Which Religion is Right?
A patron at the barbershop today declared that while people believe in many religions, only ONE of them is “right.”
I held my tongue except to ask, “How do you know which religion is right?”
He said nothing as he attempted to hide his (even to me) obvious glare. Phew, I’m glad my trim finished when it did.
The problem is that the people with “the answers” about which religion is right have been out-shouting those with the legitimate questions for so long, that our society has begun accepting as fact things that are not really provable. That’s dangerous, not only for ourselves, but for future generations because those self-righteous folks, who claim to know, are the ones who do much of the oppressing, and that’s certainly enough grounds for challenging them, at least a little.
Now no one’s speech should be repressed. But if someone’s going to speak in “absolutely right” tones as this guy was today, then they should be prepared to be challenged. Challenging them does not violate their first amendment rights; comes nowhere near that I think. But hopefully, asking folks like him valid questions will make him wonder if he really can be sure of which religion is right.
I think the position that one religion is more right than another would be strictly indefensible; unless of course we could call God himself as a witness. But since we can’t, then it’s beyond a human being’s purview to know this answer; though many still claim to. People continue to overestimate their abilities here, and the result has been much brutal conflict and persecution. But if people would have realized this limitation ten thousand years ago, then our history would have undoubtedly been far less bloody.
We can make ANYTHING true if we use myth and fact synonymously. But they’re not. Further, we’re subject to the author’s interpretation of biblical events. Perhaps they got it wrong. Myth and fact are not the same, and in fact, arguably, opposites. The one is often used to escape the other as in proving that the earth was round to escape the myth that it was flat, and idealizing the past and retreating into myth in order to avoid facing the reality (the fact) of terminal cancer. Humans need to stop doing this IMHO because it triggers oppressive and violent behaviors.
Related Posts
Tags: Religion, Religious Freedom
March 15th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
When ANY ONE religion claims to be “righter” than another or others is strictly indefensible I hope that this clears up the ambiguity.
The problem is, which one IS right and how would you demonstrate it such that all would agree that it’s right? Which person has the legitimate right to walk among the rest of us in righteousness regarding his or her faith? There may in fact BE one correct faith. I don’t know. That’s the problem I had with this fellow at the barbershop. He looked down his nose at me, apparently certain of his rightness when in fact, he offered no basis for it, and even if he had, I don’t think he would have convinced me that his “truth” was any truer than mine.
There may exist an EXPLANATION of the existence of God. But that by no means makes it true.
I figured that most readers would infer that unspoken statement the customer at the barbershop was making. He “knew” which one is right, just as others claim to. But I’ll bet that they would not agree with each other. So we’re still left with the questions: Which religion is correct, and can we know definitively which one that is? Without this definitive knowledge, shuld we, in the name of our religion, be claiming supremecy over others?