by Alexander Natiku

Created on: August 04, 2009

God is sometimes more of a concept than a supreme being. After half a century of life I know inherently that He exists, but no one truly knows His total supreme nature. I do not know if He is really a being and that we are made in His own image and likeness. What I do know is that He is reflected in all the miracles of life that are around us. Roman Catholicism is as strict in defining Him as any other mainstream religion. And yet, like so many traditional religions, they tend to try to define the indefinable! One way to view His effect on the world is by making a template of all the main religions of the world and look at how, almost without exception, they teach and preach the same thing. It is this perfect uniformity of empirical truth upon which we should concentrate.

Then why are there so many versions of religion? Is there one true religion or are they all true? I believe that they are all true - which of course as a Roman Catholic, or Christian is heretical. But here as well, most other religions each believe that they are the One True Faith. This is, once again, a perfect symmetry of confirmation. Why, also, if man is 99.7% made of the same DNA is he so different from race to nationality down to the individual? I contend that this is also a reflection of who God is. Just as we are infinitely different from one another, He is the sum of all that infinity. Some people believe that there were only a finite number of souls that were created; but when our physical body dies, another replaces it with that soul. Is this by His design or is it just myth?

Recently I had a discussion with several friends that believe that most of the wars in the world were started by religious beliefs. My contention is that it was not but that people politicized religion to use it as a wedge, or tool, to further divide people from each other. My understanding is that the world has been so much better off with faith and religion as it has brought out our "divine" essence - specifically to love and care for others. Missionaries, and other apostles of faith are the best examples of this, which results in building schools, feeding the hungry, caring for the poor and defending the helpless.

Churches, temples, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship also have fostered these acts and good works. People of faith give of themselves because it is a core tenet of each faith to help others less fortunate. And for all the wars that were fought using religion politically as a

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