Ever since I started practicing meditation about a year and a half ago, it has become a subject of regular study for me. After reading countless blogs, books, and listening to recorded talks on meditation, I had found that groups from every religion, not just Buddhism, practice some form of meditation or other. In fact, I learned that meditation was often the one most important part of a religious practice for many sects, whether you were an orthodox Jew or a Sufi mystic.
After having learned this one fact, I found within myself a deeper respect for other religions, even ones which I had regarded in the past as backwards, overly superstitious, or reactionary. I realized that if this one fact about meditation could challenge my preconceptions about what really makes up a religion, perhaps I could find others as well. This is why I have assembled a list of facts which aim to show that religions can’t be put inside a box, and that all of them have wisdom and insight that the world could definitely use.
This list was organized in no particular order:
1. Many Early Christians Believed in Reincarnation
Reincarnation was a widely accepted belief among the early Gnostic Christians. The idea that someone went to heaven or hell based on something they did in one lifetime was a doctrine developed by the Roman Catholic Church, most likely to establish more control over adherents to the religion. After all, if people got more than one chance to get to heaven, the laws of the church would then be rendered meaningless because sinners would get infinite chances to try again.
Further Reference: Adishakti.org
2. The Buddha Was Probably Not a Vegetarian
Many Buddhists are vegetarian because of the first Buddhist Precept: I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking life. This precept also includes the taking of any animal life. Interestingly, this doesn’t necessarily mean that all Buddhists need to become vegetarians. In the Pali Canon, a major Buddhist text, it was said that the Buddha would not eat meat from an animal killed specifically for him, but apparently didn’t have a problem eating meat bought from the marketplace and already dead.
Further Reference: Dhamma Musings
3. Jesus Christ is Mentioned 5 Times in the Qur’an more than Muhammad
Jesus is considered one of the great prophets of the Islamic religion, and is highly revered, though not as the son of God as Christians believe.
Further Reference: Islam 101
4. Hindus Can Also Be Atheists
Hinduism is generally viewed as a Polytheistic religion with a rich mythology. It is, however, quite possible to be both Hindu and Atheist. Although Hindu Atheists may not have the same eschatological beliefs as other Hindus, they do follow the same moral and ethical code.
Further Reference: Wikipedia
5. Judaism Evolved from a Polytheistic Religion
According to Mark Smith in The Early History of God, the Jewish God Yaweh was one out of four main Gods worshiped by the early Jewish people. The other three gods were El, Asherah and Baal. It was only later that Yahweh became the one and only God for the Jewish religion.
Further Reference: Wikipedia
6. Meditation is not Limited to Eastern Religions
These days meditation, or the practice of increasing spiritual awareness through the cultivation of high states of concentration, is often associated with Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. It turns out, however, that every major religion has meditation techniques associated with them. There’s Christian Meditation, Islamic Meditation and Jewish Meditation. Within each of these religions are various meditation techniques which bear a striking resemblance to meditation techniques practiced in Buddhism and Hinduism.
7. New Religious Texts Continue to Be Discovered
If you’re the founder of a religion, people will write a lot of stories about you, many of which aren’t true. This is why the Bible has so many outtakes (See #14). Does this mean, however, that when new religious texts are discovered we should dismiss them as historical curiosities or should we examine them against our current beliefs? One good example of a text that warrants study is the Gospel of Judas, a recently discovered Biblical text that portrays Judas Iscariot, commonly seen as the Bible’s villain, as the one apostle who fully understood Jesus’ teachings and turned Jesus over to be crucified because Jesus asked him to.
Further Reference: BBC News
8. The Buddha was Canonized as a Christian Saint
A Buddhist text from the 4th century was eventually translated and retranslated until the story of the Buddha’s enlightenment was retold in the context of a prince named Josaphat who renounced the world and converted to Christianity. Apparently this story was so compelling that this Josaphat became a Christian Saint.
Further Reference: Wikipedia
9. Islam had the First Theory of Evolution in the 9th Century
While religion and science have been and continue to be at odds, one notable exception is during the height of the Islamic empire, when scientific ideas advanced significantly. Even the idea of evolution, an idea which still remains a difficult one to swallow by some fundamentalist Christians, was first advanced by a devout Muslim and scientist by the name of al-Jahiz.
Further Reference: salaam.co.uk
10. Non-Jews Can Get Into Jewish Heaven
According to Rabbi Sholom Lipskar “One does not have to be Jewish in order to be able to merit going to heaven in the afterlife and meriting all blessings of God.” There doesn’t seem to be many references to the afterlife in the Torah, but there seems to be agreement that the “righteous of all nations” will enjoy the blessings of an afterlife.
Further Reference: Wikipedia, Judaism 101
11. Even With a Literal Interpretation of the Bible, Homosexuality may Not be a Sin
In a recent talk, Biblical scholar Matthew Vines discusses whether or not the Bible actually condemns homosexuality, and provides a very convincing argument for why homosexuality should not be considered a sin, even with a literal interpretation of the Bible.
12. The First Buddhist Statues Were Made in the Greek Hellenistic Style
Greco-Indians living in the region of Gandhara were actually the first to carve images of the Buddha. The topknot hairstyle common in most Buddha statues today was probably borrowed from similar statues of the Greek God Apollo. The historical Buddha probably didn’t have this hairstyle.
Further Reference: Wikipedia
13. The World’s Oldest University was Established by a Muslim Woman
The Islamic religion has long been characterized as backward and misogynistic. This characterization is misleading, however, and there are many examples throughout history which have shown the opposite to be true. One of them is the University of al-Karaouine, founded by Fatima al-Fihri, the daughter of a rich merchant. At the university subjects like rhetoric and astronomy were taught alongside religious studies. By some accounts, this was the first school that handed out academic degrees.
Further Reference: Wikipedia
14. The New Testament has a Lot of Outtakes
There were many books of the Bible that didn’t make it into the new testament. After Jesus’ followers were left on their own, the early Christians wrote many stories regarding the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Many of these stories were quite fanciful. The Gospel of Pseudo Matthew, for example, has a story of the young Jesus taming dragons (Chapter 18). Since early Christian writings often contradicted each other in terms of narrative and philosophy, it was up to the early fathers of the Church to decide which books of early Christian writings were to be deemed canonical and were reflective of official Church doctrine.
Further Reference: Wikipedia
15. Many of Our Great Scientists were Deeply Religious
Today with all the over-dramatized conflict between science and religion, it’s easy to forget that many of the greatest minds in science were actually devoutly religious. All you have to do is take a look at this list of Muslims and Christians who made significant contributions to our body of scientific knowledge to know that this is true.
16. Wearing a Veil is Not Required in Islam
While the Quran does require women (and men!) to wear modest clothing, nowhere does it specifically state that covering the face with a veil is required. The misconception that Islamic women are required to wear the veil probably comes from the fact that some fundamentalist Islamic thinkers have interpreted the need for modesty in women’s dress as the need for any woman going out in public to wear the hijab (head scarf).
Further Reference: Islam 101
17. Angels as we Know Them Today are Artist Inventions
Angels as originally described in the Bible, appear as 4 headed monsters or wheels that sparkled like topaz, or fearsome entities with 6 wings. It was only near the end of the 4th century CE that artists began to portray angels as the two winged bipeds as we know them today. This is just another example of how our interpretations of religious stories can change over time.
Further Reference: Wikipedia
18. Islamic Fundamentalism is a Pretty Recent Development
As shown by facts numbers 9 and 13, Islam was far from a backwards religion, but one that promoted the sciences. Not only that, but Islam was actually quite tolerant of other religions as well. Today, however, because of the rise of religious fundamentalism in the Islamic world, we’ve been led to believe that intolerance has been a part of the religion since its inception. Actually, it not until the 1950s that Islamic fundamentalism became a real force, helped along by radical Muslim thinkers like Sayyid Qutb.