by Karen Greene

Created on: November 05, 2009

Can Different Sacred Texts be Inspired by God?

It's easy to understand why so many people focus on the differences between various religions and spiritual traditions. A brief look at any book on world history will show numerous examples of wars fought over religious differences. Of course, the combatants on each side thought they had the morally superior ground, believed they were engaged in a spiritual battle for the benefit of society, and knew, without a doubt, that God was on their side.

In addition, we find many instances of intolerance, bigotry, racism, and sexism leading to persecution, torture, the murder of individuals, and even genocide, the extermination of entire racial, national or religious groups. All of this often committed in the name of God.

And we find this not just in the history books, but in the daily news. Everywhere we look, it seems, we find proof that what we think and believe, and how we worship is different from-and better than-someone else.

Unfortunately, the usual human tendency is to decide that there can be only one right way, one correct path, one true religion.

But God-the Divine, the Creator, the All-Knowing, All-powerful, Everywhere Present, All-Loving Source of All That Exists-is neither subject to nor limited by our human tendencies.

The Divine Source created all of the diversity we see. It didn't create just one kind of tree, one species of bird, or mammal, or one uniform, cookie-cutter type of human. The plan seems to have been, "Let's create in profusion. Let's take joy in creating as many shapes and colors, forms and functions as possible."

This same Creator would not-could not-limit itself to giving guidance and inspiration to just one small group of people, in one long-ago period of time. This guidance and inspiration is available to all, in any place, at any time. To think that sacred teachings were given for a very brief time, to a very limited number of individuals is to limit the intelligence and love of the Creator.

The differences in the texts came in because, as humans, we perceive everything through our own personal and cultural filters. These are the beliefs and assumptions we hold at an unconscious level. And these filters distort the original message. Added to that unconscious distortion is the deliberate distortion which comes about as a result of a desire for wealth, power and a feeling of superiority. Individuals and groups have added material, deleted passages, or changed the content of sacred texts in order to secure benefits for themselves.

However, at their core, the major religious texts, as well as the spiritual traditions which have no written orthodoxy, have much more in common than many people realize. There is a similarity that runs through all sacred teachings.

It is in the similarities that we see and understand that the same Divine Source inspired many individuals to share the universal teachings. The way those teachings are presented may differ from place to place, from one culture to the next, but they all originated from the same Source. After all, ice cream is still ice cream whether we prefer vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, or pistachio. There's a flavor for every taste.

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