Can we test religions?

We hear so many people today who are relativists when it comes to religion. Now, they aren’t relativists when it comes to the rest of their lives--there is actual truth in their minds. After all, they have jobs, family, friends, and other things that they know are really there and are of a particular construct. They get paid a certain amount, they drive a particular car, they know how much is left to pay on their house mortgage.

But get them talking about religion, and all specific truths go out the window. You hear things like, “Who knows?” Or “All roads lead to God.” Or “All religions are the same.” Is this true? Is there no way to tell differences between religions for the purpose of examining which might be true? Are all religious faiths a matter of leaps in the dark, wishful thinking, and nonevidential? I don’t think so. There are ways we can test religious claims, just as we can test truth claims in science, history, or advertisements.

Here’s the first way: What’s the evidence for the particular religion in the real world? This entails examining archeology, history, science, and manuscripts. Do the claims reflect our current understanding in these areas? Let’s take Mormonism. Wow, it really fails this test in a big way. No evidence exists for the story of huge civilizations here in the Americas as their Book of Mormon proclaims. The Qur’an gets its science wrong and has manuscripts that are far removed from the time of Mohammed. How does Christianity do here? Very well, thanks. This blog won’t take the time to explore the issue, but there is plenty of evidence from each of the four areas listed above.

Here’s the second way to judge religious claims: What’s the problem of the human race and how do we solve it? All but one say we are the problem and we are the solution. We have to try harder, we have to wake up, we have to follow a list of commands, we have to pray a certain way, we have to . . . You get the idea. It’s all on us. But we’ve all tried this. We know our own weaknesses, we see our failures, we have bad self-images. Only Christianity says the solution lies outside us. God gave us a gift, thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus. It’s our choice—let Him save us, or continue with the thousand attempts to reach God through our own strength.

The third way to judge religions is simple: Does it correspond to the way the world really is? For example, Hinduism says the world is an illusion (maya). But do we really believe that? If everything was an illusion, how would we know since we are part of that illusion? That doesn't make any sense to me. Then there's reincarnation, a key belief of Eastern religions and new-age thought. Where's the evidence for that? If it was true, the world should be getting better and better, and we know that's not the case. Christian Science says disease and suffering is an illusion; does that seem believable? Christianity reflects reality in so many ways – it says there is something noble about the human race, there's also something very wrong with the human race, there is such a thing as evil and suffering, etc. Science, in an echo of the Bible, reveals a world of order and design (creation as a result of God).

A fourth way to examine religious claims has to do with the leader of that movement: How is its religious leader viewed by the world? There is only one who stands out among all religious leaders thoughout history – Jesus. Why is that? I have written on the uniqueness of Jesus before, so this will be a short summary of what makes him unique – the evidence for his life and sayings, prophecies involving his life, the events of his life, what he said, what friends and enemies said about him, the positive impact he's had on the world, and the vital relationship between him and his religion. Even nonbelievers admit that Jesus was the most unique person who ever lived.

Finally, one other way to judge a religion is simple: What is the history of that religion? Let's take Jehovah's Witnesses as an example. This organization has repeatedly set specific times for the return of Jesus, only to be embarrassed when it didn't take place. In addition, it has a history of changing major beliefs over the years. The same is true of Mormonism – polygamy was okay at one time, but not now; blacks were considered inferior, but not now. Then there's Islam, which has a history of bloodshed and violence. It Islam spread through the sword. Christianity, on the other hand, said all people were equal, spread through the Roman world through peaceful means, elevated women to a much higher degree than previous religions, treated the poor and weak with respect and kindness.

So, there are ways we can look for truth among religions. Only one passes all the tests and should, therefore, be seen as more credible--Christianity.

A book for serious times

A couple of years ago, I read a powerful book that has continued to challenge me. It’s called Serious Times by James Emery White, a pastor and former president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. It's a book that has two primary points -- it explains what kind of world we live in and what we can do about it.

The first part is a historical overview of the forces that shaped our current world. In the Middle Ages a spiritual worldview dominated, only to be replaced during the Renaissance by a focus on this world. Then the Enlightenment came along with its stress on reason and empiricism.

White says our modern world has been shaped by secularization, pluralization, and privatization. Its secularization is the tendency to live life without much regard for religion. The pluralization of our society offers a huge number of faith options, a divine supermarket of sorts. Finally, privatization has created a huge gap between the public and private beliefs of an individual -- no religious faith is allowed in the public square.

What have these three things brought us in today's world? White ticks off four results. First, there's moral relativism in which everything is simply a matter of taste; there are no true rights and wrongs. Secondly, we now have the autonomous individual who is independent from all authority. In addition, we now have narcissistic hedonism characterized by the pursuit of pleasure and affluence. Finally, there is reductive naturalism claiming that nature is all there is.

These four currents in our world have not produced better human beings. Instead we now have a crisis in values, we lack vision, we have empty souls, and we feel unhappy with what we perceive to be an inadequate human experience; we know there should be more to life.

We live in a postmodern world, according to White. Modernism is exhausted. All is opinion now with no objectivity, no universal knowledge. The media shapes how we think. Texts are now deconstructed, allowing the reader to create the meaning. There is a reaction against rationality; spiritual ideas are more prominent.

Most of us understand this is the world we are part of. But instead of just complaining about where we are, White seeks to have us become players rather than observers of the situation. His second half of the book talks about things we must do to impact our society and possibly change it from the destructive course that it is on. I will use the next blog to talk about his solutions.