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Legendary leader.

Athabasca
University

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World Religions
Conference

Ann Duong
Guest Contributor

he two worst conversation starters as anyone

notoriously knows, is to quip about either religion or
politics, both of which have almost become synonymous
with each other since 911 occurred. All truth be told,
don’t expect to make friends. That is, unless you were
at the World Religions Conference, which was held last
week September 27th. An annual event held in Prince
George since 2004 the whole purpose of the conversation
here seemed to be about synergizing our ideas of
religion, specifically, whether the 6 religions represented,
Buddhism, Bahaism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism,
conceived of God as Myth or Reality - the theme of this
year’s conference. Here, not only was it acceptable to speak
about religion without being scrutinized, but at the end
there seemed to be a harmonious answer to the centuries’
old debate.

The conversation did not involve a lot of people, only
around 70 people showed up, even with the extra incentive
of a 500 dollar bursary for students who attended. Despite
the low turnout though, the engagement of people

with the subject matter was to the contrary with the
amount of questions at the end exceeding the allotted
time as audience members were eager to quench their
curiosities about each religion’s precepts and laws.

The diversity among the participants added to the
event an unexpected authenticity to the occasion.
Among the panellists, was a UNBC Statistics professor,
a priest with a queer identified child, a geoscientist
and professional engineer, and a woman with four kids,
illustrating the fact that anyone can be religious and
that it is just one of many facets of a person’s identity.

But what each presenter was successful at was
highlighting not the divisive idiosyncrasies of each
religion but how they were all similar. Not at any
moment was one presenter fixated on proselytizing.
“One focuses too much on what divides us. We all
ascribe to a certain religion primarily on where we
were born and raised,” says Venerable Peter Zimmer
but “Inherently each religion has its commonalities.”

In a world where there is increasing animosity towards
certain faith groups, both externally and internally

as demonstrated by the introduction of bill C-51 by
the Canadian government for instance, all show that
there needs to be a drastic overhaul of conceptions
surrounding religion and social issues. As Mr.
Mohammed Aslam Shad the regional president of the
mosque committee in Delta, BC remarked, “There will

UNBC Life 5

be no peace between nations, no peace without peace
between religions and those who are non-religious”.

While it is good to acknowledge critical of aspects of
religion that target human rights, we should conceive
of these differences with an understanding of the
time and place within which the religion is practiced,
whether it is an individual act or a group act, and

try to comprehend the causes of such behaviour.

So what was the resolution? Well, simply that there is

no answer, but several answers depending on what you
believe in. And while there might not be one God that
everyone believes in, or a God at all (Buddhism contrary
to popular belief is a non-theistic religion), there is one
definition of God that is helpful to have. As all presenters
have said in some shape or form, “God lives within us. God
is love, peace, and charity. Make of that what you will”

So next time you're at a table with a couple of friends,

why not bring up the topic of religion, because even if you
don’t believe in it, you might be surprised to find a lot in
common and perhaps something to learn from your friend.
And rather than posit the question of “Do I believe?”

you should instead ask, “Does Love and Compassion

exist? Myth or Reality? And I think, overwhelmingly,

we all believe what the answer to that will be.