The Gita Community

By Erik Raj Hadden “You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord…”
Jeremiah 29.13-14a

Anyone who grew up in India or has spent some time there cannot deny that vast differences in the world’s religions. Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity can peacefully coexist there, yes, but their differences are visible almost daily. The very foundations of the faiths disagree on whether there is only one God or many. Anyone who tries to deny or minimize such differences faces a barrage of issues.

However, the statement “all religions are pretty much the same,” muttered frequently in our modern society, often parades itself as a very intellectual proclamation that shows a progressive, educated mindset. We think, “We’re past all those petty differences. We have to have modern, reasonable views on religion!” But what do we mean by such a phrase? Are we saying religions do not have dissimilarities? Are we saying all religions basically boil down to the same philosophies? Certainly a belief in one God and belief in many Gods are not the same basic philosophy. So, why is the belief that all religions are pretty much the same so popular?

Some people may say that all religions are basically the same in that they teach us to treat each other fairly. These people boil morals down to what is called the principle of no harm. In his book Godless Morality, Richard Holloway defines a wrong act as “one that manifestly harms others or their interests, or violates their rights or causes injustice” (p. 14).

The inadequacy of the “do not harm” view to unify religions is revealed when we see that different religions cannot even agree on what “harm,” “violation of rights” and “injustice” all mean. One viewpoint may claim Islam violates the rights of and causes injustice to women. Another may say that Christians are harming the rest of the world with lax morals and unjustified military actions. While another would say that the Hindu caste system has allowed the “unjust and harmful” treatment of the Dalits for millennia!

Sometimes people say that all religions are basically the same because they believe either 1) there is no way to know anything about the spiritual world or 2) all beliefs are equally true and there are no absolutes.

All most all of the world’s religions are primarily about the spiritual world. If we believe that the spiritual world is non-existent or unknowable then what we mean when we say all religions are basically the same is that all religions are simply theories and cannot claim that they know the Truth. If we hold this view, we must be content in not knowing anything about God for sure. Our prayers, our pooja and our rituals may all just be a waste of time. Our own religious devotion is then reduced to a gambling game: we invest a little hoping it will pay off in the end. If that is our motivation, as with all gambling games, the odds of it paying off are very slim.

Others say, usually thinking themselves academically elite, “All beliefs are equally true.” They think that there are no absolutes so they are all true if one really believes them. This, however, is illogical. Ravi Zacharias, in his book Jesus Among Other Gods, points out, “To deem all beliefs equally true is sheer nonsense.” His point is that someone who says “all beliefs are equally true” has to admit as equally true the belief that all beliefs are not equally true. In other words, the statement cancels itself out by allowing its opposite to be true.

Still, some may say that God is big enough to be all things; maybe He is many and One all at once! Maybe He is, but to hold this belief we would have to deny the critical Judaic, Christian and Islamic teaching that God is not many, He is only One.

One of the first rules of logic is that something cannot be both true and untrue at the same time and in the same manner. As a simple example of this let us look at religious rules of consuming food. Which is right: to eat pork or not to eat pork? It cannot, at the same time, be both right and wrong for everyone to eat pork.

Someone might argue that God gives different rules to different people. Therefore, it is an offense to Him for the Muslim and Hindu to eat pork, but for the Christian, it is not. “Certainly, we could all agree on that,” you might say. However, if God told the Muslim that it is wrong for everyone to eat pork, but then told the Christian that it is not wrong to eat pork, God would be contradicting himself.

In the same way, if God says to the Muslim that He is not many, but says to the Hindu that He is many, He is contradicting himself. If this is the case, when He says He exists, then He may also not exist. Our religious devotion is then rendered null and void because it is impossible to know anything about a Being that is self-contradicting.

I believe there are two main motivations for saying and believing the phrase “all beliefs are basically the same.”

Sometimes it is an attempt to lessen our religious differences to promote understanding and decrease violence and hatred. Though the objective is honorable, to seek peace by minimizing differences is to ask each religion to be less than fully itself. True spiritual understanding comes from knowing each other more completely (similarities and differences), not reciting hollow statements that create bogus unity and strip us of our individuality.

The other motivation is far more common, however. At its worst it is a statement by someone who wants an easy, intellectual-sounding excuse for not engaging in a spiritual search for truth. It is a sort of “giving up without a fight” phrase of the spiritually lazy. This person will eloquently say that Truth cannot be found, all the while not looking for it. Of course they will never find Truth or believe it is out there, because they are not truly seeking it.

At best it is the statement of a befuddled individual genuinely searching for Truth but confused by all the religious fare available. To that person I say, do not give up with such an empty phrase. Keep searching. Truth wants to be found.

We find no logical way to uphold the statement that all religions are basically the same. It is easier to lazily accept a meaningless phrase, I know. But let us not use the phrase as an excuse to wallow in a spirituality devoid of logic and truth. Our differences are our differences. Let us understand them as we search for Truth together. Mahatma Gandhi said, “There is no religion higher than Truth.” Let us not settle for anything less.

Erik Raj Hadden is TII’s Contributing Editor based in Maryland , USA