Apologetics: All Religions Lead to the Same God - Essay Example

At times, belief in the greatness of one's god has led to fanatic behavior and absolute intolerance for other religions. On the other hand, there has been apologetics that believes in religious pluralism and attempts to spread the message that all religions lead to the same god. This paper examines the statement of apologetics and discusses what such statements mean. The concept gives rise to statements such as 'All Religions lead to the same God' or that 'many paths lead to the one God' and so on.

Religions such as Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and others practice ‘universalism’ with an ‘Inclusivism’ mindset where gods from other religions are tolerated and accepted and members of other religions can be allowed to stay in peace. On the other hand, religions such as Islam, Christianity, and others practice ‘Particularism’ with an ‘exclusivist’ mindset. These religions are not ready to accept other religions and call followers of other religions pagans, heathens, infidels, unbelievers, and so on, and may take up crusades like Christians and Jihads like Muslims.

Hutchison (2003) argues that religious pluralism is a much better way of resolving religious and sometimes political conflicts and he endorses the belief that all religions lead to the same god. If the arguments for or against a particular god were limited to only theological discussions and arguments, then no harm would be done. However, religions hold much greater control over politics and the passions of people, and religious intolerance and issues are used as the flash point and reasons to settle other scores.

The moot question is why one believes in a particular religion and god and what a person asks for when he is fervently offering prayers. Does the person pray to god to find a solution to his own financial and personal problems or does he pray that the neighbor also faces the same problems? In a majority of cases would be that a person bows or kneels before his god to find deliverance from the problems that he is facing. It would again be reasonable to presume that people from different religions would have the same set of financial and personal problems that may vary in magnitude. Therefore, when the problems and solutions are the same, why should it be that God, the entity that would grant these wishes should be radically different for different sets of people?

Again, when a child cries for its mother, it may use the corresponding word for mother in different languages such as English, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Chinese, and so on. It would be illogical to expect that an English mother would be more attentive than say a Hindu mother. This is what happens a person prays to Jesus, Allah, Krishna, Buddha, and other gods.

The above arguments show that despite how religious heads interpret their religion, the fact remains that all religions lead to the same god, who may be known by different names, who may appear differently and dress differently. In essence, this belief has been taught by many religions but understood and practiced by very few, down the ages. Thus, the paper would conclude that ‘All Religions lead to the same God’ is correct.