We may think that it is best not to examine religion, which is after all a matter of faith. Let each person follow whatever faith he or she prefers, we may think. However in the modern world we must strive to understand all people and all cultures. To compartmentalize religion into various faiths, each which leaves the others alone, would be like saying let each country speak its own language, and we will speak our own, but let us not try to learn the language of others or strive to develop any global language.

It is like accepting the boundaries that exist between nations as real boundaries and staying within our own particular frontiers. This superficial sense of tolerance is a contraction of fear and insecurity. As human beings all religions and all cultures belong to each one of us and we should be free to examine each for whatever value it may have, just as all of science should be there for us to examine without any boundaries.

Religion, properly speaking, concerns the ultimate questions of life and death. To approach it we must question deeply, including questioning religion and, above all, questioning ourselves. We must ask: What it is that we are really seeking through religion? Are we really seeking the Truth or to know God? Or is religion merely something to believe in and then stop searching?

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