Words of Wisdom delivered at The Temple Of Ultimate Bliss of Tainan Taiwan—The Need to return Religion from Unfounded Belief to Founded Belief. （Episode 4） 2018/1/2 No：32-258-0004_en
Today we all know how turbulent society is. The world is full of troubles. What scares us the most is war, which must not occur.
Modern warfare is destructive. It is a global disaster, not a regional one. This is truly terrifying. That is why what we urgently need is the way to permanently eliminate conflicts and wars.
Sinologists recognise that sinology can definitely save humanity. And, the old European sinologists in the past exerted a far-reaching influence. They really studied sinology in-depth. Many of them studied more so than the Chinese scholars did. Europe did experience a peaceful and prosperous age in the past, though it didn’t last very long. What led to that peaceful and prosperous age? Religion. After all, people who believe in religion, the gods or God would think twice before doing anything bad so that they would not go too far. The past century saw great progress in science. Scientists have been telling people that God and religion are unreal. So people gave up religion and no longer believed in it. This resulted in social disorder.
How can society return to peace that reigned? Only by reviving religion can society be saved. This is because, unlike the Chinese, they do not have Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. They rely on religion. This is why we have to discuss this issue in depth. How to revive religion? By bringing it back to education. It is necessary to understand clearly what religion in fact is. What is religion? It is education. Religion preceded civilisation in history. It bred civilisation. Without religion as the basis of civilisation, no civilisation would last longer than three hundred years.
In the past three thousand years there used to be more than twenty different cultures. Now, there is only one, the Chinese culture. Chinese culture still exists, but the others no longer exist. Why? Because science caused the foundation of religion to collapse. Scientists told people that religion is an illusion, it is unreal. So, religion collapsed. Although some religions survive, yet they are superstitions, they are beliefs that are unfounded. There are believers who can recite religion texts led by a clergyman in church, just like the Chinese in Buddhist devotional gathering that is ceremonial and ritualistic in nature. So, this is a crisis. What should be done about religion? We support the view that religion is education, not superstition. That is why we must return religion to the basics. We hope that Religion Instructors can clearly and precisely explain the religion classics. This will show that religion is not superstition. If you can only recite the religion text but you do not understand its meaning, then that is superstition. Unfounded belief must revert to founded belief.
Where do we start? The British have already started by setting up a doctoral degree programme of study leading to the award of Ph.D. in Harmony. This programme aims to train Religion Instructors and takes three years to complete. After obtaining their doctorate, the Religion Instructors will be qualified to start a course on religion classics in the University which they can lecture on. It is a great idea, a very good way to bring religion back to the academia. Each religion is entitled to select two doctoral candidates to join this programme.
We support the students with scholarship. There will be twenty-five students in the first phase. Instructing this course is beyond us because we have not studied their religions. That is why we need each religion to select from its own community a person capable of explaining its religion classics clearly and thoroughly as the instructor. So, there will be one instructor and two students. Probably about ten instructors and altogether twenty-five students. That will start reviving religion. That will be great.
After I read this document I was thrilled. Many religions and their gods are being plagued by the crisis of faith. A religion will perish if no one will pass it on to the next generation. That religion will simply disappear. Now, your undertaking this project is helping these gods and God to nurture the next generation of believers.
So I suggested to him that the graduates should not just take off after obtaining their Doctorate in Harmony in three years’ time, we must keep them on. In other words, since we will have trained thirty Religion Instructors holding the doctorate, we should engage them in education. Three years later, this doctoral programme of ours should be upgraded to a college of religion education, which will then assist many religions to train more Religion Instructors. With thirty Religion Instructors, I can proceed to establish a college of religion education. Establishing a college is tantamount to establishing a formal university that offers three years of undergraduate studies. Each student will specialize in the study of the religion classics of his own religion. For instance, the Bible of Christianity and the Koran of Islamism. Then, one year for the Master degree and three years for the doctorate. During these four years the students must study the religions other than their own religion. This will enable them to understand those religions besides their own. I promote the idea that “One Family for All Religions, One Entity for All Gods”. How can there be so many gods? There is only one God, all other gods is the personification of this one and only Godhead. That is why all gods is one entity and all religions is one family. Then, conflicts among religions will be resolved. Definitely there should not be conflicts. Why would one fight against oneself?
Then after seven years, a student will have completed all his studies in the college of religion education. This is tantamount to graduating from a university of religion. We estimate that we can successfully train one hundred to one hundred and fifty holders of Ph.D. in Harmony qualified to be professors. With so many professors capable of teaching, we can then formally establish a university of world religion. In the future, graduates of this university of world religion will be able to teach courses on religion in regular schools. To formalize religion as education is to bring today’s superstition back to education. The graduates in religion education will have a bright future in a career teaching in the regular universities as they will be well qualified to do so. By going forward towards this objective and moving in this direction, religion will be integrated into education after ten years. They were very happy at hearing I said to go forward towards this objective.
So this is a monumental project, not a trivial matter. All of you teachers are saving five thousand years of traditional Chinese culture from extinction by committing to this project to teach the next generation. The spiritual credit you earn will far exceed any of your good deed. No good deed is comparable to your commitment. We have been presented with this opportunity. To do what? To save culture, five thousand years of culture is saved from extinction by our hands. This is of great significance. It is invaluable. May the ancestors bless you all. May the gods protect you all.