Aren't All Religions Equal?

The Christian faith presents a big problem when it comes to other religions, as the Christian faith claims to know the exclusive truth about God. Central to the problem is that the Christian faith holds to what is called “correspondence truth.”

Correspondence Truth

This means that truth always corresponds to reality.

Therefore, truth for a Christian isn’t just our version of truth or merely comforting thoughts, but the way things actually are. It also means that when other religions or worldviews teach competing claims, we believe that they are stating things that don’t correspond with reality, they aren’t the way things actually are, they are false.

We see this reaffirmed in John 14:6 when Jesus states that, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is saying that he reveals the truth about God.  This would have been understood as an exclusive claim about God, which Jesus would have believed to be corresponding to reality. Jesus was declaring any other competing claims to be false.

We also see this reaffirmed in Acts 4:12 where Peters says that “There is salvation in no one else [besides Jesus], for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Peter is speaking of the reality of sin being a problem for all people, which we need salvation from, and that Jesus’ death and resurrection are the sole hope we have for the forgiveness of our sins.  Jesus is put forward as the exclusive hope for humanity, and Peter is saying that any other option falls short.

The Problem

Here’s the problem, as life continues on you’ll meet many good and decent people who hold to other truth claims that they say corresponds to reality.

The Solution???

Religious pluralism is the most common response to the problem of good people holding competing truth claims. There are two types of religious pluralism.

1. Unsophisticated Pluralism
This states that all religions are true and teach essentially the same thing. However, this is clearly wildly false when we compare different religions. Islam teaches there is one personal God who created the world. Man is sinful and needs forgiveness and has one of two destinies, eternal heaven or eternal hell. Classical Buddhism on the other hand teaches nothing about sin or salvation. There is no personal God in Buddhism, and man doesn’t even have an eternal soul.

The idea that all religions essentially teach the same thing is clearly wrong.

It’s interesting how no one uses this way of thinking with math or banking. If I were to walk into a bank and tell them “all statement amounts are true and say essentially the same thing” and then hand them a napkin on which I’ve written “I have $1 million in my bank account,” they are always going to maintain a correspondence view of truth and tell me that I’m broke as a joke, and then proceed to laugh me out of the bank. The bank wouldn’t ever operate in a pluralistic way, why would we apply this thinking in reference to God?

2. Sophisticated Pluralism

This teaches that all religions are false, but somehow reflect truth. With this way of thinking, it’s impossible to say that one religion is true, and others are false.

This way of thinking loves the illustration of the blind men and the elephant. The illustration goes something like this: Imagine you are in a room with an elephant and several blind men are trying to describe that elephant. One man grabs the tail and states “the elephant is like a snake,” another grabs the leg and states “the elephant is like a tree,” one grabs the tusk and states “the elephant is like a spear.” In this illustration they are all equally false, but reflect some truth about the elephant. Sophisticated pluralists would say this is how religion works, we are all false, but reflect a bit of truth about God.

The Response

Pluralists make several statements about religion and truth I want to respond to.

1.  “All religions reflect truth, but not the whole truth”

This is essentially what the elephant and blind men illustration is trying to communicate. Each religion is reflecting truth, but not the whole truth. But here’s the problem, the only one who knows it’s an elephant is the outside perspective, and the pluralist is claiming to be the outside perspective. Basically, the pluralist is saying that everyone is wrong, while they alone are exclusively right. While trying to combat against exclusive religious claims, the pluralist is making an exclusive religious claim and claiming to have the whole truth.

Or to put it more simply, in trying to let every religious view be right, they are saying all others are wrong, and claiming to be the only true religious view.

2. “It’s arrogant to say that Christianity is exclusively true, and all other faiths are wrong”

As we’ve seen, pluralism is teaching that it is exclusively right and all other religions wrong. If exclusivity is arrogant, then pluralism has to be arrogant as they are making exclusive statements. Once again, with the blind men and the elephant, all the men were wrong in their descriptions about the elephant. The only truth about the elephant was the outside perspective, which pluralism claims to be. Pluralism claims to be the one who claims to see, while all other religions are blind! Therefore, if the Christian faith is arrogant, pluralism is as well!

3. “Your exclusive religious claims create wars and violence, it hinders peace.”

Pluralists are stating their views are the best answer to the problems of war and violence which religion creates. However, in the 20^th century some of the most violent and intolerant have been those who believed that religion caused intolerance and violence. 

The atheist Joseph Stalin is said to have murdered up to 61 million people during his reign in the Soviet Union. The atheist Mao Zedong is said to have caused the deaths of up to 70 million people in communist China. Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge banned all religious groups and murdered 3 million people, or about 25% of Cambodia. Hitler is thought by many historians to have been an atheist or a deist, and desired to eradicate the Christian faith. He was responsible for the deaths of at least 11 million people.

When Christians cause violence and wars, the need isn’t for a rejection of Christianity. The heart of the Christian faith is God dying for the good and forgiveness of His enemies. Instead, people need to take the exclusive claims of the Christian faith more seriously as this is going to lead to peace, love, forgiveness, and reconciliation. This way will change everything.

4. “Your religious view is only based off of where you were born”

The argument is all religions are culturally conditioned, and therefore equally false. For example, if you were born in India you’d be a Hindu, if you were born in China you’d be a Buddhist, if you were born in Iran you’d be a Muslim, and since you were born in America you are a Christian.

But here’s the problem, pluralism is itself a religious view! This means that if we follow the logic, it’s culturally conditioned and equally false. As the argument goes, the only reason why a pluralist is a pluralist is based upon where they were born. If the pluralist was born in India they’d be a Hindu, or the pluralist was born in Iran they’d be a Muslim. This argument doesn’t disprove pluralism, just as much as it doesn’t disprove any religious faith.

Conclusion

If the Christian faith corresponds to reality, if it is exclusively true, then it’s exclusively true that we have an incredible hope. It’s exclusively true that the sovereign God who is ruling and reigning over all died for his enemies.

This beautiful truth changes everything for the person who anchors their lives in it.