Truth in religion:
Introduction: two very different
aspects of religious truth
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Introduction:Most people in North America regard themselves as either
Christian, Jewish or Muslim.
These three religions, and others, each teach a very wide
range of conflicting religious
truths. These truths can be divided into two groups:  |
Theological beliefs: These
include topics like the nature of
gods, or other deities,
the afterlife, salvation, seasonal days of
celebration, sin, etc.
Most fundamentalist and other evangelical Christians hold about ten
cardinal doctrines as important foundational beliefs.
Many Roman Catholics, Eastern
Orthodox, mainline, liberal and progressive
Christians agree with most of these same doctrines, although they might
interpret them differently.
However, it is obvious from even the most superficial study of religion that:
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Faith groups share an
Ethic of Reciprocity, commonly called the "Golden Rule." It
states that people should treat others
as they would like to be treated themselves. It is difficult to understand how
a company, city, county, state or country could survive harmoniously
unless most people shared this ethic.
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Faith groups differ greatly in many of their other teachings. Most
believers have little doubt
that their group's beliefs are true. However, they have doubts about
the tenets of other groups. Religious folks generally take one of
three viewpoints about truth in their own and other religions:
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Exclusivism (a.k.a. Particularism): Their own group possesses the
full truth as God revealed it millennia ago. Other religious groups are
consistently in very serious error.
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Inclusivism: Their own group possesses the full truth; other
religions contain only parts of the truth.
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Pluralism: All religious groups' beliefs and practices are equally
true, when interpreted within their own culture. 1
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These three viewpoints apply not only to other religions, but to other
denominations within the same religion. For example, in Christianity, as in
other religions, there is no consensus on the
definition of what a Christian is. Everyone seems to have a definition,
but there is no consensus. Also, there are many opinions, but no consensus, on
which denomination(s) -- if any -- is the true
Christian church, or which denominations are to be considered Christian,
or which religion is the true one.
Often, there will be greater
differences in the truth claims between fundamentalist and progressive
Christians as there are between, for example, progressive Christians and
Reform Judaism. Ultimately, the main influences that determine an individual's religious
truths are:
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The place where they are born, and |
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The religion of their family of
origin. |
Almost all persons born in Iran will be Shi'ite Muslims as adults;
those born in other predominately Muslim countries will probably be Sunni
Muslims; in South America, most will be Roman Catholic Christians; in North
America, they will probably be either Protestant or Roman Catholic Christians. If the
stork was blown off course before you were born, then today you might well be
worshiping a different deity and holding different beliefs in God, humanity
and the rest of the universe as absolute truths.
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Social, moral, and political
beliefs: In addition to teaching theological truths, faith groups
and parachurch organizations frequently teach about
morality and ethics, human sexuality, etc. They
also teach about scientific topics like the origin of
the species, the age of the Earth, cosmology, etc., where they may disagree
with the general consensus reached by scientists.
We have noted a tendency in recent years for some denominations and parachurch
organizations to depart from clear, objective, accurate reporting. They rarely
lie, but often tell only part of the story in a way that confuses the reader
and/or guides them towards an invalid conclusion. We hope to document
individual examples of this and provide a more complete treatment of the
topic for our visitor.
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Copyright © 2009 by Ontario
Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Initial posting: 2009-SEP-16
Latest update: 2009-SEP-17
Author: B.A. Robinson 
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