Compatibility Of Major Religious Groups
by Dennis L. Trunk
A newspaper reporter once asked me to compare the compatibility of the major religious groups - Judaeo-Christian-Muslim vs. Hindu-Buddhist-Taoist - for developing common grounds of tolerance. I wrote back explaining that the two groups have very serious and fundamental differences. Although some sects within each group may not completely fit into the general differences, the overall pattterns still hold true. I think it is worth sharing my response here, because religious scholars often mislead the public into thinking that the major religions are all saying essentially the same thing when they certainly are not. Here are the fundamental differences between the two major groups.
Both of the major religious groups attempt to explain the human condition - how it came about, and what needs to be done about it - but because they start with radically different premises, they propose radically different and incompatible solutions.
The Judaeo-Christian-Muslim explanation of the human condition is rooted in the Genesis myths of creation. In those myths, God creates a world that is good, and he makes humanity in "his image and likeness," thus giving humans a measure or spark of divine nature. In this scenario, humanity and all of creation are, by nature, eternally separate and distinct from God. As a result of humanity's disobedience to God's commands in the Garden of Eden and the consequent "fall," all of the world's corruption and evils follow, as well as the need for some kind of reconciliation between mankind and God. Thus, the explanation of the human condition is "sin" or disobedience to God. Humanity, living in spiritual darkness and incapable of enlightenment on its own, needs divinely bestowed law and redemption, which is revealed through the prophets and scriptures.
For Jews, their relationship with God is summed up in the law and the prophets. For Christians, salvation and reconciliation with God comes through the sacrificial death and resurrection of God's incarnated son and obedience to God's commands. For Muslims, their relationship to God is expressed primarily through obedience as directed by Mohammed and the Qur'an - Islam means "submission to God."
In all of these religions, obedience to God's revealed commands and anointed prophets is core to the religion, accompanied by some system of rewards and punishments either in this world or in the next. All of them are primarily morality religions, having in greater or lesser degrees a tendency to accept an authoritarian, patriarchal mentality of imposed behavioral control, and a tendency to believe that theirs is the only true religion because it came to them as a direct special revelation from God. As a result, these religions have a history of intolerance and persecution, not only towards one another, but especially towards other religions, often disparaging them as "infidel" or "pagan."
The Hindu-Buddhist-Taoist explanation of the human condition, on the other hand, is not "sin" or disobedience to divine commands, but ignorance of one's divine nature. Humanity and all of creation are no more or less than an expression of God's own nature, a kind of divine play (lila) which creates a powerful illusion of a universe of separation and multiplicity (maya). Humans, through desire and mis-identification as separate beings, have become enmeshed in the illusion, and as a result, suffer the pain of fragmentation and desire, feeling separate from God and from the rest of creation.
Their solution is enlightenment - that is, awakening to one's nondualistic divine nature - and the means to enlightenment comes through effort by means of various methods designed to eliminate desire and to control the fluctuations of the mind, which is the primary source of the illusion. Morality is not an end in itself or an expression of obedience to an arbitrary divine will, but a means of overcoming desire and of living in the recognition that everyone and everything is God. Concepts of good and evil are simply relativities or polarities, illusions of the mind and a part of the divine play. Therefore, morality is needed only as long as one buys into the illusion. Upon enlightenment, however, the awakened one transcends the illusion of relativity, sees only the unity of God, and has no further need of morality.
Neither divine authority nor law nor beliefs are at the core of the Hindu-Buddhist-Taoist traditions, but only a diagnosis of existential ignorance and a prescription for discovering one's true nature. As exemplified by Buddhism, they are essentially experiential religions offering practical solutions to overcoming the human condition. In that sense, these religions are empirical and scientific; that is, they are verifiable. The truth of their claims is discovered through direct experience, not belief. As a result, they tend to be highly tolerant and broadminded toward other religions, viewing all religions as equally valid, because each is a partial expression of the divine whole.
Copyright © 1999-2008
Dennis L. Trunk
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