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OPRAH: Is that the reason, too, part of the reason that you say that
you're not interested in a synagogue or a mosque or a church or a building or a -
REZA: Yes. Look, when you study the religions of the world, it becomes very hard, if not
impossible, to think of any one of those religions in this sort of exclusivist way that so many
people do. Because what you realize very, very quickly is that all of these religions are
essentially saying the same thing. They're answering the same questions. Often they're
coming up with the almost exact same answers. They're just using a different language.
Different metaphors. Different symbols. OPRAH: Different path. REZA: Different path.
Same destination. OPRAH: But -- different path. Same destination. Well, why is it, then, that
so many religions fear the very idea that there is a different path other than that one
path? REZA: Because they confuse the path for the destination. They think that religion and
faith are the same thing. Understand that religion and faith aren't the same. Faith is personal
and mysterious and individualistic and inexpressible and indefinable. Religion is merely the
language that you can use to express what is fundamentally inexpressible. To define what is
indefinable. And so for -- in a sense, for me, the language that you choose is not that
important because it's what you are expressing that actually matters. OPRAH: But so many
wars have been fought over this very subject because people believe their language is the
only language. REZA: Right. OPRAH: And you're saying, actually, that it's more about our
identity than actual beliefs. Explain that. How it's really more about our identity. REZA: I
think when most people think about religion, they think beliefs and practices. That that's what
religion is. OPRAH: Yeah. REZA: What they don't realize is that actually religion is far more
a matter of identity. That when you say I am a Christian, I am a Jew, I am a Muslim, I am a
Hindu, you're making an identity statement much more than a statement about beliefs. That's
true around the world.