When talking about religion, sometimes you’ll hear someone say: “Basically, all religions teach the same thing.” The implication that person is probably drawing from this statement is that no religion is the one, true religion. There are a number of responses I might give to this claim, but one of them would certainly go like this:
“I disagree. For example, let’s take Islam, Judaism, and Christianity and compare them to Buddhism and Hinduism. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity believe there is only one God. Buddhism and Hinduism believe there are millions of gods. They can’t be all right at the same time. There’s either one God or there is more than one God, but it can’t be ‘all of the above.’ To believe it’s possible for there to be one God and millions of gods is like saying it’s possible for there to be such a thing as a married bachelor. Somebody is wrong. They can’t all be right.
Let’s break this down further. Islam and Judaism do not believe Jesus of Nazareth should be worshiped as God. According to these religions he was a great prophet or teacher, but he wasn’t God. Christians, on the other hand, believe Jesus was and is God and should be worshiped as God. Jesus can’t be God and non-god at the same time. He’s one or the other. He’s either God or non-god. Therefore, to say Islam, Judaism, and Christianity teach the same thing is transparently false. It breaks the law of noncontradiction. Somebody is wrong. They can’t all be right.”
So the statement, “basically, all religions teach the same thing” is easily debunked.
