“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they
will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on
the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you
should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be
gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories
of your loved ones.” - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Recently, a correspondent from Fox News has had it bad for attacking a religious scholar during a television interview, the full version of it as presented below.
The interview itself has been likened to a car crash, with liberals having a whale of a time bashing the ignorant and bigoted views of Lauren Green, the Fox News religion correspondent. They point out that she attacked the scholar, a religious expert, just on the basis that because he was Muslim, he was not qualified to write a book about Jesus, and her line of questioning seemed to follow just that one track, with no exit route whatsoever to save whatever credibility she might have had as a thinking individual.
In a strange twist of events, the controversial biography Aslan wrote about Jesus is in fact now Amazon's top selling book in terms of sales, as her interview actually drove more people to want the book, if only to see if she had a point.
But Reza Aslan himself is no slouch on religion. Apart from his impressive academic credentials and experience in the field, his quotes on Reddit give an insight into his beliefs and his understanding of religion. When asked about what was his view on religions, specifically whether he believed there was one true faith, he likened his religious beliefs to a quote from Buddha, while also demonstrating religious tolerance.
"I think the Buddha said it right: If you want to draw water you do not
dig six one foot wells. You dig one six foot well. Islam is my six foot
well. I like the symbols and metaphors it uses to describe the
relationship between God and humanity. But I recognize that the water I
am drawing is the same water that every other well around me is drawing.
And no matter the well, the water is just as sweet!"
In fact, Aslan shared another interesting titbit about monotheism, which I was astonished to learn about. He said...
"Monotheism is actually a very recent phenomenon. In the hundred thousand
year history of human religious experience, monotheism is perhaps three
thousand years old. That's because the idea of a single god being
responsible for both good and bad, light and dark, is something that the
ancient mind had a very difficult time accepting. And no wonder! The
only way that monotheism finally "stuck" is thru the concept of angels
and demons. In other words, it was only when all the other "gods" were
demoted into spiritual beings responsible for different aspects of the
human condition that people were able to accept the idea one GOD in
charge of all the lower spiritual beings."
He also shared the reason why monotheistic religions might actually be the source of much conflict in today's world with the below reply to this question in the AMA by reddit user PhilosopherBaron
"As a scholar of religions, what is the fundamental difference between
the Abrahamic religions that prevents, historically, and culturally a
long lasting, peaceful interaction between these three? (Judaism,
Islam and Christianity). Thank you for your thoughts."
"Perhaps it's partly a result of monotheism. After all if you believe
there is only one God then you could easily believe that there is only
one path to that one God, that there is only one myth to describe God.
That means all other paths/myths are not just wrong, they are ANTI GOD.
They are evil and demonic. But the truth is that Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam are providing similar answers to the same questions of
ultimate concern. They are just using different sets of symbols and
metaphors to do so."
As someone who has an interest in religions too, to the extent that I wrote my A level General Paper on it, I found his reddit AMA an amazing read, and I have a feeling his book will be too. I know what I'm getting on Amazon next.