Premise 1 : All of the world’s major religions have opposing doctrines
In his work, “The World’s Religions,” author Huston Smith highlights an 19th century Hindu saint, Ramakrishna, as an illustration of a conviction that the various major religions are alternate paths to the same goal. A more contemporary version of this argument is “universalism” which runs like this: all religions are like the spokes of a wheel that all end in the same center. The question, of course, is can this be right?
Let’s use Aristotle’s law of non-contradiction in considering the validity of universalism, or universal salvation. The law states that opposite truth claims cannot both be true.
The reality is that every religion makes absolute truth claims about God that are not only not the same, but are opposed to each other. Nothing demonstrates this more than the world’s religions fundamental view of God himself:
| Largest Religions | Views Of God |
| Christians | God is a Trinitarian communion of Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit |
| Islam | Holds that God is simply one |
| Buddhism | Classical Buddhism tends to be silent on the reality of an ultimate being and is therefore considered atheistic. |
| Hinduism | Believes in hundreds of deities including animals |
| Taoist/Confucianist | Multiple deities and ancestor worship |
The world’s largest religions not only have major disagreements concerning who God is, or the existence of God, they also differ greatly concerning the afterlife.
| Religion | Salvation | After Life |
| Protestant Christian | Man cannot earn salvation. People are saved by faith in the death and resurrection of Christ | Upon death spirits of Christians go to heaven. Spirits of unbelievers go to hell where they are separated from God |
| Roman Catholics | Must be baptized and perform sufficient acts to be purified of sin to go to heaven. | Souls who accepted Christ and performed sufficient acts of purification go to heaven, those who reject Christ go to hell. Those who died in faith but did not complete the steps to be purified are sent to purgatory where they undergo punishment until souls are cleansed. |
| Islam | Salvation comes to those who obey Allah sufficiently that good deeds outweigh the bad. Hope that repeating what Muhammad did and said will be enough to get to heaven, but they also recite extra prayers, fast, go on pilgrimages, and perform good works in hope of tipping the scales. | Martyrdom in service to Allah is the only work guaranteed to send a worshiper to paradise. |
| Buddhism | ||
| Hinduism | Salvation (or moksha) is reached when the worshiper is freed from the cycle of reincarnation, and his spirit becomes one with god. | One becomes free by ridding oneself of bad karma. This can be done in three different ways: through selfless devotion to and service of a particular god, through understanding the nature of the universe, or by mastering the actions needed to fully appease the gods. |
| Taoism | Salvation is reached by aligning with the cosmos and receiving aid from supernatural immortals who resided on mountains, islands, and other places on Earth. | Taoists have abandoned the quest for immortality and took on the afterlife teachings of Buddhism. |
| Jehovah Witness | Jehovah’s Witnesses teach different levels of heaven. The anointed are 144,000 who receive salvation by the blood of Christ and will rule with Him in paradise. For all others, Jesus’ sacrifice only freed them from Adam’s curse of original sin, and “faith” is merely the opportunity to earn their way to heaven. They must learn about Kingdom history, keep the laws of Jehovah, and be loyal to “God’s government”—the 144,000 leaders, 9,000 of whom are currently on the earth. They must also spread the news about the Kingdom, including door-to-door proselytizing. | Upon death, they will be resurrected during the millennial kingdom where they must continue a devout life. Only afterwards are they given the opportunity to formally accept Christ and live for eternity under the rule of the 144,000. |
| Bahai’s | Man not born with sin nature and needs no saving from evil | Upon death, a person’s soul continues its spiritual journey, perhaps through the states known as heaven and hell, until it comes to a final resting point, united with god. |
| Mormanism | To reach the second heaven under “general salvation,” one must accept Christ (either in this life or the next) and be baptized or be baptized by proxy through a living relative. | To reach the highest heaven, one must believe in God and Jesus, repent of sins, be baptized in the church, be a member of the LDS church, receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, obey the Mormon “Word of Wisdom” and all God’s commandments, and complete certain temple rituals including marriage. This “individual salvation” leads to the worshiper and his/her spouse becoming gods and giving birth to spirit children who return to Earth as the souls of the living. |
To say that “All religions are fundamentally the same and only superficially different’ is simply not true,” “It is more correct to say that all religions are, at best, superficially similar but fundamentally different.”
Ravi Zacharias,
All of these religions differ in 3 foundational ways:
- Who or what god is
- How or why you should live concerning salvation of your soul
- What heaven is or how you get there
To say that all religions are the same is like saying Mexican, Asian, Italian, and African food are the same despite having totally different ingredients. preparation, and flavor outcomes
To say that all religions are just different paths to the same thing is like saying if you go south you will still be north, or that you can go backwards while still proceeding straight ahead.
Discussion Question 1: How can world religions be deemed equally true and valid if they literally contradict each other?
Premise 2 : Major religions believe they are exclusively true
Timothy Keller, author of “The Reason For God” writes about being the Christian representative in a panel discussion at a college along with a Jewish Rabbi, and a Muslim Imam. The panelists were asked to discuss the differences among religions. Following the discussion they all agreed on the following statement:
If Christians are right about Jesus being God, then Muslims and Jews fail in a serious way to love God as God really is, but if Muslims and Jews are right that Jesus is not God but rather a teacher or prophet, then Christians fail in a serious way to love God as God really is.
Timothy Keller The Reason for God (p. 4). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition
The bottom line is—they couldn’t all be equally right about the nature of God.
The foundations of the world religions discussed in Premise 1 are not only considered to be major differences, they are referred to as non-negotiables as well.
Each of the aforementioned religions believes that any deviance from their own theory of salvation, the means of meriting salvation, and the afterlife is disastrous to the soul of the non-adherent.
Each religion informs its followers that they have “the truth” …Also, each religion tells its followers that they are saved and connected to God by devotedly performing that truth
Timothy Keller-The Reason for God
Leaders of the world’s foremost religions are dogmatic that there are not many paths to salvation or heaven, but only one...theirs!
Discussion Question 2 : Is it at all accurate to say then that all religions are basically the same, and lead to the same destination if the religions founders and leaders wholeheartedly disagree?
Premise 3: Do all religions lead to same destination?
Are all religions basically the same?
Do all religions lead to the same destination?
In a word, “No.”
The world’s religions don’t even agree on what the destination is. For example, Buddhism teaches that your problem is suffering. The solution is the eight-fold path and the goal is nirvana, which means you essentially become extinct with respect to the material world.
Christianity, on the other hand, teaches that your problem is sin, the inborn tendency to go your own way apart from God. The solution is forgiveness, by which God restores the broken relationship, and the goal is a resurrected life in a renewed heaven and earth.
In Hinduism, your problem is a vicious cycle of life, death and rebirth. The solution is discipline in various forms — ritual actions, wisdom or devotion to the god of your choosing, and the goal is not salvation from sin but to escape the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
In Islam, your problem is self-sufficiency, or acting as if you can get along without God. The solution is submission to Allah by following the five pillars of the faith, and the goal is a paradise of sensual comforts.
In Judaism, the problem is a rhythm of wrongdoing, punishment and exile. The solution is to return to God by remembering the covenant and following the commands of the Torah, the Hebrew Bible. The goal is to repair the world by doing the commandments and restoring righteousness.
Some religions emphasize that life has gone wrong, while others emphasize that life itself is wrong.
There is no agreement on the destination, neither is there agreement on the problem nor the solution
Certainly there are common elements among religions generally: belief in some kind of transcendence, an ethical system, rituals and stories about creation and the end of the world.
All too often, however, people assume that these very different belief systems are just alternate paths up the same mountain, and that fails to do justice to the distinctiveness of what each religion teaches and insists upon.
(Article: The Republic; Rev. John Armstrong is pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Columbus)
Discussion Question 3: Is it condescending to lump all religions together as if their various pillars or foundational teachings are more-or-less tangential to their similarities?
ThinkCubed Truth Veracity Grid
Have I considered the issue carefully, honestly, and with an open mind?
Does what I think conform to the rules of logic and avoid contradiction?
Is what I believe influenced by my own bias, presuppositions, or personal desire?
