The following was written by a friend that I met on an online community of which no longer exists. This writing is also from the “Faith” section of my website however I just had to share it here on my blog because I think it is so well written and unlike many christian manifestos is written in love and logic and is based in love for others.
Recently, I was questioned about my belief that there is ony one true faith and that is the faith most call Christianity. My friend asked me how I could be so closed minded and why I wasn’t open to the (what she called)”fact” that all faiths lead to the same place. More specifically, she believes in what Eckhart Tolle teaches in that “In fact, every belief is an obstacle” (page 115 of the ebook version of his book “A New Earth”) so it doesn’t matter what you believe in. “Do you really believe that?” I asked. She responded with an enthusiastic “Absolutely!”
I decided to begin the discussion by trying to establish a base from which we could both agree to start from. I believe that establishing the fact of the existence of absolute truths is essential. I find that entering into serious discussions with those that believe existence is relative is ultimately futile. If we can’t even agree that we are actually having a conversation, then what could possibly be concluded at the end of a conversation that may have not even happened?
If we are to use logic, then we must agree that absolute truth is not an opinion, but a logical fact. If one would claim that absolute truth does not exist, what they are in essence saying is “It is absolutely true that absolute truth doesn’t exist,” thereby establishing an absolute truth. What is open for discussion are the questions of what those truths are. If I say that the best color is green, that is an opinion, but it is true that that is what my opinion is. There are many ways to mathematically arrive at the number 2, but each equation is either true or not. 1+1 is either 2 or it’s not… 4+4 can’t both equal 8 and 9 at the same time. An apple cannot be green and not green at the same time.
With that said, mutually exclusive beliefs cannot both be correct. If one system claims that there is no sort of higher consciousness or intelligence and another system claims there is, one must be correct and the other must be incorrect. Now, what that higher consciousness or intelligence actually is, is open to more discussion. There can be many ideas of what that that higher consciousness/intelligence is. I can say that I believe that that higher consciousness is an elephant and another can say that is a mule. We could logically both be incorrect, but we could not both be correct. So to say that all faiths are correct and lead to the same place cannot possibly be true since many of them are mutually exclusive.
What Eckhart Tolle doesn’t seem to be aware of is that the belief that all beliefs are obstacles to enlightenment is just that – a belief. This way of thinking is even more exclusive than the Christian perspective. In our politically correct culture, it is very unpopular to believe in absolutes because one runs the risk of being labelled closed minded. Saying that all faiths lead to the same place makes one feel as though they are being open minded and all inclusive, but is logically impossible and dishonors the very distinct differences that most faiths have from one another.
I shared with my friend that what I am interested in is truth. I am also very connected to emotion and prefer to experience things and believe in things that “feel good,” but I am also aware that emotions and preferences can change at the drop of a hat. Most women that have experienced bizarre cravings during pregnancy could relate to this. One minute she may want peanut butter, the next minute the thought of peanut butter may repulse her and she may want ice cream. The peanut butter didn’t all of a sudden become rancid. What changed was her perception about it. So I am interested in what is true and not nessesarilly what makes me feel good because truth will always be truth regardless of how I feel about it.
That is part of what is so important to me about God’s Word. It tells me how I am supposed to behave no matter how I feel. If I only go to work when I feel like it, I will lose my job. I know that I need to go to work every day that I am scheduled and that I must do what is part of my job description if I want to keep my job… regardless of how I feel about it. But we’re not there yet.
So I told my friend that truth and logic is how I understand things in my life. If I believe one system over another it is because it makes more sense to me. If you can convince me that I am believing things that aren’t true and that you offer me something that makes more sense, I will abandon the former and embrace the latter. Now, in any given belief system, there are things that we may not understand completely, but because of the credibility that has been earned by the truths that have been proven, we “have faith” that what we don’t understand can someday be understood.
All of that to tell her that I have not come to my faith in Christ blindly or because I have a need to feel superior to someone else, nor do I have a desire to sit in judgement of others. It simply makes the most sense to me. I am not going to state as fact that someone else is wrong and that I am right because not only do I not have undisputeable proof, but when you tell someone that their whole way of looking at the world is wrong, they feel attacked and repelled. If they are seeking truth, one can lovingly and respectfully help people see flaws in bad logic instead of just declairing them to be wrong.
Which leads me to my final point in this particular post. I believe that we can only use the sources of authority that others recognise when entering into discussion or debate with them. When my friend asked me why I believe that Jesus is the only way, If I had responded with, “Because the Bible says so,” that’s meaningless to her. I can’t use the authority of scripture with someone that doesn’t believe in it’s authority. I need to use her own system of authority – her own logic until she has reason to agree in the authority of scripture. Only then can I begin to say “Come, let’s see what God’s Word has to say about that.”
