I have decided to write a few pieces on different forms of religion around the world, there are at least 4000 religions in the world today ,with 7 billion of the world's growing population belonging to at least one of these 4000 religions, at least 100,000 people follow the least popular of doctrines . It is my believe that the notion of 4000 different religion only proves that we as humans have yet to grab the true concept of divinity or divinities, we have designed and proselytized over 4000 different religions since the birth of society, we have been making them up , no one knows what God is, nobody actually knows what goes on the other side of our reality, we all pray towards one direction but we certainly aren't sure of what is up there or who is listening , we made it all up. This piece isn't to distort or disrespect any model belief, it is about a particular religion that I find to be extremely interesting Caodaism .
Caodaism is almost a modern religion, established in the 20th century (1926) in Vietnam. I became aware of the existence of such an interesting religion by spending too much time behind the TV screen, Morgan Freeman did a piece on the religion in his documentary " The story of the gods", I became intrigued particularly by the presence of images ,statues or some other forms of representation of other religions within their contiguity. The ideology of this religion is pretty simple , Caodaism is a monotheistic
religion . To a Caodaist the creator is a monotheistic God, the creator is also the God of all religions. This idea promotes unity not hate that is why I became fascinated by this religion, it gives room for all the beliefs and religious ideas because of their obvious but disregarded similarities.
I'm not going to discombobulate you with the history, structure (social or spiritual), rules, rituals of this religion, I want us to focus on the idea of unity it upholds. Caodaists believe in reincarnation, they believe in heaven (high palace ), they believe in the uniformity of the general but separate ideas of a divinity, the uniformity of prayers regardless of the religion, prophets and even the social hierarchy. Now I'm not trying to preach the ideas of Caodaism to anyone, I'm simply a tool of enlightenment, trying to open minds to the possibility of human fallacy. Religion has been a tool of moral contrive since the first human community , it has created guidelines to shed good from bad , it has also become a form of a traditional back bone to the modern political, economical, social arena , provoking debates , arguments and war throughout human history.
Caodaisic ideas might be a bit eccentric ,but all major religious figures are respected and revered in Cao Dai, in Cao Dai religious conflicts is preposterous which is a bit usual for the engineering of the human society. Humans have been programmed to accept what was placed on their paths, a sort of predetermined destiny, predetermined beliefs that sometimes breeds extremism in different moulds. This is probably unfixable but it is definitely manageable, but it is managed by those that created this ideas and those that have used it to clinch power. In a way, the man that stands in front of a congregation to preach the gospel of Jesus has no idea the complexity of the doctrine he indulges himself and others in ( we know nothing, we are just making it up as we go especially in a way that suits power).
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