Problems with the "all religions are One!" New Age spirituality approach (1 of 6)

A discussion of the New Age spirituality philosophy that "all religions are One"--that they may differ from one another on the surface, but underneath, the worlds variety of faiths are like different colors of one big Holy Rainbow: they all come from the same ray of sacred sunlight before being broken into their respective colors.

OUTLINE:

- quotes & excerpts from New Age literature

- my reasons for being a bit hesitant to criticize this philosophy

- why I'm going to criticize it anyway,

- the five different approaches that New Age theologians and philosophers use to defend the "all religions are One" approach, and why I believe that none of these approaches can hold up to scrutiny.

This is a video adaptation from material in "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• New
• Age
• spirituality
• religion
• faith
• Ramakrishna
• Hick
• Bahaism
• Buddhism
• Christian
• Islam
• Jainism
• ToddAllenGates
• ToddGates

[strykkerr]

to admit that we're human and posses minds that weren't build to grasp the vast and immense reality of the spiritual world with any sort of completeness. At the same time as NO ONE can understand fully, each religion does understand, to the best of human ability, the culturally relevant aspects of the reality of GOD that have evolved over the generations. The things we believe are real--all of them--but on a much larger scale than we can fathom. THAT'S what it means to say all religions are one!

[ToddAllenGates]

@strykkerr

> we're human and posses minds that weren't build to grasp the vast and immense reality of the spiritual world

If indeed there is a spiritual world! Maybe there is, but to me it seems more improbable than probable. (Well, it depends on how you define spiritual. If we broaden the meaning to include music and early morning running in clean air, then I would say YES, there is a spiritual world.)

[ToddAllenGates]

@strykkerr

> THAT'S what it means to say all religions are one!

This is a 6-part series, and somewhere I know I do acknowledge that "New Age" is large umbrella term, and that my analysis doesn't apply to each group. So again, my focus is on those who believe that Divinity has spoken to us, and the Words have been Recorded (in one way or another).

[strykkerr]

They've developed into strictly structured religions that don't allow room for uncertainty, because as humans we are comforted by the idea that we have it all figured out, that we know the one true way and it is the only way. But the truth is all of them are right! There is only one way..we just make sense of that one way by simplifying it into a metaphor that we can grasp. The only way to understand what is meant by the idea that all religions are one, is to humble ourselves once and for all--

[ToddAllenGates]

@strykkerr

> They've developed into strictly structured religions that don't allow room for uncertainty, because as humans we are comforted by the idea that we have it all figured out, that we know the one true way and it is the only way.

Well said!!

[ToddAllenGates]

@strykkerr

> But the truth is all of them are right! There is only one way..we just make sense of that one way by simplifying it into a metaphor that we can grasp.

With your explanation, yes, I agree, and this makes sense.

But if you isolate your sentiment that "religions are all true metaphors," I feel that can be easily misunderstood into the equivalent of "The Divine dictated all these metaphors, the correct interpretation of which is The Truth!"

[ToddAllenGates]

@strykkerr

> They're just metaphors, defense mechanisms for coping with the anxiety that goes along with not understanding.

They're perhaps best understood that way, but I suspect (but certainly don't "know") that the ancient people who wrote them thought of them as defense mechanisms. They were writing down stories that had been passed down by oral tradition--probably a great many of the authors thought these stories were literally true.

[ToddAllenGates]

@strykkerr

> religion is simply a metaphor, a simplification of something that is far too vast for our human minds to grasp while we are here on Earth.

My feeling is that if more people felt that way, the world would be a better place! But unfortunately, far too many people believe their holy books were dictated by god, such as the majority of Republicans running for the US presidency.

[ToddAllenGates]

@strykkerr

> Religion is a huge contradiction of itself and the only way to make sense of it is to accept the fact that

... well, to me, I make sense of it by concluding that people want answers to the questions of Creation & Design, the question of Suffering, Rules for Living, and the hopes of an afterlife. So different people contribute different ideas to different packages that are later proclaimed as Sacred Texts.

[ToddAllenGates]

@strykkerr

> Christia­nity and every other religion is absolutely full of logical flaws and contradictions, but they are disregarded and explained away ...

Agreed! And true harm can come from fundamentalism in those religions, unlike New Age, which--as far as I can tell--has no fundamentalist wing to it.

(For the record, my belief is that a Creator is more improbable than probable. That makes me either an atheist or agnostic, depending on who's defining the terms.)

[ToddAllenGates]

2 of 2:

That is, my criticism is more about those who believe that a Supernatural Being dictated Holy Words into various texts: and either those texts are different on purpose, or have been corrupted, or have been loosely emanated and interpreted via culture, etc.

Your approach, it seems to me, is closer to Deism ... and you combine that with noting that humans yearn for explanations, and then invent them.

[ToddAllenGates]

1 of 2:

@strykkerr

Hi Strykkerr, and my apologies for my delay in responding.

> You can't dismiss the ideas of New Age spirituality based on the fact that you found some logical flaws

I find that when a belief has deep logical flaws (Santa Claus, Christianity, etc.), that *is* a reason for dismissing it.

That being said, "New Age" is a very broad term, and from the rest of your comments, your particular interpretation DOESN'T contain the flaws I discuss in this video series.