want to try to attend high school when you are seven. Nor would you want to sit through 4th grade as a 20 year old. Baha'i's believe that the world's religions are like that, a series of progressive religions given to mankind as we progressed as a race. Each religion brought both universal laws which remained relatively the same between faiths, as well as laws for the relevant time period.

They believe that from time to time, when mankind has advanced to a certain point, God sends a new Messenger to bring His word, and new laws that are relevant for that time. The basic rules continue on in various forms. Various religions have referred to the deity of their faith as Yahweh, God, Allah, etc. Baha'i's believe that these are all just different names for the same God, that there is one God and we all worship the same God.

So, in discovering the Baha'i Faith, I found I no longer needed to search and compare, because I found that the religions are all one, just different stages of the one religion of God. Or so, the Baha'i's believe. As do I, since I became a Baha'i after that.

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