Sunday, November 14, 2021

Thinking one's religion (or religious view) is true

 Any belief system is thought to be true by its adherent, and therefore other views are considered false. That is as true for atheist materialism as it is for Christian theism. And people tend to think that those who agree with them about what is true are in some sense superior to those who don't. But different religious groups look differently at those who differ from them religiously, in that some people think that people outside their religion are all going to hell, and others do not.

1 comment:

Starhopper said...

I, along with C.S. Lewis, feel that believers of different faiths have more in common than they differ. I didn't always think this way, but slowly grew into it. I greatly admire, for instance, the Protestants' energy and eagerness to suffuse their entire lives with their faith. Yes, Catholicism urges the same thing, but way, way too many Catholics are "Sunday believers" who spend the rest of their weeks indistinguishably from the most hardened atheists.

As to non-Christian religions, I can still remember like it was yesterday, when more than 20 years ago I was visiting the British Museum in London, and was standing before an ancient Greek statue of Aphrodite. For a while I was admiring it simply as an artistic depiction of a beautiful woman, but it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks. What I was looking at was nothing less than a depiction of GOD! I could never again take seriously the atheists' jibe that we were all atheists about thousands of Gods, but he was only atheist about one more God than me. No, no, no. All religions believe in God, but their ideas about who he (or she) is can be somewhat different. So in certain respects, I actually do believe in Zeus, and Apollo, and Aphrodite, and Ahöla, and Isis, and Ra, and Krishna, and even Baal.

I now have no difficulty worshiping with an Evangelical or an Orthodox Christian, and I respect the Muslims for their faith and the Hindus for theirs. We may not agree on everything, but we're all singing in harmony.

And yes, I do believe that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is the True Religion... but I don't let it go to my head. For everything I do know about God, there are an infinite number of things that I do not know (and never will, even in Heaven).