Three of the major world religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, were represented in “A Dialogue of Religion,” in this semester’s installment of the UNA Distinguished Events Series April 12.

Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University, spoke about the importance of studying religion in order to understand the conflicts of the world and the mindsets of people in various cultures.

“If [so many] people live their lives through religion we need to know something about religion,” he said. “[Religion] might not make sense to you, but you can’t make sense of the world without religion.”

Prothero said that religious education should be a standard part of the college curriculum because it’s shocking how little many religious people know about their own faiths, and how much less they know about other faiths.

Prothero rejected the cliché statement that all religions essentially involve “hiking up the same mountain.” He said statements like that provide barriers to understanding different faiths rather than pathways to knowledge.

“The problem with this idea is that it’s untrue, condescending and dangerous,” said Prothero. “Religions start with very different problems. They climb different mountains and tell different tales as they ascend.”

Prothero said that claiming that problems can be solved if people of different faiths realize they are all the same doesn’t hold up in the face of real world conflicts. This dismissal prohibits the ability of people to select what aspects of religions are “toxic” and which are “tonic.”

Rabbi Micah Greenstein of Temple Israel in Memphis said that “a generic religion is impossible because there are no generic human beings.”

He compared religions to beams of sunlight that originate from the same source, but get refracted in different ways depending on what kind of window the light is filtered through.

An issue was raised by an audience member regarding the lack of moderate Muslim voices in the media to counteract extremism. Sheikh Ossama Bahloul, imam of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, said that the Muslim community has not done as well as it could have, but the voices of radicals, though they are in the minority, are “much louder” than voices of moderation.

Bahloul said that the responsibility for rejecting radicalism does not rest on the shoulders of Muslims alone, but it is the responsibility of everyone.

“You want Muslims to speak out against radicals,” said Bahloul. “I am speaking out against radicals of any religion. We, as people, must all speak out against radicals.”

William Willimon, bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, said that one of the things he misses most about being on a college campus is being able to interact daily with people of other faiths and learn about their similarities and distinctions.

“You learn from other faiths,” he said. “The biggest challenge for me was not people of other faiths, but [understanding] Jesus, who was so different from the God we thought we had to have.”