A common objection to avoiding Church is that “all roads lead to God.” This is the idea that sincerity itself is the measure of a “true” religion. All one really needs to do to be saved is to pick the religion that best suits themselves, and then sincerely practice that religion (even if it is Atheism) and they will be fine when the god(dess)es come for them. This is a dangerous mix of “your truth is your truth, and my truth is mine” (moral relativism) and “everyone is going to be fine” (universalism) at the end. There is a lie common to both. It is the lie that says “all roads lead to God.”
First, let us establish that there is such a thing as truth (epistemology). There are truths about life that are true regardless of where you live or what you believe. 1+1=2. This is always true, whether here or Timbuktu. If you want to test it, try it with your checking account. Try telling the bank you have more money than you have deposited. They will remind you of the truth of this right away. $100+$0 does not equal $500. If it is possible to know absolute truth (something that is always true) in everyday life, isn’t it just as likely that there is absolute truth in spiritual things?
To this end, not every religion says (as a statement of truth) there is a god. Wiccan, for example, leads one to mother earth, or nature herself, which can be manipulated through spells and witchcraft, if properly appeased through sacrifice. Buddhism doesn’t even worship a god, since Buddha himself was only a spiritual guide, not a god. Atheism, though not properly a religion, tries to answer the same questions, and ends up with the Universe as the mother and Time as the father. Worshippers must deny their uniqueness and manufacture their own purpose in the accidentally random landscape of (the god of) Chance.
Other religions depend on a number of gods. The Ba’hai is the best example of this, since they believe every god is legitimate. They have eight doors and eight altars to honor eight different gods. All are equal in Ba’hai. They will tell you they are all emanations of the same god, but this is certainly a god with multiple personality disorder, since no two agree. Others, like the Latter-day saints, believe in One God, but also in other, lesser gods, like Jesus and Satan. Jehovah’s Witnesses also believe that Jesus was a lesser god, if not a Man that God glorified. But believers in these religions hold these statements to be true.
Biblical Christianity, however, states that God is a Trinity. God is Three, yet One. He is same in substance, but different in person. This God is the Creator of the Universe in the Father, Savior of the World from Sin in Jesus the Son, and Provider, Counselor, and Sustainer in the Holy Spirit. The Three agree as One, exist as one, but work as three. Multiple personality disorder? Only if you can find a case where all three exist at the same time in the same space, and all agree on purpose. But then we get ahead of ourselves here. This is best a subject for an article all its own.
The point is, if all religions are equal, then we are truly insane. The rules of logic dictate that two facts that contradict each other cannot both be true. It is impossible, and at least one of the two is a lie. If a murder suspect says he was at the bar at 1:00am on Thursday night, the police check his alibi. Only if it’s true will they dismiss him. Why? Because he cannot be at the bar and at the scene of the crime at the same time. Those two facts contradict each other. [FACT – a statement that can either be proven or disproven, not by definition “true.”]
If one religion states there is no god, another states that there are many gods, and a third says there is only One God. At least two of the three religions are lies. They cannot all be true. Because if there must be a God (and I believe there must be due to a preponderance of evidence (Creation, Morality, The Bible, Jesus Christ, etc.), not merely by blind faith), then two of these statements have to be false, and therefore discarded. Not all paths lead to God because not all paths are true. Most are false. As a human being, you must make a decision as to which path is true. You cannot embrace them all or you’ll end up in the nut house.
Meritt Musings 