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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

What is really real (to borrow a phase from Universe Next Door)

I was at a BBQ the other day with some people from Ruth's work, it was a good time but the conversation turned to religion for a brief moment. A comment was made that most of the people there seemed to agree with. The statement went something like this: "I believe that all religions are correct, you can't say that only one is right. There is no way that you can know that, the universe is to big!". The statement wasn't new to me, it has been around awhile and has gained in popularity over the two decades or so. But the way that this statement was worded made me stop and think about it (in reality I didn't really give it a second thought there but later that night when I was laying in bed), the specific part that made me stop and think was "there is no way that you can know that".

Is that statement really true, if religion is true then is it possible to know if one is right? Is it even reasonable to think that there is only one true religion? In order to answer those questions I really had to examine what religion was at its core, beyond denominations, politics, etc and really get at what is the base of religion. The answer that I came up with for that is that religion is the combination of two things. First is Faith, meaning what you think is ultimate reality, whether that is that there is a God or gods, an essence, or nothing at all. All of these at some point ask you to take a step of faith in order to believe them and your faith is one of the main parts that help to define religion. But the steps that you take by faith or informed by the second part of religion, your Beliefs. By beliefs I mean the culmination of your life experiences (up to whatever part of life you are in) and your world view, which both actually help to define each other through out your life.Both of those two parts, Faith and Belief, are really just about the universe and the way that it works. Faith is about who or what is in control of the universe and belief is about how everything else works or should work.

Now that religion is clear what we do know about the universe is that it works within curtain rules and boundaries, Physics, Mathematics, the other Natural Sciences. The way that the world works within these, somewhat specific, modes. Since we only live and operate within one universe and the universe operates in specific ways it would follow that only one religion would be right, the one that would most closely resemble the way in which the universe really works. Therefor the statement of "...you can't say that only one is right. There is no way that you can know that, the universe is to big" is untrue because if religion is true then it would necessarily follow that there would only be one true religion.

P.S. I am listening to Slacker right now and they are playing "Sleep" from Copeland but it sounds like a remix or something...it is amazing.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I try to avoid using the word religion in describing Christianity, mostly because all "other" religions require that the follower work toward his/her god(s) through discipline, sacrifice, good works (etc.), while Christianity is a free offer of unmerited forgivness that results in a heart abounding in love so great that good works, and discipline, and sacrifice, which reflect our Father's heart, spill onto our surroundings. Therefore, Christianity looks and smells a lot like a religion. But it's not, and I think it helps when talking to nonbelievers to make the distinciton.

Monique said...

what is chacha?

Anonymous said...

Gotta agree with you there Matt. I Try to not apply religion to Christianity for the same reasons you outlined. Though words have become so convoluted these day's and it is becoming increasingly harder for one to get a point across solely based on the fact that some words have become subjective.