International Grace. David Rigozzi

      Chapter One

      We are human, we live on dry land, approximately 29% of the world’s surface, we all grow food, we all cook food, we come from a thousand different cultures all at different stages of civilized behaviour. We all have a life-force, are slaves to time, we all write, break and expel words and eat. What we all have in common is a spirit, we express this in different ways, it’s called our culture and our religion.

      There is often trouble between our religions, but in a peaceful world we must find a way to tolerate each other. Christianity predicts there will be peace on Earth for a thousand years, and according to the bible this will happen pretty soon.

      

      While we all have our different doctrines to live by, it is a respect between us that will bring peace, and allow our brothers and ourselves to flourish in an often hostile and divergent planet.

      

      We must understand that differing religions are the product of differing weather partners, and it is these weather patterns and the timing that result in us having developed our different Gods, cultures and doctrines. While the world is getting smaller through the modern media, (TV, internet and other communications), we must respect this fact that our God(s) were procreated in different cultures which have their own weather patterns and each country should respect this fact.

      Different religions have spread to all the other countries, we must also take into consideration the environment in the original country where the religion was born. Our beliefs in our God(s) is a product of, and especially the temperature of that country, for example, it is unusual for a religion to be procreated in a cold climate. Of course, there is much diversity, of cultures besides the eight major religions. These are Moslem, Christianity, Hindu, Confucius, Buddhism, Judaism, Ba-Hai, and Sikhism.

      We must try and stop the antagonism between our human brothers, in particular between Christians and Moslems at the moment.

      If we can come together every four years for the Olympic Games, we can surely come together and show our traditions and religions to each other, but in a non competitive way. It’s a real challenge, and a necessity for the world’s future. To come together means to respect each other people’s cultures, their dress, foods and places of worship.

      

      Well, let’s hear it from the horses mouth, we have some delightful people here who would like to share with you about their cultures.

      We all have our differing beliefs, and it would not be a good idea to say there is only one God. The Baha’i religion suggests a tolerant approach. The Moslems say they’re God is Allah, the Christians and Jews say ‘I AM; is their God, the Buddhists say their god is likened to Budda, a God of gold, apart from being alive as a prophet and the hindu’s believe in Karma which is a God which reincarnates the spirit from generation to generation, the worship of cattle and caste system, and have more than one God. Confucius was more concerned with defining social relationships and was able to absorb primitive ancestors worship, which still survives.

      

      There is also the time factor where ther Jews were first to appear, 5000 BC, the Hindu’s were next in 3000yrs BC, and then 565-483 BC being when Budda was alive. The Christians which appeared and formed our system of time from BC to AD, and transformed earlier Judaism, the Jews, of course. The Islamic movement which appeared about 632 years later. Confucianism, round about 400 BC, involved studies of crime and morality and the revision of ancient Chinese scriptures.

      We will now hear from different peoples and how they get along.