by jimwalton » Tue Jun 03, 2014 10:49 am
> Does it apply to all gods, or just the particular version of whatever god that you happen to believe in?
It applies to the truth. It's logically, practically, and theologically impossible that all religions are true. Some beliefs are false, and we know them to be false. If I believe that everything everyone believes is true, that's nonsense, because someone else may believe that nothing someone believes is ever true. So it's impossible to believe that A = non A.
I'm talking about real life. Right and wrong, justice and injustice, life and death. Truth matters. We don't seek a belief system that makes us feel good, but the truth. What I'm speaking of is the truth regarding deity. Zacharias says, "God is not a place or an experience or a feeling. Pluralistic cultures are beguiled by the cosmetically courteous idea that sincerity or privilege of birth is all that counts, and that truth is subject to the beholder. In no other discipline of life can one be so naive as to claim inherited belief or insistent belief as the sole determiner of truth. Why, then, do we make the catastrophic error of thinking that all religions are right, and that it does not matter whether the claims they make are objectively true? ... All religions are not the same. All religions do not point to God. All religions do not say that all religions are the same. At the heart of every religion is an uncompromising commitment to a particular way of defining who God is or is not and accordingly, of defining life’s purpose. Anyone who claims that all religions are the same betrays not only an ignorance of all religions, but also a caricatured view of even the best-known ones. Every religion at its core is exclusive."
> Is pursuing Yahwey, the angry and jealous Christian blood god, the most noble pursuit of humanity?
This betrays either a hostile presupposition or a misunderstanding of the Christian God. You make him sound like a vengeful child instead of conforming to principles of justice mitigated by love, grace, and mercy. Perhaps a longer conversation would be beneficial, if you're interested.