Same-Same

"I think about religion, most of it is same-same...I have good idea, for if you meet some person from different religion and he want to make argument about God. My idea is, you listen to everything this man say about God. Never argue about God with him. Best thing to say is, 'I agree with you.' Then you go home, pray what you want" (241).

Upon coming across this idea of Ketut's, I thought about what spirituality really is and how it CAN be the same for different people, even of different religions. So with this thought, I went in search of a definition for spirituality, and what I found was that it is a "sense of interconnectedness with all living creatures" and a "way to find meaning, hope, comfort, and inner peace." The characteristics of a spiritual person include compassion, selflessness, altruism, and experience of inner peace. The most interesting idea to me was that spirituality can occur outside of religion.

When I look at it from this perspective, I think Ketut was right in describing all religion as "same-same." People have religions because they want answers, and they want to have those spiritual experiences. Others don't experience religion, but they still have beliefs. They still have the ability to be spiritual and reap the benefits of spirituality. People come across religion to explain the unexplainable. They want to have a connection with the universe and they want to feel some sort of enlightenment.

Most of Ketut's ideas make perfect sense to me, and I completely agree with his philosophy. As he continues to talk to Liz, he tells her that she should always just listen when someone wants to talk or argue about God, and maybe they are even trying to "prove" they are right. He tells her not to argue with them, which I think is excellent. Neither one of these people has the ability to prove that what they believe is true. As mentioned earlier, faith is belief in something irrational and unknown. There is no point to arguing about God or religion because nothing positive can come out of it. All that it can produce is unhappy, angry people. It could even destroy friendships. There is also a definite benefit to listening to the ideas of someone else with open ears. One can learn much about the world from the beliefs of one person. I think we all differ slightly in our beliefs, even if we are part of the same religious sect. Because of this, my interest never wanes when listening to how others think about the universe and God. Disagreement is natural and reasonable, but it should be left within your own person, and not argued upon. Religion and belief is something to be shared, not argued and proved.

Next, Ketut tells Liz to tell this other person that she agrees with him. I do not think that this is a positive thing to do because it may not be the truth. It would be better to tell that person that you are interested in learning about their beliefs without saying you agree or disagree with them. It is important to understand religions other than our own to understand the world we live in and the people around us. What I thought was most important about Ketut's idea, though, was that he told Liz to go home and "pray what [she wants]." I think this is an extremely important aspect of his belief because he did not say to pray her own religion, but to pray what she wants. When a person hears new ideas about religion from someone else, she can choose to discount them or to think about them and add them into her own life. If someone says something profound about their own religion that you would like to have in yours, add it. Prayer belongs to the person doing the praying, and that person only. That person can pray whatever he or she wants, and it is not required to go along with any certain "defined" religion.