God and Unity

How the Concept of the Oneness of God

Facilitates Sociopolitical Evolution

Based on my notes for a talk given in Second Life at the Library of World Religions, a virtual venue dedicated to promoting interfaith dialogue, understanding and collaboration.

A lot is often said about how religion has been – and unfortunately continues to be – a source of disunity and division in the world. However, I would like to invite you to look at it from a different viewpoint, and to think about one of the ways in which religion may have helped to achieve increasing levels of unity during humanity’s sociopolitical evolution, understood as our progress towards increasingly large, complex and inclusive forms of social organization.

In “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”, Thomas Kuhn explains how science advances through major changes in paradigms, defined as distinct concepts or thought patterns in any scientific discipline or other epistemological context. The same idea can also be useful in understanding how our concepts of God have changed and progressed over the millennia.

I should clarify that I will not be taking a theological approach, but rather discussing the sociopolitical impacts of such ‘paradigm shifts’ in our concepts of God. Nor will I be arguing in favor or against the existence of God or His oneness, but rather taking a utilitarian viewpoint to ask myself what implications belief in divine oneness might have in promoting the sociopolitical evolution of the human race, quite aside from any consideration as to its truth value.

To do so, it is useful to view historical concepts of God as the maximum expression of a community’s highest ideals, the compendium of what that community aspires to be or become. Historically, then, each community imagined for itself one or more gods that personified those ideals and aspirations and provided them with an important source of collective identity.

These deities provided center points of unity, as the life and identity of each group revolved around them. They accompanied communities in their daily lives, blessed and confirmed their efforts, made them prosper, protected them from the elements and their enemies, and even ensured their victory in times of inter-group conflict.

Therefore, belonging to or identifying with a group required allegiance to its deity. To swear fealty to any other deity moved one out of the community’s center, threatened the unity of the group, and was tantamount to betrayal of one’s loved ones.

Looking for modern analogies to understand how important this matter of group identity was to people throughout our sociopolitical evolution, we might think of how the fans of one team would never be caught wearing the colors of a rival team, the implications of a member of a family with a very strong religious identity changing religions, or the case of a soldier from one country defecting to another country, etc.

In the very earliest beginnings of our sociopolitical evolution, each family, band or clan had at least one deity that fulfilled this function, which was usually different from those of all other families, bands or clans. At some point, population growth, commercial exchange, and other historical forces brought these groups together to the point that they needed a higher level of sociopolitical organization, known as a tribe, in order to solve existing conflicts among them and prevent future ones from arising. A similar process occurred when we went from tribes to city-states, and subsequently from city-states to nation states, as we have today.

However, the diversity of deities was a potential source of division and rivalry among the different component groups in the process of forming larger identities. Therefore, one very powerful way to merge those diverse groups was to align the people with a single, overall God whose characteristics would include and encompass all of their particular identities, and represent their new collective identity.

This was achieved in some cases by subordinating the particular deities to the universal one, and in other cases by overthrowing the lesser gods entirely. An example of the former case is seen in many of the Eastern or Dharmic traditions, such as the Hindu deities, which are seen as many in one. Another example is the Zoroastrian acknowledgement of lesser deities who are all subordinate to – and created by – Ahura Mazda, the Uncreated, Omniscient Light of Wisdom.

The religions of the Abrahamic or Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, on the other hand, are examples of the latter case. At one time, the different tribes in the process of unification into one city-state argued about whose god was more powerful, and Abraham taught them to worship one overall God – El Shaddai – the All-Powerful or Almighty. Shaddai also happened to be the name of the City-state, so at later time, the argument was about what name to call God by. Moses reconciled these differing opinions by saying that it was “I Am That I Am”, later abbreviated as YHWH.

In Jesus’ time, this “God of the Hebrews” conflicted with the Greek and Roman gods, and Christ taught the people to pray to “Abba” – the loving Father of all peoples, who were all part of one human family.

Some six hundred years later, Muhammad entered Mecca and dashed to pieces the 365 gods housed in the Kabba, representing the rival tribes of Arabia, which He was destined to unite as one nation. He taught them to say “lá ‘iláh-há illa ‘al-láh”, in other words, that “al-iláh-há” (“the gods”) did not exist, but only “al-láh”, the (one) God, or as it is usually translated, “There is none other god but God”. In the Korán we read: "Lo! God forgiveth not that a partner should be ascribed unto Him… Whoso ascribeth partners to God, he hath indeed invented a tremendous sin." (4:48)

In the present day, the process of nation building has already been consummated, and the human race is now faced with the ultimate challenge of uniting over 180 more-or-less rival nations into a democratically governed, federal world state. However, as Samuel Huntington observed, this process may involve, not only conflicts among nation-states and political ideologies, but a veritable "Clash of Civilizations" defined as a potentially violent collision of the major world religions.

It is urgent, therefore, to address the question as to whether the different belief systems that coexist in today’s world can find sufficient common ground, not only to tolerate each other and avoid violent confrontations, but actually to work together, each contributing its unique worldviews, approaches and material, organizational, human, and spiritual resources to tackling the serious challenges currently facing humankind.

And at the very roots of that common ground between the world’s belief systems is precisely their concept of God. Unfortunately, many religionists still assume that the God of Krishna is not the same as the God of Jesus, or that YHWH is different from Alláh. Today as in the past, recognizing the Oneness of God could be an important piece of the puzzle in putting together a divided world.

About one and a half centuries ago, Bahá’u’lláh wrote from his imprisonment to the kings, presidents, religious leaders and peoples of the world, calling them to recognize the Oneness of God, as this would lead to the acknowledgement of oneness of religion and the unity of humankind. “He Who is the Eternal Truth,” wrote Bahá’u’lláh, “is the one Power Who exerciseth undisputed sovereignty over the world of being, Whose image is reflected in the mirror of the entire creation. All existence is dependent upon Him, and from Him is derived the source of the sustenance of all things. This is what is meant by Divine unity; this is its fundamental principle” (Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, LXXXIV, 165).

Years later His son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, was released from the prison he had shared with his Father and, in his travels throughout the West, expounded the principle of divine unity: 

“The unity which is productive of unlimited results is first a unity of mankind which recognizes that all are sheltered beneath the over-shadowing glory of the All-Glorious; that all are servants of one God; for all breathe the same atmosphere, live upon the same earth, move beneath the same heavens, receive effulgence from the same sun and are under the protection of one God.
 “This is the most great unity, and its results are lasting if humanity adheres to it… It will reconcile all religions, make warring nations loving, cause hostile kings to become friendly, and bring peace and happiness to the human world. It will cement together the Orient and Occident, remove forever the foundations of war and upraise the ensign of the “Most Great Peace.”

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Foundations of World Unity, pp. 66-67)

If God is One, no matter what name we give Him or what attributes we assign to Him, and if therefore all religions worship the same God, then that would constitute a solid basis on which to build other aspects of interfaith dialogue and integration, and this in turn would be an important step towards building a united world and a culture of peace. Interestingly, comparative studies of the sacred scriptures of the major world religions have established that the qualities they attribute to the Divine Being coincide: 

He is the One, the First, the Last, the Origin, the Eternal, the Abiding, the Producer, the Beneficent, the Seer, the Hearer, the Widener, the Inner One, the Outer One, the Up-lifter, the Benign One, the Irresistible, the Majestic One, the One Who Seizes, the Gathering One, the Separating One, the Judge, the Adjuster of Accounts, the Thankful One, the Truth, the Wise, the Bountiful, the Praised, the Living One, the Well Informed, the Creator, the One Who Lays Low, the Generous, the Gentle One, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Provider, the Guide, the Vigilant, the Peace, the Witness, the Patient, He who Afflicts, the Just, the Clement, the Indulgent, the Powerful, the Wealthy, the Precious, the Great, the Knower, the Highest, the Opener, the Capable, the Holy, the Victorious, the Strong, the Self-Subsisting, the Magnanimous, the Noble, Full of Grace, He Who Exalteth Himself, the Firm, the Founder, the Responder, the Glorious, the One Who Keeps Accounts, the Former,the Honoring One, the Exalter, the Humbling One, The All-Knowing, the Enricher, the Maintainer, the Exterminator, the Restorer, the Prevalent, the Equitable, the King, the Life Giver, the Taker of Life, the Pardoner, the Guardian, the Favorable, the Helper, the Light, the Loving, the Inheritor, the Vast, the Custodian, the Protector, the Giver, and more.

These and many other divine qualities are shared in the way all religions perceive their deities, meaning that their God is One God, and this is the starting point for unity.