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   %RELIGIOUS FAITH DOCTRINE LAW ISOMORPHISMS ALIKE+961228
     %CONFLICT SHARE COOPERATE CONFLICT RESOLUTIONS+961228
   %WAR VIOLENCE FUNDAMENTALISM ARROGANCE REJECTION+961228
   %LOVE ACCEPTANCE RECONCILIATION ISOMORPHISM MATH 961228

     Many   religious traditions know that they have  much
in   common,   only  if those  who are  followers  of  the
traditions   seek   to  recognize  what   they   have   in
common---in  spite  of  the differences  between  how they
express what they  have  in common.

     We  do  not all express what we have in common  in  a
common  way.   Often we express what we have in common  in
different  ways---and  fail to seek to recognize that  our
different   ways   of saying what is important  to   us---
often  conceals   how  similar  we  are in our  views   of
what  is important to us.

     Many people are preoccupied with identifying how they
are  better  than other people are.   Often people  regard
themselves  as  better than other people because  of  what
they  regard is most important and how they say what  they
regard  as most important.    Because they say  what  they
regard  as  most important in a ways which  are  different
from  than  how other people say what is most important---
people often  regard themselves as better than each other;
even  though   what   they  regard as  most  important  is
similar   or  identical.      What  is  different  is  the
language  they use to say what is most important to  them.
Because  they do not  seek to see beyond their differences
in  expressions  of what   is    most   important---people
with   very   similar religious beliefs  as  regards  what
is most important,  are often in conflict with each other;
if not at war with each other.

     We need to focus more attention upon what we hold  in
common;  and less attention upon our differences.  What we
hold  in  common serves as the basis for  cooperation  and
conflict  resolution.   Our differences are often used  as
excuses for attacks upon each other.

     When  we are seeking to cooperate with each other  on
the   basis  of what we hold in common---we do from   time
to  time   need  to  deal  with  our  differences   openly
and honestly;   doing so in terms of what we have found to
be  what  we  hold in common.    This is possible once   a
firm   foundation  has  been  laid  in  terms  of   mutual
understandings of what we hold in common.

     It  is  rare  for  people who  are  preoccupied  with
differences and grounds for excluding each other from open
and  honest  dialogue---to  call a  halt  to  hostilities,
conflicts  and violence in order to seek to identify  what
they have in common.  Hostilities,  conflicts and violence
do  not  lay firm foundations for any effort  to  identify
what people have in common in terms of ideals,  values and
principles which they regard as most important.

     In   light  of  the  above,  it is prudent  to   work
to  identify  what we hold in common as most  important---
even   though  we  express  our  attitudes,   assumptions,
convictions, beliefs, and ideals in contrasting languages.

     We  need to learn from mathematicians and  physicists
who have found that in many situations great truths can be
presented in greatly contrasting ways which are said to be
"isomorphic"   with each other.   Rules can be found which
show   that  statements  in  one  manner   of   expression
correspond  exactly  to  statements in another  manner  of
expression.  This is the essence of Einstein's Theories of
Relativity;   the  theories say how  measurements  in  one
system of measurements can be shown to correspond  exactly
to apparently contradictory measurements in another system
of  measurements.    Similarly  the early  theory  of wave
mechanics  was  shown  to be isomorphic  with  the  matrix
theory of quantum mechanics.  Newton's Theory of Mechanics
was  shown  to  be  isomorphic  with  the  Lagrangian  and
Hamiltonian   formulations   of  Mechanics.     Yet   each
formulation  has its own circumstances in which it is more
advantageous than another formulation.   They say the same
things in different ways which turn out to be advantageous
in  different  circumstances.   Perhaps religious  leaders
could  be  successful  in  efforts  to  work  together  to
discover  the  isomorphisms between what  their  religions
affirm,    and   thus   lay  firm  foundations   for   the
transcendence of religious conflicts and wars.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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