The Unifying Idea of Religion

It has been some time since I posted a blog comment. I admit to having been a little discouraged about whether it is possible for societies to make progress in breaking down religious differences. However, I have a renewed commitment to this goal after reading President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.

I highly recommend that you read this speech in its entirety. Even if you think he didn’t deserve the prize and even if you disagree with his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, I believe you will find the speech to be a powerful attempt to justify war without rejecting a philosophy of non-violence. To oversimplify a bit, his argument is that war is justified now because there is evil in the world, but someday mankind may advance to a point when war is unnecessary. As he put it, “the non-violence practiced by men like Ghandi and King may not have been practical or possible in every circumstance, but the love they preached – their faith in human progress – must always be the North Star that guides us on our journey.”

What does God have to do with the goal of eliminating war, since nations have routinely claimed that God is on their side when they engage in wars, both just and unjust? In my view, the role of God is to serve as a central unifying idea that the highest value in life is love of others. That in turn provides an ideal that mankind as a whole – as well as individuals in their own lives – can strive to achieve. This idea is not unique to Christianity or to any religion. As the President said, religion has been used to justify the murder of innocents, but “such a warped view of religion is not just incompatible with the concept of peace, but the purpose of faith – for the one rule that lies at the heart of every major religion is that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.”

In The Uncertain Believer, I argue that the most persuasive conception of God is that God is the ideal of unqualified compassion for others. To love God means to commit oneself to this ideal and participate in this spirit of love in the world. Over the next few months, I want to explore whether – and, if so, how -- this principle is central to all religious traditions. I plan to make that the central theme of my blog comments, not just to repeat the same idea over and over, but to examine whether it is really true that this principle is central to all major religions. If it is, that is powerful proof that, if mankind is ever to accept a common conception of God, it will do so on the basis that love of others should be the central unifying idea of religion. The capacity to embrace this principle is what makes humans special. In other words, we are unique among all species because we have the capacity to love others, not just because our instincts compel us to do so, not just because it is in our self-interest, but because we find meaning and value in doing so.