Chapter 9: Other Religions
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- - Preface
- - Introduction
- - 1) The Physical Universe
- - 2) The Human Mind:
Cognition and Conscience - - 3) Love
- - 4) Tackling Arguments
Against a Designing God - - 5) Jesus
- - 6) The Resurrection
- - 7) Suffering
- - 8) Christianity and Politics
- - 9) Other Religions
- - 10) Heaven and Hell
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In Chapter 9, Williams grapples with the place of other religions in a Christian
view of the world.
Many sincere people say that they cannot believe in any one religion - be it Christianity or any other - because not all religious beliefs can be correct. They point to the contradictions between the many faiths, and question how any one group can credibly claim to hold a monopoly upon spiritual and metaphysical truth. Some people regard such absolutism as the height of arrogance. Others think it absurd: 'One religion is as true as another,' quipped Robert Burton in his seventeenth-century classic, The Anatomy of Melancholy.
Another common claim is that a disproportionate amount of evil has been wrought
throughout history by proponents of some of the major faiths - in particular,
Christianity - in their attempts to convert people. There is no denying that
many wars of conquest and other forms of violence and coercion have been
perpetrated in the cause of religion.
These are serious issues. For a long time I struggled to come grips with them, and there are probably no definitive answers capable of satisfying those who find them intractable. Nevertheless, in this chapter, I will attempt to explain my thinking about them. I have come to the view that most of these objections are either misconceived or exaggerated. To the extent that they have some validity, none shakes me in my main reasons for belief.
The first point that requires making is this. Atheism - not religiosity of some sort - is the loneliest spiritual position that any person can hold. Christians and Muslims and Hindus have much more in common with each other than they do with atheists. An atheist is required to believe that everybody else is fundamentally wrong; that all of the world's religions are based upon a false premise. Throughout human history, atheists have been in a small minority, and they still are. As one American writer has pointed out:
From this incontrovertible fact, atheists do not conclude that, perhaps, there may be something in religion after all. Rather, they deride all faiths by lumping them together in the one basket. The posthumous 'founder' of modern atheism, the French priest Jean Maslier (1664-1729), sub-titled his book 'Clear and Evident Demonstrations of the Vanity of All the Religions of the World'. Many others have since followed suit. Their reasoning is that all religious beliefs cannot be true, and some have been proved definitely false; therefore religion per se is utter nonsense. But that conclusion is a non sequitor. It is a bit like saying that all current scientific theories are worthless because many scientists got things wrong in the past and some still get things wrong today.
A Christian does not need to believe - and I certainly do not believe - that all other religions are entirely wrong. I look at the matter the other way around: the fact that there are and always have been many shades of religious belief is reassuring. It strengthens my conviction that all religions are at least partly right. They are all partly right to the extent that they posit a reality outside of Man and the material Universe. It is true that there are substantial differences between the various religions as regards the nature of that reality and what it requires of Man. However, these differences are less fundamental than the atheistic alternative. The biggest gap lies between those who claim that Man and the material Universe is all that there is and those who believe that there is - or must be - something more.
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Jesus Christ of Nazareth ... is 'the stone you builders rejected, which has
become the capstone'. Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other
name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
Religion? Yes; but which of all her sects?
Religion? Yes; but which of all her sects?
Many sincere people say that they cannot believe in any one religion - be it Christianity or any other - because not all religious beliefs can be correct. They point to the contradictions between the many faiths, and question how any one group can credibly claim to hold a monopoly upon spiritual and metaphysical truth. Some people regard such absolutism as the height of arrogance. Others think it absurd: 'One religion is as true as another,' quipped Robert Burton in his seventeenth-century classic, The Anatomy of Melancholy.
Another common claim is that a disproportionate amount of evil has been wrought
throughout history by proponents of some of the major faiths - in particular,
Christianity - in their attempts to convert people. There is no denying that
many wars of conquest and other forms of violence and coercion have been
perpetrated in the cause of religion.
These are serious issues. For a long time I struggled to come grips with them, and there are probably no definitive answers capable of satisfying those who find them intractable. Nevertheless, in this chapter, I will attempt to explain my thinking about them. I have come to the view that most of these objections are either misconceived or exaggerated. To the extent that they have some validity, none shakes me in my main reasons for belief.
The first point that requires making is this. Atheism - not religiosity of some sort - is the loneliest spiritual position that any person can hold. Christians and Muslims and Hindus have much more in common with each other than they do with atheists. An atheist is required to believe that everybody else is fundamentally wrong; that all of the world's religions are based upon a false premise. Throughout human history, atheists have been in a small minority, and they still are. As one American writer has pointed out:
Angels, demons, spirits, wizards, gods and witches have peppered folk religions
since mankind first started telling stories ... According to anthropologists,
religions that share certain supernatural features - belief in a noncorporeal
God or gods, belief in the afterlife, belief in the ability of prayer or ritual
to change the course of human events - are found in virtually every culture on
earth.
From this incontrovertible fact, atheists do not conclude that, perhaps, there may be something in religion after all. Rather, they deride all faiths by lumping them together in the one basket. The posthumous 'founder' of modern atheism, the French priest Jean Maslier (1664-1729), sub-titled his book 'Clear and Evident Demonstrations of the Vanity of All the Religions of the World'. Many others have since followed suit. Their reasoning is that all religious beliefs cannot be true, and some have been proved definitely false; therefore religion per se is utter nonsense. But that conclusion is a non sequitor. It is a bit like saying that all current scientific theories are worthless because many scientists got things wrong in the past and some still get things wrong today.
A Christian does not need to believe - and I certainly do not believe - that all other religions are entirely wrong. I look at the matter the other way around: the fact that there are and always have been many shades of religious belief is reassuring. It strengthens my conviction that all religions are at least partly right. They are all partly right to the extent that they posit a reality outside of Man and the material Universe. It is true that there are substantial differences between the various religions as regards the nature of that reality and what it requires of Man. However, these differences are less fundamental than the atheistic alternative. The biggest gap lies between those who claim that Man and the material Universe is all that there is and those who believe that there is - or must be - something more.
Buy God, Actually and read more...
