www.FoundationforPluralism.com

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How does a pluralist view things? If you have specific questions, please send to info@foundationforpluralism.com

What Is Pluralism?

Pluralism is an attitude of accepting and respecting every beautiful way people have come to worship the divine, including but not limited to the Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islam, Jain, Jewish, Sikh, Zoroastrian and other systems of belief. We ask you to consider the following thought “the moment you believe yours is the only way, the ego takes over and kills the spirituality and the piety in you” and add, “And riddance of ego for ones peace and tranquility is the summation of all religions.” Arrogance is the mother of all evil.

Who is a Pluralist?

 A Pluralist will look to the essence of the words rather than the words themselves. Ex; a pluralist will have no problem accepting greetings in any form; he or she will look beyond the words. You can greet her/him with Shalom, Namaste, As-Salaamu Aliakum, God Bless, Sat Sri Akal or whatever you are accustomed to, they all mean the same to him/her; that you wish them well. He or She has no qualms returning the greeting in the same format.

A pluralist will never look down upon any form of worship, he looks to the devotion an individual has towards the divine and not the method.

 A pluralist firmly believes in his faith, and believes in the path he follows and understands that it will give him the salvation and takes him closer to God.  He or she understands and believes that all traditions offer the salvation to the believer.   

The Foundation for Pluralism believes that God does not practice preferential treatment towards any faith or a group; and we don't either. All of us are HIS creation and HE belongs to us all. No one owns HIM, nor does anyone have any exclusive influence over him. Who would want a God that will not give equal access to all?

 We honor, cherish and respect every way people have come to praise and worship the divine. We revere every one of the spiritual awakeners, to name a few: Krishna, Zarthusthra, Moses, Mahavir, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Nanak, Bahaullah, and every Great Spirit that people have to come respect.

 We believe that each one of us is created by the same divine system, and respecting each one of his creations is the best form of honoring that divinity. Knowledge leads to understanding and understanding to acceptance and appreciation of people with different points of view.  If we can learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness to each one of the 7 billion of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Every religion frees us from the negative engagements. When we truly believe in the oneness of God and the oneness of mankind, we have accepted God’s greatness and parity of human beings.


The world is a better place today because of spirituality, without which there would be chaos.  All the religions are on the same side; that of goodness for mankind.

 The Foundation is committed to providing the media and world leaders with insights, and policy solutions to effectively managing the multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural societies. We are committed to developing solutions for pluralistic governance of diverse people.

 We believe that the purpose of all faiths is to bring peace and happiness to each individual and connect humans with the divine. We strongly defend the goodness of each religion. We believe that political motivations have deliberately blamed the wrongs of the world on religion. It is our commitment to identify and ascribe the wrongs to individuals responsible for it and uphold the honor of each faith.

Membership is open to all those who subscribe to the idea of a pluralistic society, a society where people are treated with full dignity without regard to race, color, gender, religion, social status or any other distinctiveness.

 Points to Ponder

 God is omniscient, omnipotent, eternal, boundless, and genderless and he is everything, and every atom is created by him.  And yet a few of us insist that we can invoke God only with certain names.  Isn’t that confining God?  

  
 The Revelation:

All religions are founded on the basis of Pluralism, meaning inclusiveness of all human beings. If you are a Good Jew, Muslim, Christian ……or a Hindu, you are indeed a pluralist.   When Jesus says follow me, Krishna says surrender to me and Allah says, submit to my will; they are all saying the same thing. “Be like God who loves and belongs to all.” And, when you do become like God, all the distinctions fade;   everything belongs to you and you belong to all. That is salvation and that is, eternal peace.

 Our Mission

Our mission is to encourage individuals to develop an open mind and an open heart toward their fellow beings, and look to individual’s God given uniqueness and make efforts to remove prejudices based on religious, racial, nationalistic, linguistic, social, and cultural or any other affiliations.

Pluralism is accepting and respecting every way people have come to worship the divine, including but not limited to the Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jain, Jewish, Sikh, Zoroastrian and other systems of belief.

Questions to ask oneself
 

What do you believe about the origins of the earth and man?

  1. God did it, in seven days

  2. Yeah, but "seven days" is a metaphor

  3. Angels helped God make man from different colors of earth

  4. A powerful God, Brahma, created it from a lotus flower

  5. What is important is my role on earth, not its creation

  6. The Big Bang 

  7. Not sure

 Someone smacks you in the face. What is your response?

  1. Turn the other cheek

  2. An eye for an eye, you hit him back to defend yourself

  3. Seriously, his parents didn't raise him right

  4. Bad karma will get him back

  5. Non violence is the best path, even if I get beat up

  6. I don't see what this has to do with religion

There's a spider in your shower, what do you do?

  1. Kill it, it's just a spider

  2. Just shower, it's only a spider

  3. Let it get washed down the drain, then feel bad

  4. Move it out of the shower

  5. Pick it up in a tissue and gently take it outside

  6. Spiders eat mosquitoes, leave it

How would you prefer to pray? 

  1. Kneeling before bed

  2. Saying grace before meals

  3. Once in the morning and once at night

  4. Kneeling and standing, throughout the day

  5. Incense and an offering of food

  6. Repeat a mantra and use prayer beads

  7. As Prescribed by my Religion

  8. At a Starbucks

What day do you consider most sacred?

  1. Saturday

  2. Sunday

  3. Every day

  4. None of the days

Why do you pray? 

  1. I don't see a reason to pray

  2. Forgiveness

  3. Betterment

  4. To praise and serve God

  5. To recognize the power of the creator

  6. I meditate to clear my mind and seek inner-peace

What do you not eat?

  1. Pork

  2. Cheeseburgers

  3. Meat on Friday

  4. Meat at all

  5. Beef

  6. Day old Sushi

 What do you think about Charity? 

  1. I give to foundations

  2. I give a little bit every week during services

  3. I give a percentage of my income to the institution

  4. I give to individuals on the street

  5. It is one of the pillars of a good life

Which of these activities gives you inner peace? 

  1. Repenting and seeking forgiveness

  2. Seeking and finding the deep inner truths in religious texts

  3. Praying directly to God

  4. Yoga

  5.  Meditating

  6. A long nature hike

How do you identify with religious holidays? 

  1. A formal family dinner with services

  2. A big meal with lots of food and lots of people

  3. Fasting

  4. Thanksgiving is my holiday of choice

  5. Offerings to my God

 What do you think happens when you die?

  1. You will be reborn depending on how you lived your last life

  2. You will be reborn and suffer again

  3. You will go to heaven or hell 

  4. You hope to ascend to paradise  

  5. You turn into plant food

How would you like your body to be treated when you die? 

  1. Cremation is a must for me

  2. Burial

  3. Lay me to rest in a peaceful place

  4. It doesn't matter at all

What do you think of divorce?

  1. Divorce is not possible

  2. Only if absolutely necessary

  3. If it was not meant to be then it is okay

Who is the greatest spiritual leader on the planet today?

  1. Dali Lama

  2. The Pope

  3. Billy Graham

  4. Imam W. Deen Mohammed

  5. There are several great Yogis

  6. There are several great rabbis

How do you hope your good deeds on earth will be repaid in the afterlife?
 

  1. You're reunited with your family and friends

  2. You live for eternity in Heaven

  3. You're showered with riches in Heaven

  4. You're reincarnated to a better life

  5. There is no afterlife

How do you expect your bad deeds on earth to be punished in the afterlife? 

  1. You go to Hell

  2. You do your time in Purgatory

  3. Nothing, if you confess your sins

  4. You're reincarnated to a worse life

  5. Doesn't matter, there is no afterlife

 

Our Mission is to encourage individuals to develop an open mind and an open heart toward their follow beings. If we can learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness of each one of the 7 billion of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.  We believe that knowledge leads to understanding and understanding to acceptance and appreciation of a different point of view.  

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