There are a lot of religions on this planet, and each claims to be the shining beacon of truth amongst a sea of sewage.
Some Hindus scoff at the teachings of Christianity. Many who follow Islam reject the teachings of Buddhism. Long have religions been pitted against one another, however, a growing number of people are seeking out a middle ground – Which is known as Omnism.
Omnism is a belief system that acts as the common thread amongst religions. It suggests that every religion is an interpretation of a universal truth. Each religion contains wisdom, and no religion is necessarily right or wrong. They’re all the same package wrapped in different styled papers.
What is omnism?
Omnism is a belief system suggesting that every religion is an interpretation of a universal truth. People who believe this are called omnists. Omnism separates orthodoxy from religion to form a conception of spirituality without conforming to religious practices.
Instead of being limited to a single set of beliefs, omnists looks at the bigger picture. Every culture believes in something, suggesting that something must exist, but nobody knows the absolute truth.
There are common themes amongst religions, and there are individual themes. Omnists create a framework for spirituality based on common themes and generally discard individual themes.
In this sense, omnism isn’t a structured religion with its own rules. It’s a mash-up of different spiritual concepts and ideas – Based on the commonalities within religions.
Does an omnist believe in a higher power? In most cases, yes, because all religions believe in some sort of higher power. Would an omnist believe that you will go to hell if you disobey god’s commandments? Probably not.
Understanding omnism
Religions are signposts depicting ideas about a greater reality we can’t quite comprehend. These signposts point towards profound information about the nature of reality, but they should also be taken with a grain of salt.
Imagine that religions are blind men touching an elephant.
Christianity touches the side and exclaims “This creature is like a sturdy wall, nothing can penetrate it!”
Hinduism touches the tusk and argues “No, it’s smooth and sharp, it’s dangerous and fearsome”.
Islam touches the trunk and says “That’s garbage, it’s flexible and agile, it can change form!”
The three men walk away thinking that their interpretations are the objective reality, which is what they tell others. Unfortunately, none of these men had any idea what the elephant was. They based their teachings on a tiny slither of information.
Religions are similar. I do not doubt that religions were formed around real people having real experiences, but these experiences could have been very different from one another.
Instead of representing spirituality by a slither of information, omnism recognizes the interconnection of each religion and seeks to understand the entire elephant.
Discerning fact from fiction
Omnists create a framework of spirituality by cherry-picking reoccurring themes within religions.
Some religions may be more accurate than others, but they’re all pathways to the same destination. People created fictional stories to simplify much more complicated ideas. These stories present a watered-down version of universal truths that are much easier to swallow.
It’s fair to assume that most religious teachings are misconstrued, but there are still some universal truths hidden among them. Omnism seeks the hidden truths that are still apparent within religions and puts the puzzle pieces together to form the bigger picture of spirituality as a whole.
People often interpret the teachings of religion literally, when they’re metaphors of something that can’t be explained. That’s why the teachings are so colorful because they’re trying to depict an idea.
The ideas depicted in religions are often silly in their metaphorical state but have a deeper meaning that needs to be interpreted. In this sense, religions are vessels to convey deeper truths.
Here’s an example of a common theme within religions:
- Hinduism: In Hinduism, karma is a fundamental concept that is deeply intertwined with the belief in reincarnation. It is believed that the actions performed in one’s current life will determine the quality of one’s future existence, whether in this life or the next. The Bhagavad Gita, a sacred text in Hinduism, discusses the importance of performing righteous actions (dharma) without attachment to the fruits of those actions, as they contribute to one’s karmic balance.
- Buddhism: Buddhism also incorporates the concept of karma, although with some variations depending on the specific tradition. In Buddhism, karma refers to the law of cause and effect governing the cycle of rebirth. The Buddha taught that through mindful actions, individuals can accumulate positive karma, leading to favorable outcomes in future lives or eventual liberation from the cycle of samsara.
- Christianity: In the Bible, there is a principle often referred to as “sowing and reaping.” It states that whatever one sows, they will also reap. This concept emphasizes the idea that actions have consequences, whether positive or negative, and individuals will experience the results of their actions.
- Islam: Islam teaches that every individual is accountable for their actions before Allah on the Day of Judgment. Muslims believe that Allah is just and will reward or punish individuals based on their deeds in this life. This belief in divine accountability bears some resemblance to the concept of karma, wherein actions have consequences that affect one’s future experiences.
Each of these religions teaches a very similar theme of karma. Even though these religions have very different roots, the same principle has been woven into each philosophy. So does that mean this principle must be valid?
The role of holy scriptures
Do you ever wonder if the bible is full of truth, or full of shit? After all, this ancient literature has been around for thousands of years and held to a prestigious extreme. But people are flawed, and these revered scriptures were written by people.
After all, everyone has their personal biases. Each philosophy has been disseminated throughout thousands of years to the state we see them today. All holy scriptures have been somewhat fictionalized and doctored. They have been used as tools to control people – But this doesn’t mean there’s no truth left in any of them.
Omnism becomes the act of weeding out hidden truths to find the common denominator.
Spiritual practices: Gateways to the universal truth
The icons that religions were based on were real people. These individuals likely had transcendent experiences, and each spread their philosophies. Religions were then formed around these people’s teachings.
Some of these people are known as Jesus, Mohammad, and Buddha. If they all sat around a table together, not only would it make for some great jokes, but they would all probably agree upon a very similar experience.
Since they were separated by hundreds of years and different continents, they didn’t have that chat. Instead, the individual interpretation of this realm was disseminated, and a religion was formed.
Jesus was not a Christian. Christianity formed around the interpretation of Jesus. Mohammad was not a Muslim, Islam based its faith on his interpretation. Likewise, Taoism, Judaism Hinduism, and other religions typically base themselves around headpieces who had a divine experience.
The core teachings of omnism
If we’ve learned anything, it’s that omnism is a loose belief system that cherry-picks its information from other belief systems. Omnism is here to bridge the gap between different faiths and find common ground among them. Here are some common things omnists believe in.
1. Be a good person
Be a good person. If there’s one common theme taught in all religions, it’s to be a good person. What this means exactly is open to interpretation, but you get the idea. Most religions also state that authentic happiness is the result of virtuous behavior, benevolence, and love. Suffering is associated with malevolence and destruction. In this sense, religions often teach that if you are on a virtuous path that is associated with the light, you will be rewarded with happiness and enlightenment.
2. We’re a tiny slither of a much bigger system
Every religion believes in other realms. These realms are interpreted differently depending on the religion, but they’re depicted as higher realms and other dimensions. This realm goes by different names including ultimate reality, the spiritual realm, the source, the universal consciousness, the astral planes, and so on.
3. Consciousness exists independently of the organism
Omnism beliefs suggest that consciousness is separable from an organism. What this means is that consciousness is not dependent on the brain. Our bodies are simply a vessels for consciousness, and the nature of consciousness comes from the soul.
4. We're not the only ones
Omnists believe that higher dimensions are populated with all sorts of intelligent life. From gods, to deities, to spirits and aliens. This higher power is commonly depicted as the collective of all consciousness, which may or may not be sentient in the way we understand.
5. Inclusivity is the way forward
One of the central tenets of omnism is that it’s inclusive in nature. It doesn’t matter what spiritual path you’re on, what religion you follow, who your teachers are or how big your nose is. All spiritual paths are valid in their own ways, and each contain elements of wisdom and insight.
Omnism highlights the humanity shared by every person, regardless of any factor. It encourages people to focus on the shared values rather than creating division and assuming one is right, and the other is wrong. At the end of the day, we’re not so different.
6. Personal exploration is the key
Followers of omnism engage in their own personal journeys towards wisdom and understanding. Omnism recognizes that everyone’s journey looks different, they may study different texts, attend different services, and participate in various rituals to gain a broader perspective of the human experience.
7. Reject dogmatism
For many religions, you’re told to follow a specific path with concreted rules. Omnism on the other hand rejects that there’s a particular way to connect with soul, and that anything which tells you that you need to be spiritual in a certain way is toxic.
Followers are encouraged to find their own paths and explore their own realities to discover what resonates with them. There’s no need to adhere strictly to a certain tradition or set of rules. So if you are, cut that out.
8. Live ethically
Many Omnists place a strong emphasis on ethical behavior, as this is a common theme within religion. This ethical framework translates into compassion, kindness, and moral responsibility to take care of one another, and all life.
Does science support omnism?
Omnism is in no way anti-science. This belief structure is all about finding the universal truth via logic and reason while shearing off the wool blanketing the myriad beliefs.
Science contradicts the fictional stories and interpretations that religion has become associated with, but not ultimate truths. But it does not refute a spiritual origin.
It’s becoming apparent that the further science delves into the existence of reality, the more it spills over into the realm of spirituality. The more spirituality dissects reality, the more pragmatic and logical it becomes.
Omnists generally believe that modern science is barely scratching the surface when it comes to spirituality, but they are not competing entities. If we can put bigotry and egotism aside, perhaps we will see the middle ground between these two entities. A truth that both theism and atheism can agree on in their languages.
The broad application of spirituality
Some of the greatest minds to date were all spiritual people, contrary to popular beliefs due to being transcending physicists, philosophers, and theorists.
Thomas Edison, known as America’s greatest inventor was seen through the eyes of many as an atheist for the remarks he made. Those same people ignored statements such as “I do not believe in the god of theologians, but that there is a supreme intelligence that I do not doubt.”
Likewise, Stephen Hawking did not believe in god, but stated “science does not refute religion, but offers a simpler alternative.” Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton made some of the biggest discoveries in science but also believed in something beyond this dimension of existence.
All of these people brought new ideas to science, but the commonality they all shared is that they also believed in more. A common misconception is to think that spirituality is correlated with intelligence, that it’s somehow primitive and illogical. It has nothing to do with intelligence, but everything to do with curiosity.
If you were to ask some of the world’s leading scientists and philosophers what they think about spirituality, I think you might be surprised by how similar their stances are on the subject.
Leaders in science are often the first to admit, that we know nothing. That alternate dimensional planes are not only possible but probable.
It’s often the people who weren’t constrained by the conventional construct of science that made some of the biggest achievements for it. Perhaps it’s wise to take a different stance on religion and see that it serves an important function to interpret the ultimate truth, that we simply cannot comprehend.
2 comments
JUST AWESOME WRITE UP AND SOMETHING I WAS REALLY WORKING HARD ON..WOULD FIND MYSELF TO BE LUCKY TO BE ASSOSIATED WITH YOU IN MAKING PEOPLE AWARE ABOUT THIS
I really thank you for sharing your truth I am a truth seeker and have been digging deep into all of the major religious doctrine. I BELIEVE THAT EVEN IF THEY SHARE 99%OF TRUTH THAT 1%TAKE AWAY FROM IT BEING THE WHOLE TRUTH, SO THAT 1% IS WHAT I SEARCH FOR ,AND WHEN IT IS SAID TO SEARCH AND YOU SHALL FIND ,ALL I CAN SAY IS ,, YOU WILL NOT LOOK AT THE WORLD THE SAME WHEN THAT DOOR OPENS ,, IN TRUTH OF WHt I have learned so far is that, TRUTH be told the TRUTH is never Told…and Thank you