Fundamental Beliefs

I believe, in absolutely no particular order that:

• Moses was a great prophet and Judaism is a great religion.
• Jesus Christ was a great prophet and Christianity is a great religion.
• Muhammad was a great prophet and Islam is a great religion.
• Hinduism is a great religion.
• The Buddha was a great spiritual leader and teacher and Buddhism is a great religion.
• Due to the large number of Indigenous communities in Canada I cannot comment on all of the spiritual traditions that comprise the Indigenous Peoples of Canada. However with those I am familiar with I can say their beliefs and practices form great spiritual traditions.

I know I am sufficiently unknowledgeable of the beliefs and faith traditions of other peoples that I am unable to comment further on whether they are great.

What makes a religion¹ great? I believe it is not dictated by the power of its leaders, prophets, and/or gods. The greatness of a religion is dictated by its attention to love. And through this attention a great religion attracts a large following. Great religions recognize the power of love and preach its importance. Moreover, I think, those religions, sects, and/or groups that do not focus on the importance of love will never be able to attract a large number of followers.

Examples of such reverence to love includes:

• The hadith of Hanzalah in Islam: (“None of you believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself“)
• The Karaniya Metta Sutta in Buddhism: (“Just as a mother would protect her only child with her life even so let one cultivate a boundless love towards all beings.”)
• The Gospel of John in Christianity: (“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 4:18“)
• The Seven Sacred Teachings shared by many Indigenous communities: (“Love is worth working for. Love is worth waiting for. Love is the key to life. – Tashunke Witko, Crazy Horse“)

There are many more examples illustrating that love is a common theme to all of the great religions. But I believe something further. I believe my god, first and foremost, is love. Love is not just some other infinite attribute my god possesses along with their knowledge, and power. Indeed, as I will discuss in a later post, I believe there are limits to Their knowledge and power. But never Their love for us. It is Their defining characteristic. Their infinite virtue.

I also believe my god is the same god that revealed Themselves to Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. What I believe is now new is the emphasis that They want placed on Their loving nature and not, for example, treatment of misdeeds, disobedience, and non-belief.

I believe in the One god. The god of Abraham who now wants us to first and foremost love. The One god I choose to call The Greatest Love.

¹The terms “faith”, “creed”, and/or “religion” are often considered inaccurate when describing the culturally-rooted and holistic nature of the many examples of Indigenous spirituality. However solely for conciseness of reading I will use the term “religion” for the remainder of this blog to mean “religion and/or spiritual traditions and beliefs”.