The end of the semester was finally in sight. During the last few months, about twenty students and I had journeyed with Mohammed though the Arabian desert, sat in silence with the meditating Buddha, swam in the polytheistic sea of Hinduism, and swept even the smallest of living creatures aside as the Jains walked along. We had seen it all. And all of it was rather fascinating. To think that on this single planet there are so many religions, so many deities, so many ways of connecting with a higher power. One of the students, partly out of curiosity, partly out of sheer frustration with the volume of the subject matter, raised his hand and asked the question that many in the class had probably been asking themselves, “When it comes right down it, Professor, don’t most of these religions lead to the same God?”

Those who would answer “yes”…