A lot of my readers are of the monotheistic religion meaning they go to church, mosque, or synoguoge or are recommended to by their religious books or leaders. 

I too once belonged to one of these three faiths and grappled with how to live a Christian life in the midst of so many ideas of right and wrong.  What did I do?  I went to a Christian college for 2 semesters in order to understand how other people did it.

I was blessed with a professor who taught me that All of this world belongs to God.  All the knowledge was his, all that was ever produced after he created it belonged to him.  So there is no problem with studying God’s creation. 

This led me to leave this school and attend a public college where I graduated from with a degree in psychology and also where I found zen and Buddhist teachings as well as others that I felt changed my life for the better. 

I realize there are a lot of people who ask the same question I did more than a decade ago.  If you belong to or say you belong to a faith that believes in one God but have a desire to really belong to this world and make an impact, this article is for you.

Being curious about the world is good.  God made it, he made us.  All the ways our minds function, our creativity, curiosity, problem solving skills, wisdom, and light came along with us as abilities from him, it, or her, whatever your monotheistic God appears as.  So when we reject knowledge coming from someone’s creativity or problem solving skills just because we think it’s ungodly without really considering whether it’s true or not we’re rejecting and shutting out God’s light or darkness in some cases.

If God created us we all have his signature on us and everything we do should be an available lesson of sorts because it also has his signature.  There is nothing completely evil in this world and nothing completely good.  One man’s hell is another’s heaven.  One man loses another wins.  A loss is just telling us we need to prepare better or change our strategy.  Good and bad are value judgements and it all depends in determining which we’ll use.

If all knowledge is a product of our problem solving or creativity and we all have god’s signature on us then it’s all possible to study and learn from.  Not everything will help but it’s good (When there’s time) to at least test ideas and see for yourself whether they work or not.

That’s how I finally realized all knowledge is useful to study.  That’s how I found zen and began practicing meditation;  I tested their teachings using the light God put in me and used what helped.

You don’t have to stop going to church or whatever services you attend to be open to zen or Sufism or Hinduism, or even neuroscience.  Whatever you want to study is up to you.  And be wise.  Most people are closed minded.  They think their religion, political ideas, social judgements, values are the best so don’t always try to teach these things to them unless you are patient enough.  You don’t have to convert people all the time but some people are open to change.  Know when it’s best to speak.