Aren’t All Religions Essentially The Same?
Close to half of Americans believe that it doesn’t really matter what religious faith you follow because all of them basically teach the same lessons, but is this really true? Or do people just say this because they heard it from someone else or they have not looked into various religious views enough to see the differences? Though this can be a touchy subject, I want to be honest in challenging people who hold this view to be patient with me and open to what I have to say in this post. Feel free to comment if you would like to discuss your disagreements, but please do so respectfully.
First I want to ask you, how are all religious views the same? If you say because most of them teach that we should be peaceful towards one another and live morally upright lives, I could agree to an extent. But if that is your only reason, I encourage you to look into the different religious views some more. There are similarities, but when you get down to it there are some major differences that completely change the end result. Here are a few simple examples for a surface overview: How can God be triune (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) as Christians say and not triune as Muslims say? Or how can there be many manifestations of God like some Hindus believe and be absent or non-existent as some Buddhists believe? Let’s be real… these four things cannot all be true; they all contradict one another! To go deeper, many theistic religions teach that if your good in life outweighs your bad, then you will get to go to heaven or be released from the reincarnation cycle. Christianity and Judaism teach that human beings can never do enough good to earn salvation; God gives it as a gift. Some religious views teach about karma where people basically get what they deserve. Christianity teaches about grace, where Jesus gets what humans deserve (punishment), and Christians get what they don’t deserve (forgiveness). How can these religions all teach the same thing? The simple answer is… they don’t.
If I am going to the airport to fly to Nepal and you are going to fly to Italy, there are a lot of similarities. We both may be at the same airport. My first flight might even go through Italy for a connection flight. We both will be getting on a plane that has a pilot, stewardesses, and other passengers. Both planes have bathrooms and maybe an in-flight meal. Maybe we both even do the same activities on the way over like read or watch a movie. Surely there are similarities between our travel experiences, but it would be foolish to say we will end up in the same place… I’m going to Nepal and you are going to Italy! Eventually no matter how similar our experiences are, there will be a change and we will both end up in different places.
In this post, I do not want to stir up anger in anyone… I just want to encourage you to look into the facts. Don’t just believe something because you heard it from someone else. Think for yourself! Most religions seek to understand what the purpose of life is and what happens after we die. These are not topics that should be casually dismissed… we should make our best effort to figure out what is true and what is not. It can sound very narrow to say one religious view is the only right answer; people naturally just don’t like this. Some even believe that there are no absolute truths at all… but if we are honest with ourselves… that is just silly. It doesn’t matter where you are from, the musical pitch for the note G is G, grass is green, and fire hurts! For many things in this world, there is only one right option and there is beauty in that. Let’s honestly compare religious views and see how they are similar and dissimilar. Then let’s look to see which one lines up most with the world that we experience.
Most of you know that I am a follower of Jesus. If you would like to learn more about the uniqueness of the Christian faith, check out this article: What Makes Christianity Different From Other Religions? There is also a video in the article that is worth watching.
Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias may also be a helpful book for you.
2 Responses
I just want to say this makes a lot of sense. How the exterior of basic religions may appear the same but on further research they make a lot of turns that will directly contridict each other. I do disagree with one thing though. Grass is not green its all the colors except green. We just see green reflect off light as an illusion.
Hey sorry I am so late in responding to this… somehow I didn’t see the comment until now. And with the grass, you are right… that probably wasn’t a good example. I thought about that afterwards, but decided to leave it because human beings do generally see it as green (unless they are colorblind). Thanks for commenting!
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