Rev. Danny Fisher

On Faith asks panelists the following question today:

Are all religions the same? The Dalai Lama, who just celebrated his 75th birthday, often refers to the ‘oneness’ of all religions, the idea that all religions preach the same message of love, tolerance and compassion. Historians Karen Armstrong and Huston Smith agree that major faiths are more alike than not. But in his new book “God is not One,” religion scholar and On Faith panelist Steve Prothero says views by the Dalai Lama, Armstrong and Smith that all religions “are different paths to the same God” is untrue, disrespectful and dangerous. Who’s right? Why?

The one and only Robert Thurman offers one of the most insightful replies.  Here’s just a snippet:

I don’t think His Holiness the Dalai Lama, or Karen Armstrong, or Huston Smith are any of them saying there are no differences between the world religions, that they are “different paths to the same mountain,” etc., meaning by “the mountain” a single entity of a religion, or a single reality of “God.” Not at all. They all know very well the exquisite particularities of the various faiths, and they all revel in the rich diversity of them. In fact, the Dalai Lama makes a big point of insisting that religions must come to consider each other as each a complete path to each one’s chosen goal of what it means to be a good human being. He compares those who hope for a single world religion for all with people who would like it if all restaurants in the world served only the same meal!

What these writers do say though, is that all lasting human religions have urged their followers to be compassionate, charitable, moral, gentle, and wise, at a minimum.

[...]

[Stephen Prothero's] point, as I divine it, is rather that anyone who says all religions are the same is really saying that they shouldbe the same, and therefore that what that person holds to be “the true religion,” inevitably her or his own religion or set of beliefs, must be what everyone else should believe. This is a disguised form of bigotry or even fanaticism, a crusader attitude that everyone should convert to the crusader’s religion or else. It is disguised by the pretense that the fanatic doesn’t need them to convert, since they already are believing the same thing, whether they know it or now. So that kind of “all religions are one” theory is obviously untrue, it is disrespectful since it doesn’t allow for true variety in religions and doesn’t respect others’ religious choices, and it is dangerous, because it quickly leads back to the long established dangers of religious fanaticism and the lethal intolerance or crusaders.

You can read “Buddha Bob”‘s whole post here.