Religious Truth    All major religions contain some spiritual truth. Many of these truths have become distorted or misunderstood by imperfect mankind, and man has at times created and added, his own erroneous ideas and posed them as God’s Universal Laws. The Creator, from time to time and down throughout the ages, has always sent His prophets to bring to the people of the planet true knowledge of His Laws in a manner appropriate to their customs, their times, and in accordance with their moral, spiritual, and intellectual levels. He still does. In these present times, His message is embodied not in one person, but in the myriad voices now being heard all over the earth from the spirit world.    Most of the current major religions have set into stone, so to speak, the basic tenets of their faiths. The ideas and beliefs of these religions were established before the Scientific Age and without, the benefit of scientific methods of evaluation and investigation, and when mankind in his ignorance was guided by false notions and trepidation. Therefore, they have prematurely established mankind’s relationship to their Creator and their understanding of the purpose of life in their doctrines, which is why there are so many errors.    But, we see all major religions value:  right conduct, accept the existence of an immortal soul, the existence of a Supreme Creator, belief in some kind of afterlife beyond the material world, and some kind of  judgement regarding our behavior. Beyond these basic principles, humanity has added their own particular details depending on their level of understanding of the spiritual truths revealed to them, at that particular time and place in history.    Another concept, the so-called "Golden Rule" of Christianity, can be found in all major religions because it is the cornerstone of the Universal Law of Love. God wanted this most important message to reach all His children.     Nevertheless, the main error of many traditional religions, due to the intellectual and moral limitations of man, is to create man-made concepts which exclude their other brothers and sisters of the planet, in knowing and reaching God, because their sense of  justice is too small and morally immature to include all humanity, as compared to the Creator with His Infinite Justice and Mercy. Many peoples cannot comprehend God’s magnanimity on this issue; His unlimited  Love and unlimited Compassion. But this is what we would expect, since we are all at different spiritual and moral levels of understanding;  not everyone is ready to accept and comprehend the Spiritist Doctrine’s principle of inclusiveness.                                           Mankind, with its lack of spiritual vision, have restricted God’s Infinite Capacity for Forgiveness and Compassion, by providing for only one material life, in the current Christian, Moslem, and Jewish beliefs. In these faiths, simplistically stated, good people who follow these faiths go to heaven, and bad people, and also with those who don’t profess belief in these particular faiths, go to hell. This concept excludes a huge population of the planet from "salvation" not in keeping with the Supreme Justice of God. But, these religions will eventually understand that their religions’ early concept of "resurrection" essentially represented the idea of reincarnation, and, they will learn that "Judgement Day" occurs continuously and automatically via the law of cause and effect.    Those religions primarily from the East, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. accept the important concepts of reincarnation and the law of karma.  But among their followers are many who erroneously believe that release from suffering can only be accomplished solely through meditation, ascetic seclusion and exclusion from earthly duties, or through self torture, in their pursuit of Nirvana.      God’s Laws must be separated from humanity’s prejudices. The tool to accomplish this is use of reason in scientific investigation and research. The laws of the Universe are not supernatural, they are natural; superstition has no place. Man must also learn to reduce his pride which keeps him from accepting spiritual truths when he does find them.    Mankind has reached a certain level of spiritual and moral maturity and he has also     advanced in intellectual capacity in using the scientific method, with these together,science will support appropriate religious belief. Then humanity will have reached a milestone in its evolutionary progression wherein, religious faith will be based on reasoned and proven scientific facts, and faith will be stronger for it.    Allan Kardec, through his codification of Spiritism (the science of the laws regarding the interaction between the material and spiritual worlds), has provided a supreme base from which to continue our study of the universal spiritual laws that govern our lives, here and in the spirit world.  We have only just begun our work in pursuing understanding of the mysteries of the universe, of God, and the cosmic religion of Universal Truth!                                       Received inspirationally by Yvonne Limoges                                               The Spiritist Society of Florida