The United States truly is a melting pot of culture and diversity. Just walk down the street of any major city and one will find a plethora of people from all walks of life from every corner of the Earth. In California, there is a food truck owned by a man of Chinese decent selling Kosher tacos. If that is not the definition of cultural relativity than I don’t know what is. We are a land of diversity, a people of every race and religion. Just the other day I reflected on all the different types of food that I could enjoy that are right in my neighborhood. I can get General Tao from a local Chinese restaurant. A Vietnamese restaurant down the road makes the most amazing Pho. A local brewer from Puerto Rico has a fabulous restaurant with some of my favorite food. We have Philadelphia Cheesesteaks, Southern BBQ brisket, and ribs, an English Pub with traditional fish and chips, there’s an Italian place, a Mexican place, anything you could possibly think of, I’m sure it's not too far away. I love cultural diversity, but if cultural diversity means relativity, I’ll just stay home and eat.
What a blessing to live in such a diverse culture, a culture filled with people from different backgrounds who have decided to come to this great country to make a living and to raise a family. A lot can be learned from the situation at hand, but are there problems that can arise from such a diverse group? Being a religious person myself a reflection on all the diverse religious groups present in our country makes me believe that a lot of great conversations could be had. Sharing my faith is a big part of my religion. Discovering what others believe is an interest of mine as well. But what can be made of living in such a set of diverse religious beliefs? Can all religions be true? Can all religions be right? Before you click on to the next article thinking that here goes another bigoted rant about someone thinking their religion is the one true religion, hear me out. What do we make of this? It's an honest, sincere question. Hopefully, by the end of this, I can get you to want to look into the matter.
Why do we hold religious beliefs in the first place? Is it to make sense of the world we live in? Perhaps. To be apart of a community, a group of people sharing similar beliefs who we can depend on and organize around? Maybe. As I reflect on my answers I think about what questions any worldview has to answer. Regardless if your religious or not there are four major questions that seem to haunt mankind. Origin- where did we come from? Meaning- why are we here? Morality- why do we act the way we do? Destiny- what happens when we die? These four questions seem to be the catalyst to religious thought and expression. All of these questions need to be posited to all worldview systems. But what about relativism? Do these questions matter? Are they relative to each religion? Do they matter to you? I think if I can get you to see the incoherence of relativism, the view that all religions are basically the same, or all religions have their own truths, I can then get you to see the need to hear out what each religion truly has to say about reality.
Is truth relative? Do you believe in truth? Let's take the first question I asked, “is truth relative?” If your answer is yes then I have a follow-up question, is that statement true? You see, I’m not trying an ah-ha, gotcha moment. What I’m trying to display is that relativism by definition is self-defeating. The very notion “there is no such thing as truth” is illogical. (Is that statement true?) It by definition is self-defeating. The quickest way to expose these fallacies is by asking the truthfulness of the question itself. As one of my favorite authors puts it” relativists have their feet firmly planted in mid-air (Beckwith). Relativism can be a dangerous idea when taken to its logical conclusions. It is certainly obvious that there are relative aspects of life such as beauty but when we apply these principles to things such as morality or truth concluding that nothing in life is fixed or objective we can fall down a slippery slope.
So what is truth? According to the Encyclopedia Britannica; “Truth, in metaphysics and the philosophy of language, is the property of sentences, assertions, beliefs, thoughts, or propositions that are said, in ordinary discourse, to agree with the facts or to state what is the case” (Blackburn). If this the case, and there is such a thing as truth, then how can we use this to discover what religion is correct?
It is argued that religions are fundamentally the same and have superficial differences. What one truly finds when studying answers given by religious groups is the opposite. What one finds is that religions have fundamental differences and at best superficial similarities (Bannister). The test of truth when compared and contrasted with other belief systems come away with radical differences. But how could we possibly know which religion addresses these questions with the right answers? In our quest for truth, (if it exists) there are three things I want us to keep in mind in regards to the answers given to our questions.
The first test for truth is Logical Consistency. Does the religion in question maintain consistency in its teachings? Are there any logical errors or contradictory views present? A worldview must maintain consistency and be logically coherent. This test would require a study of each religion and the views that one holds. Are there any errors in its teachings? Are there any contradictory viewpoints? The term “logic” is simply correct reasoning. A person or idea is deemed logical when he/she/it reasons correctly. Does the Bible, for instance, cohere with the laws of thought and logic? Did Jesus and the Biblical writers argue their case, prove their propositions, and engage in rational, reasonable discourse? If we engage with the text honestly I believe we can clearly see that the writers who were divinely inspired communicated with logical precision. They always argued their case accurately and rationally (Miller). As we can see, it's not good enough to assume we know everything. One must take the time to explore the religion in question.
The next test is Empirical Adequacy. Empirical Adequacy covers a large array of fields such as scientific, evidential, philosophical, logic, and historical. It states that a theory is empirically adequate if all of what it says about the observable aspect of the world (past, present, future) is true (Sober). This test would certainly appeal to some of my philosophical/scientific friends out there. What possible arguments can a worldview posit as credible and persuasive? Does God exist? How do we know? What arguments are there for his existence? These type of questions require much research, and I must say critical thinking. Lets, for example, take the death of Jesus. The Christians say that Jesus died on a cross, crucified by the Romans under Pontus Pilate. Islam believes that Jesus did not die. These views are contradictory. Now, I think as we can clearly see, both of these views cannot be correct. What needs to be done is a comparative study of history and a search for evidence and what truly happened to Jesus.
The last test is Experiential Relevance. How does what a religion has to say affect me? Is it relevant? Does it properly explain the human condition? This question is both personal and reflective. Certainly, I wouldn’t base absolute truth on this one test, but it certainly has value. If one truly is seeking truth in a particular religion it must be experiential. Whether it be a personal experience, witnessing individuals walking out what they believe in, seeing the teachings of a particular religion manifesting in one's life are all strengths towards truthfulness. I do want to leave one caveat here, it would be fallacious to determine the truthfulness of a religion based solely on the experience or witness of those who claim to follow a religion. Recall the test for coherence and consistency. Are these individuals acting in-step with what the religion actually teaches?
In conclusion, I hope to have sparked some kind of interest in a personal journey of discovery. We certainly live in a very diverse culture. If you are irreligious, take the time to explore each religion. What do they have to say? If you are already religious, explore what you believe in, ask questions, seek, investigate. Make sure you understand why you believe what you believe. If religion is true, in particular, a religion that claims to have questions about the meaning of life then these questions are the most important questions one could be searching for.
Bannister, Andy. “Aren’t All Religions Equally Valid?” RZIM, 1 Aug. 2012, rzim.org/a-slice-of- infinity/arent-all-religions-equally-valid/.
Beckwith, Francis, and Gregory Koukl. Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air. Baker Books, 1998.
Blackburn, Simon W. “Truth.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 20 Apr. 2009, www.britannica.com/ topic/truth-philosophy-and-logic.
Miller, Dave. “Is Christianity Logical? [Part I].” Is Christianity Logical?, ApologeticsPress.org, 2011, apologeticspress.org/apPubPage.aspx?pub=1&issue=977.
Sober, Elliott (1993): “Epistemology for Empiricists.” In H. Wettstein (ed.), Midwest Studies in Philosophy. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. Pages 39–61.
