"And a sound of murmuring, long and loud,
Came ever up from he moving crowd;
“You’re in the old way, and I’m in the new;
That is false, and this is the true”--
Or “I’m in the old way, and you’re in the new;
That is the false, and this is the true.”
-- E. H. J. Cleveland
[Editor's Note: The following was originally
written as a response to an e-mail we received from a reader who identified
herself as a Christian, and who had, "a
problem with the current trend that all religions are to be accepted and
that it is to be agreed upon that it is okay that we all seek the truth
for ourselves." The response was written by the editor of this website.]
Dear J___,
Thank you for your thoughtful letter. I do not usually reply to
letters such as this, because it rarely benefits anyone to enter into
any sort of religious debate; at the end of the day, you have your
beliefs, I have mine. But your letter was a polite one, and touched
upon issues that are clearly important to you, and I don't want to
minimize that.
Putting aside any weaknesses in your arguments (you've managed to both
defend logic in your first paragraph and then dismiss it), the
question seems to come down to the validity of your religious
experiences and beliefs versus those of others.
You believe - and I've no reason to doubt you - that your eyes have been opened
by Christian grace. There are Muslims who believe their eyes have been opened
by the Islamic equivalent of grace, and I have no reason to doubt them. There
are Buddhists who believe their eyes have been opened by the Buddhist equivalent
of grace, and I have no reason to doubt them. The list goes on, and happily
includes Pagans.
I cannot tell you whether or not your religious beliefs are right, or
wrong, and you wouldn't want me to. How could I, or anyone other than
yourself, possibly judge that? By the same token, I cannot tell
persons of other faiths that their religious beliefs are right, or
wrong.
To return to the subject of logic: once a person (Christian, Muslim,
Jew, Buddhist, Pagan, whatever) believes that his or her religion is the only
"true" one, then the logical corollary is that all other religions are
"false." It's a small step from there to reach the conclusion that
those who follow the "true" religion must somehow "correct" those who
follow the "false" religion.
The past two thousand years of history contain a lot of episodes of
attempted "corrections," in which millions died violently. Look at
the Crusades. Look at the Inquisition. Look at the Spanish
Conquistadors. Look at the wars in Europe during the Reformation.
Look at Northern Ireland. Look at Srebenica.
Look at today's world.
What's the alternative? A world where you can follow your religion,
and others can follow theirs. You believe you've found something
valuable in the Christian Bible. I respect that. Others believe
they've found something valuable in their holy books. I respect that.
There are those, like myself, who find what we need in the book of nature.
I respect that, and ask you to do the same.
-- Dainial MacÀdhaimh
PS. I suppose it would be a bit of a cop-out if I didn't give a hint
as to what I personally believe, so here it is: I don't believe that
God cares about what we call ourselves; I believe God (or the Gods and
Goddesses, for that matter) to be concerned only about the
good we do to other human beings, to animals, to all that grows on
this earth, to the land, to the seas, to the skies. If this is simplistic,
then I am happy to be simple.
Peace.
© Dainial MacÀdhaimh 2005-2006. Please note: all applicable material on this website is protected by copyright law and may not be copied without express written permission.
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