Are All Religions True?

can't all religions be true or can't all religions at least have some of the truth and none have all the truth and this is quite often illustrated by the six blind men in the elephant you ever heard this parable this is what professors often use to try and convince students that you know religions don't really have the truth they're kind of share the truth but they're not really one is not really more true than the other they think they have the truth but they really don't and it's illustrated this way there are six blind men six blindfolded men and one feels the ear of the elephant and thinks it's a fan and other fields the side of the elephant and thinks it's a wall another grabs the tail and says you know no this is a rope another one grabs the leg and says now this is a tree and other grabs the Tusk and says this is a spear and another of course grabs the trunk and says now we've got a great snake here now these six blind men are all supposed to represent the major world religions they think they have the truth but they don't really have the truth they may have a piece of the truth but they don't really have it now how do you basically refute the conclusion that no religion is the truth here's the question to ask what is the perspective of the parable teller what is the perspective of the parable teller here can anyone tell me go ahead loud what the parable teller can see everything he can see the whole picture the parable teller has an objective vantage point it's like our position we're looking at it we're going you knuckleheads that's an elephant right so once you have an objective position you can really see the truth so what's the moral the story the moral of the story is once I was blind but now I see what do I mean by that well first of all if you take off your blindfolds and see you can see it's absolutely true that that is a elephant that it's not a rope that it's not a snake that it's not a spear a wall or a tree or any of those other things it's an elephant so truth is not relative to the individual otherwise we wouldn't know the blind men were mistaken we have an objective viewpoint as the parable teller does and we can see that the blind men were mistaken also you can't know someone is wrong unless you know what is right let me state that another way you can't know that someone is not right unless you know what is right so for you to say that no that's not a fan that's not a spear that's not a rope etc you would have to know what it is correct so the bottom line to the whole thing is the pluralist believes everyone is blind but him the pluralist is somebody who say no no no you know all religions lead up the mountain they're all getting there they don't have the truth that there have some of the truths and there you can't really know the truth all that nonsense okay why is the pluralist given an objective position but we can't have that same objective position if we take off our blindfolds we can see the truth as well you see what I'm saying here in other words the parable as many college professors tell it actually proves exactly the opposite to the point they're trying to make they're trying to say that nobody has the truth when the rest of us are going yoo-hoo mr. professor that's an elephant and we can do the same thing when it comes to religion if we take off our blindfolds we can discover the truth and that's what we try and do in apologetics we try and discover the truth which is giving evidence for what you believe but sometimes you'll have somebody say this look come on all religions teach basically the same thing heard that oh they all teach basically the same thing come on they all teach y'all you know y'all love one another that's basically it except true now actually it's not true there's there's a kernel of truth to it that most religions do have a moral code and quite frequently a relatively common moral code but not all religions teach that they all you ought to love one another certainly Satanism doesn't write certainly what I would call Orthodox Islam doesn't people who follow the Quran and the teachings and life of Muhammad because if you look at the Quran and you look at the life and teachings of Muhammad what the terrorists are doing they're doing as a result of studying the Quran and the life and teachings of Muhammad so that's not love your neighbor as we are all now too well aware but actually there's a question you should always ask people in fact there are three questions you should always ask people when they come up with a statement or a statement about religion like this actually you can use these three questions for virtually anything here's the first question you want to ask somebody who says something like this the question is what do you mean by that what do you mean all religions teach basically the same thing and see what they say what do you mean by that why is that a good question because this right here is known as a slogan isn't it it's a common cultural saying and few people stop to think about what it means and if you ask them what do you mean by that many of them will go or the second question after that is how did you come to that conclusion and you could make that a little bit more specific to this statement by saying how did you come to that conclusion have you studied world religions for yourself what are most people going to say at that point problem no they're not going to they're probably not going to have studied that right you can use these two questions with about anything you hear in religion or in firstly any other topic because you will find that most people in our culture today have a worldview built on slogans maybe not most but a good number of people they hear slogans like this and they take that they hear another slogan the Bible has been changed throughout the centuries they take that the Bible was written long after Jesus they take that evolution is true they take that and they put all of these slogans together and they go this is my worldview never realizing any of the evidence behind any of those slogans any of the real particulars behind any of those slogans and they go skipping through life thinking I really know what's going on as soon as you question them on it though they run short of intellectual justification for the slogan in about three seconds somebody says you ought not believe the Bible comes has been changed throughout the centuries you say how did you come to that conclusion have you studied the manuscript evidence for yourself I'm not you're not being mean here you're just trying to find out where people are coming from never once a while you might find somebody who thinks they've studied it and has the truth okay but ask those two questions what do you mean by that how did you come to that conclusion by the way the third question is this the third question is have you ever considered and then you can add what you want to add after that have you ever considered this book for example like I don't have enough faith to be an atheist where ever you're considered mere Christianity a great book on the Christian faith particularly the moral argument or have you ever considered evidence demands verdi have you ever considered you know Tim Keller is a reason for God you know there's some good books out there or have you ever considered this argument you if you ask it in that way it's not as offensive you you don't have to refute here's the thing I'm trying to say you don't have the obligation to refute what somebody else says they have the burden of proof to support what they've just said you

Channel: Cross Examined

Views: 125,300

Rating: 4.7712307 out of 5

Keywords: athiesm, frank turek, crossexamined, cross examined, apologetics, christianity, i don't have enough faith to be an atheist

Id: hmG8A-SaO_w

Length: 9min 21sec (561 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 17 2016