Introduction: two very different
aspects of religious truth

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.

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:   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.   Inclusivism: Their own group possesses the full truth; other religions contain only parts of the truth. Pluralism: All religious groups' beliefs and practices are equally true, when interpreted within their own culture. 1

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:

	The place where they are born, and
	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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