It’s Easter season. Perhaps this creates opportunity to give some thought to religion. And one concept even non-religious people ought to think about is the faulty idea that all religions are equally valid.
There are a number of ways to approach the notion that “all religions are equally valid.” For instance, we could appeal to a subjective sense of decency. Are we really willing to agree religions requiring child sacrifice are equally valid to those that don’t? There are religions that have this horrific practice. There are also religions that teach child sacrifice is an abomination. They obviously don’t teach the same thing. Are we willing to agree they are equally valid? I don’t know many modern people who would say so.
Or take religions like: 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 are millions of gods, 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. He was a great teacher and prophet, 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 are all equally valid and teach the same thing is transparently false. It breaks the law of noncontradiction.
If you put all this together, the conclusion is inescapable: either all religions are wrong or one of them is right.
