Peace Times 10

«On your travels, you can find cities without walls and without writing; without a king or houses, without wealth or the use of currency, deprived of theatres and gymnasiums. Yet a city without temples and without gods, has never been seen nor will anyone ever find it». This affirmation by Plato, the Greek philosopher of the first Century D.C. is still valid today.

What characterises religion as a union between material and intangible things is synthesised by sacred scriptures. On the gables of an astec temple, one can in fact see the following dedication: «To the unknown god creator of all things, the one in the immediate vicinity». And on an Egyptian one: «In all its paths this temple is like heaven».

In the 19th, Century Max Muller the German historian, founder of the study of comparative religions stated: «It is a spiritual faculty that gives man the ability to understand the infinite under different names and a multitude of disguises. Without this faculty, no religion would be possible, not even the lowest forms of idolotry and feticism. However faintly we lend our ear, we can hear a whisper of the spirit in every religion, the sound of the effort to conceive the unconceivable, to express the unexpressible: an aspiration towards infinity». This concept was later commented upon by Maurice Merleau Ponty, a contemporary French philosopher, who said: «Religion is a part of culture, not as a dogma or a credence, but as a cry».

Karl Marx, German philosopher of the 19th Century, notably affirmed that «Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a world without heart, the spirit of a non-spiritual situation. It is the opium of the people», and who defined religion as «the knowledge of all our duties as divine commandments».

In conclusion, here is a reflection by Leonardo Sciascia, contemporary Italian author: «It is not even necessary to be certain of the existence of God to be religious or to believe in the immortality of the soul: suffice to be sure that our existence, our world, must make sense, have a certain meaning».

Remembering that in his great quest to go beyond apparent differences, Kubilai Khan, the Chinese Emporor of the 13th Century, founder of the Mongolian Dynasty, then already exhorted: «Some will see Jesus, others Mohammed, and others still Buddha. I, knowing not which will be the greatest shall revere them all and ask each one to protect me».