Reductionism, Globalization and Faith

Dear Dr. Malki,

I have read your book Reductionism, Globalization and Faith with much joy and relief. The world needs people like you and your co-author Robert Stucky who are strong, dedicated and didactic advocates for a religion and faith that unifies, rather than divides.

Your text uses historic, logical, religious and scientific arguments to establish the Oneness of all of us, and all our expressions of faith and spirituality, under one God. By eloquently establishing that a reductionist interpretation of spirituality is in contradiction with the very basis of every religion, your essay chiefly refutes spiritual discrimination.

Why do we still need such books? Isn’t this openness, oneness, love and respect already clearly at the heart of all holy scriptures, and hasn’t this message been echoed ever since by a multitude of persons of all faiths? Isn’t the reconnection of all of us with this love and oneness the very goal of all religions? 

If so, how can it be explained that someone can very strictly follow the prescriptions of a religion, yet still no understand? Could the same type of persons read your book, and use it as a rational proof for the superiority of a strict monotheism over other religions which include veneration of multiple gods and/or statues or trees? Can even your book be used to divide?

How can so many believe that the greatness of God can never fully and satisfactorily be expressed in human words, yet be ready to kill or lose their own life in order to increase the number of persons who use their specific words for God?

As you recall in your book, a religion should show us the way to reconnect with the reality we call God. Why do the world’s religions fail for so many of their followers?

One of the prophets said ‘the beginning of the way [to God] is love and goodness’.  Most of us, however, are filled with fear, anger and frustration. We don’t understand ourselves, and hence we cannot understand God. But we can easily be misguided, and never notice that we are not on the route to God. How can we learn to understand and accept ourselves, how can we get ready to find God? An obvious answer would be by doing what all prophets have done—don’t follow prevailing misconceptions blindly, but mediate and seek relentlessly for yourself. Again, this is no secret, so we all could do it. However this spiritual path is long, requires relentless effort and awareness, and ultimately has to be found and walked by each of us on our own. Your book, and your actions, are a very valuable guide to motivate us to discover and proceed along this way. Thank you!

regards

BLT