Sunday, 23 August 2009
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Are All Spiritual Beliefs True?
"We should celebrate all things spiritual! Afterall, all religions basically teach the same thing: respect and love for one's neighbor and doing good to human kind."
This is a very, very common way of thinking. People of all stripes and occupations hold to it. Let's pause and think about this for a bit. Is it true to say that all religions are basically the same and/or all religions lead to heaven? Think for a moment and you'll see how vacuous this belief is. First, some religions don't stress loving one's neighbor. Doing good isn't on their central radar screen. Moreover, if you look at the main beliefs of the world's major faiths, you'll see they are quite different. Christians believe Jesus was crucified on a cross. There is no Christianity without that belief! Muslims, however, reject that; what's more, to Muslims, holding to the crucifixion of Jesus is no small thing--it's a big no-no! Jehovah's Witnesses believe Jesus was the archangel Michael, and Christians reject such a thing. God is a personal creator who is separate from His creation in Christianity, whereas all is one in Hinduism. All these beliefs are main pillars of each faith. Even each faith's beliefs in the afterlife are worlds apart--heaven, reincarnation, nothing, etc.What sense does it make to say that these beliefs can all be true? God can't be both personal and impersonal. He can't both exist and not exist. Jesus can't both have died on a cross and not died on a cross. These are not claims about personal tastes; they are claims about reality, and therefore they are subject to the laws of logic.
I've heard an objection that when it comes to religion, "what's true for you might not be true for me." Is this a good way of thinking? It is not like we are talking about food tastes, which are subjective. No, these are all claims about what really happens after you die. They apply to reality. That doesn't mean they are false; it just means that they can't all be true. Yet another comeback is that this is an "either/or," overly-western way of thinking, but in the east, many think in "both/and" terms and are thus okay with embracing contradictory beliefs. The notion that God is both personal and impersonal is not strange to the eastern mind at all. Is this a good response? No. As Ravi Zacharias often notes, even in the streets of Shanghai, they look both ways when crossing the street, because they understand that it's either them or the bus, not both. Also, when thinking about spirituality, they choose the "both/and "way of thinking *instead of* the "either/or", not both. No matter how you twist things, you can't get away from the "either/or" at the end of the day. There's a good reason--it is tethered to reality.The next time you are discussing religion with your buddies and one of them starts waxing eloquent about pluralism, don't buy the hype. As my favorite author commonly says, aspirin and arsenic might be both small, white, and round pills, but please don't stop there when choosing which to take for a headache!
Do you agree? Can all spiritual beliefs possibly be true?
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- From: KaviSaphala@xanga
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Comments (52)
Post moderns with their relativism drive me nuts! Great post!
Although there is some truth in the great religions of the world, Christianity is the complete and distilled truth.
The reason for this is that Christianity is the result of God revealing himself to mankind in order to save him. That Revelation reached completion in the life of Jesus, Son of God who was a Jew and who created Christianity.
Good post. I do have an unrelated question though. I recognize the symbols for 4 of the six religions in the picture. What are the left two on the bottom row?
Although I try to refrain from quoting C.S. Lewis, (because I don't think his words are on the same level as the bible, like some other christians seem to), I really like this part from the Last Battle.
Precursor- This guy had been following an imitator of aslan and the real aslan showed up.
"Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, though knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless they desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what the truly seek."
This post should be taken down, it's plagiarized! If you look at the "original poster's" page he has posted 50+ posts today, all from other blogs claiming them as his own. Until that is resolved this should be taken down.
@fallingraindrop@xanga - distilled truth... i like that... never really thought of it put that way before... distilled truth... undisturbed and unadulterated truth... truth as how it should be... interesting way to put it...
Personally, I believe if you are a good person in this life, you will be rewarded in the afterlife.
@MagisterTom@xanga - It's true. It looks like "KaviSaphala" has posted 1542 posts in the month of August and all of them are not original. There are links to their original sources, but this still is not original material. This needs to go bye bye.
I think CS Lewis had it right when he said that just because there's only one truth doesn't mean that some religions aren't closer to the truth than others. Most religions preach some form of loving your neighbor as yourself, which is a teaching from Jesus, whether they recognize it that way or not. 2+2 will always equal 4, but other religions that produce a 3 or a 4.5 will be a lot closer than a religion that adds up to a 12...or something like that. Clearly I paraphrased his exact words!
@Lil_Firefly_25@xanga - But what is a "good person." exactly?
I did not read the whole post-- so if it is one of those tricky ones in which it asks a question that it proves incorrect, I'm sorry.
But to this: Do you agree? Can all spiritual beliefs possibly be true?
No, it is impossible-- the Christian faith, is either true or false. Christ claimed to be the one and only way, if he is wrong, then he is wrong and therefore not true. If he is right, he is right, and therefore all others are wrong.
All spiritual beliefs are spiritual to the beholder.
Do you agree? Can all spiritual beliefs possibly be true?
No.
i think that religions in general were invented by man to attempt to describe, label and conform a feeling of a higher power in reality (whether or not one exists is irrelevant). i've studied a ton of belief systems, and i don't think any of them have gotten it 100% correct. for me, a religion that represents an absolute truth would be completely flawless in every sense.
A lot of Christian religions don't teach respect and love for one's neighbor and doing good to humankind, either. So what? If you can't learn something from the Koran or Dao De Ching, then you are not very spiritually perceptive.
I doubt any religion is completely true. This is why I feel people should respect the beliefs of others. I don't think a person should be judging others on an issue they don't have correct themselves. Until I see some kind of proof of how Christianity (or any other religion) is 100% true, I wouldn't say anyone should change their beliefs. Can all spiritual beliefs be 100% true? No, and probably none of them are. Can all of them be good ideas on how to live your life correctly? Yes, and it is true for most religions.
i think many spiritualistic ways of living are true and when i say true, i basically mean beneficial. i'm a christian but i like to practice a lot of the buddhist ways of life and relaxation only because i believe optimism is a necessity and i want to keep my mind strong and clear. i believe that christianity has a lot of the same ideas as buddhism like loving one another, but i'm a christian and not a buddhist for a few reasons. the biggest one is probably that my belief in jesus and god means i'm never alone and while i respect and admire the buddhist religion, i don't believe it will help in times of real need when nothing but my god can give me a hand. with christianity, there's that sense that i'm never alone. i just study and practice some buddhist traditions for the relaxing and peaceful benefits they bring.
like yoga. yoga's great
and i love and admire the dalai lama a lot. he's just so sweet and adorable.
@MagisterTom@xanga - I was curious too. The wheel is the Buddhist Wheel of Dharma. I haven't found the other one yet. I thought it might be Budhist, but haven't confirmed.
@MagisterTom@xanga - The bottom middle symbol is the symbol for humanism.
No, there is only one Truth. None of us can prove it tho' So it's whatever you want to believe. I think tolerance starts when you say to yourself, "I believe this because I want to. It pleases me to believe it. It makes sense to me." So people who say that all things are true and what is true for you isn't true for me about historical things like the crucifixion, I agree, are immature thinkers. Either He was crucified or not. That's just history. Either He is G-d's Son or not, that's whatever you want to believe. In other words, whatever you want to believe= religion. So I tell everybody, "I don't believe in facts." You can't prove anything to me. You can make me want to believe it, but you can't prove that the hands I am typing with exist. I may be a dream or a dreamer is the cliche that dominates my mind as the easiest expression of you can't prove anything. Another thing that remains true, or something we all agree on (Facts= something we all agree on) is history is written by the winner. So thats the truth, right, we never know what happened. I want to believe Yeshua died on the cross for me.
Impossible. All religious beliefs cannot all be true. This is so because many beliefs, in fact a bulk of them, are contradictory. If one belief is true, than any belief than is opposite on that true belief must be false. Sure, all religions have something in common, but the important thing is where they diverge. And where two religions don't agree is where one of them is, at least in relation to the one disbuted aspect, wrong. It's basic logic: no two contradictory things can both be true at the same time in the same sense.
For example: Muslims believe that Jesus Christ was a mere prophet, and not different from the other prophets. Christians, on the other hand, believe Christ to be God almighty, incarnated in a human form, and is thus no less than the alpha and omega himself. Since the two beliefs cannot both be true, one of these groups must be wrong, if not both. I fall into the latter catagory, but that's not the issue here.
Another example: Theists believe that God exists, while Atheists believe that God does not exist. If we assume that it refers to God being an all powerful being that created and commands the universe, then obviously one of these two groups must be wrong. After all, how can God both exist yet not exist at the same time and in the same sense of the term? It's not possible, and such an impossibility is not relative but absolute. In this case, one just happens to be right while the other wrong, since the two possibilities exist directly in opposition to each other, and to say one is wrong must also say that the other must be true by process of elimination.
@fallingraindrop@xanga - Jesus did not create Christianity. Humanity created it including all of the fractures that fall under that broad term.
no all religions cannot lead to paradise...im an orthodox muslim, so ofcourse i belive that islam is the only religion that has been revealed by ALLAH, and for the children of Adam to follow.the MOST IMPORTANT thing in islam is the creed of a muslim(i.e. MONOTHISM--tawheed--)...EVERY other religion out there, even if they claim to preech it..NONE of them truly preech/practice monothism..like chritianity..the trinity(in my oppinion)is a bit messy(i.e. EXTREAMLY hard to grasp)..as in God is 3 but its 1 but its 3 but its 1...i dont get it..anywayz so yea no all religions dont lead to ALLAH(subhanahu watalal) --ALLAH the most high and the exalted--
Since I am a Christian, what I am saying now is probably biased. But I still feel like I have to say this. Salvation can only be through the Son of God - Jesus Christ. How predictable... Oh well, I have something more to say though. I do believe that most spiritual beliefs have some truth in them, but in the end, only those which didn't conflict with the Bible directly. Science may be seen as conflicting the Bible, but it isn't really contradicting the Bible in any way. Spiritual beliefs should be seen more like science, things that were not mentioned by the Scriptures are not necessarily evil (think about it with common sense). Sometimes science touches spiritual stuffs, we have seen it more than once especially about psychics, Qi, ghosts and reincarnation (deja vu...). Some people even think that science can disprove God, but the most science can do is to explore how God has created this world (or rather how this world operates and operated). Science is about how things work, when people ask why and continue to ask why, they will eventually have to stop at God being the cause.
I heard somewhere that atheists must believe that 90% of the world's population is dead wrong.
Christians, however, have the freedom of knowing that seeds of truth and reality are sown in all peoples' hearts and therefore all religions hold truth in that they reflect the human need to worship a God of some sort and practice a moral life of some sort. But this God-shaped hole is crystallized and fulfilled only in true Christianity, through belief in Jesus.
People are not uncomfortable these days with the fact that truth and reality is thought of as so relative and contradictory. But the job of human reasoning is not to shut off and say, "Well anyone can think what they want" but to dig down and find out the truth of the matter, what actually, really is there.
Our thoughts do not make reality. They can only interpret it. My belief in God does not bring Him into existence anymore than an atheist's disbelief puts Him out of it. :D