Mr Average Christian

Well do all paths lead to God? I mean, there are many different religions out there – all telling you that they are correct, and that ‘spiritual enlightenment’ can be found in them.

Surely it would make sense that the paths of all world religions are all going in the same direction up the mountain to reach the same destination.

And if that is the case, then it matters not who you follow, whether it be Jesus Christ, Allah or Vishnu. This is known as religious pluralism. religious pluralism holds that no single religion can claim absolute authority to teach absolute truth, and that all faiths are searching for the same truths in different ways. Maybe this is where you are coming from.

This idea is best conveyed in this well known illustration:

Three blind men are lead to an elephant and told to touch it and then take a guess at what they are touching. One man, touched the elephants tusks and declared it must be some sort of spear. Another felt its side and said it was a rough wall. The third, on touching the tail, said that it was a rope.

The blind men were touching the same elephant, and yet because they were touching different parts their experience of the elephant was very different. So it follows into the realms of religion that all paths are leading to the same thing but coming at it from a different angle.

So according to Pluralism, all roads lead to God. Unfortunately there are some holes in pluralist thinking:

Pluralism is inconsistent
By its very nature, pluralism says that you can’t possibly have absolute truth over any. You must not, you cannot force your views onto anybody else. But in doing so, demands that everybody takes the pluralist view, and if you don’t then you are nothing more than narrow-minded. Perhaps even more then that, they try silence such views. Which is why in the UK, we’ve had such trouble with our Christian Unions being forced out of university campus’s. Huh? Double standard?

Pluralism is patronizing
The promotion of tolerance amongst the different religions has gained much speed of late. And in a way, that’s a good thing. To reach out to different cultures and offer the hand of friendship for the sake of unity, we must respect each others beliefs. However, in trying to affirm all religious perspectives, we honour none of them. Insisting that all religions are the same, just with different labels, pluralism ignores what is distinctive about them. It ignores the differences – Sikhs believe there is one God, Buddhists believe there are no gods. So in comes the pluralist saying, “see you’re all pretty much saying the same thing”. Do the sums! There can’t be many gods, and one god and no gods. You’re just being patronizing.

Pluralism is arrogant
When pluralists reduce all world religions to the blind men and the elephant, what I want to know is, who’s telling the story? Presumably it’s the enlightened pluralist, who looks on at the stumblings of the blind men with absolute clarity. What right does the pluralist have to place themselves outside the picture? Who’s to say they aren’t another blind man feeling his way around the elephant? Placing themselves outside the circle, and declaring themselves the referee, is wonderfully convenient, and very arrogant.

So no, all paths do not lead to God, there can only be one way. And nobody has the authority or insight to say otherwise – despite what some would have you think.

So surely the fairest thing to do, is line up all the religions. All of the ideas and philosophies. Put them under scrutiny and go with what makes sense?

This I challenge you to do, and its my belief that a relationship with Father God would not seem so ‘out there’.