Madison Atlas

Mr. Pace

Dual Credit English IV

Book Essay 4

2/25/18

All Gods Are Real Gods

There are so many different forms of God… so which one is the right one. They all are! In the

novel ​Life of Pi, ​by Yann Martel the main character Pi deals with clashing thoughts about him

worshiping more than one God. All Pi wants to do is love God in all of his different forms, but

he gets shunned from worshiping because he can’t choose a single religion. The harsh judgement

Pi had to face was because society can’t cope with the idea that all religions worship God in a

similar way. No one knows if there even is a God, let alone the exact religion he thinks everyone

should follow to get into heaven. If there’s one thing I ever learned from the Bible it is that we

should be open, loving, and accepting of everyone; no matter the religion. Our inability to

understand and accept all religions causes worldwide fear, anger, and chaos.

The Bible is a single book with multiple stories. Each of these stories gets interpreted

differently by different groups of people. No one could agree with the correct meaning of the

Bible so they branched off and stood behind what religion they thought was the proper

justification. This caused the separation of everyone across the world, and anger to form between

those that differ in religion. To me, religion is a form of exclusion. This quote from ​Life of Pi

shows how negatively each church treated Pi, “‘He can’t be a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim.
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It’s impossible. He must choose’”(Martel 69). The world benefits more because Pi had an open

minded view on religion and wanted to explore more than one.

Why is it a problem to worship more than one God? If we show are dedication to God we

get to go to Heaven. The problem is not worshiping God too much, it’s worshiping God too little.

Every religion follows a set of rules that will get them to heaven, and they refuse to believe other

people’s rules will get them to heaven as well. The only thing that is similar in the bible, no

matter the religion, is the rule of being a good person and helping others. We fear other religious

practices because our one bible doesn’t acknowledge them as holy. Albert Einstein once said “If

people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot

indeed”. Different religions are too scared to branch out and understand other religions for the

fear of God punishing them. We have been brainwashed by the idea that God will harm us for

practicing the wrong religion, but the truth is we don’t know which one is right.

Which religion is the correct one to follow? No one actually knows, so we should learn to

accept instead of alienate, “If people in every religion claim that theirs is the right one and

everyone else’s is wrong, how can we believe any of them”(Woofenden). Why can’t we believe

all of them. There is no harm done by worshiping all religions. Following more than one religion

is a type of insurance policy. If we were actually determined to go to heaven we would follow all

religions, and follow each and every rule to guarantee our place beyond the pearly gates.

Our ability to try something before we judge it is almost nonexistent, in the novel Pi

states “I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem.

Certain illusions about freedom plague them both”(15). The sadness in this quote is the fact that

we will never change. Mankind will never be able to accept things they don’t know, and we will
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never begin to sacrifice our time to learn new things. Multiple religions causes other pain, it

makes people angry, and it guarantees chaos around the world. The only way we can fix it is

accept everyone, learn about all religions, and ultimately follow multiple religions.
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Works Cited

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Mary Glasgow Magazines, 2014. print.

Woofenden, Lee. “If There's One God, Why All the Different Religions?” Spiritual Insights for

Everyday Life, 16 Sept. 2016, web.