Shared a meme six years ago that said

My cat is very handsome and soft. My cat is best cat. Your cat is also best cat. All cats are best cats and that is science. Thank you.

My comment?

I’m using this the next time I hear an argument about the merits of particular religions.

I suspected some may be unable to process what I mean by my comments on this meme, so I explained it.

This is not mere philosophizing, but bringing what really has meaning out into the light. It’s just a shame it takes so many words to cut through to a truth ignored.

Religion is a cultural expression of Man’s relationship to Life — its creator and creation. The story of it comes through many different places and times, different histories and languages. Religion is not God. Religion is not Truth. It is not something that can even be said is true or false, only useful or not to those who embrace it — or more often wield it as a weapon and excuse for being right and everyone else is wrong.

As a Christian, this is particularly offensive, because so many people calling themselves Christian are in opposition to the Gospel on this point, something written across Jesus’s words and teaching in bold print, but invisible or incomprehensible to many because they worship what they were taught of God rather than God Himself. They wish to stop those who bless others or cast out spirits but are not of their flock. Christ Himself chastised his own apostles for being this way.

There are miracles found among the stories, prophets, and people of all Faiths. God has not chosen to reveal himself to one “chosen” people at the neglect of all others. He has not hidden Himself from the Chinese, or Hindus, or Native Americans, but reveals to each of us as we are able to listen, in our own language of the mouth and of the heart. If it were not so, He would be a parent unworthy of respect.

The most revered Saints among the many peoples of the world agree: If you are a Christian, or a Jew, or a Hindu, or a Muslim, be a GOOD Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim. The written law brings death (a phrase written by Paul of Tarsus, the truth of which is the reason I chose Paul as my middle name). Life is in that which cannot be labeled or named, though it may be given many labels or names.

There’s nothing “lukewarm” about this. This isn’t an intellectual compromise. It is the Love and Beauty and Strength of a God far greater than the one people think they can cram into their tiny little books, traditions, and dogmas.

Whatever your relationship to Deity, your cat is best. All cats are best, because what matters to you is your cat and we all live in that same personal relationship. We should think of our as being best, but ought not be so uncompassionate or ignorant to think anyone else’s relationship is less than ours. God didn’t speak to us in their shoes. We don’t know the whisper, the plans, the grace given to another. The very idea we can measure another’s soul by what we have been taught or choose to believe is a disrespect to God’s relationship with another person.

“Judge not” is another expression for this …