ALL PATHS LEAD TO THE ONE TRUE GOD? by Laurence Gonzaga

ALL PATHS LEAD TO THE ONE TRUE GOD? 

Of course I didn't read the whole thing from Pope Francis to the Singaporean Junior College students. 

Who has time for such things? 

Aren't there already enough church documents? 

So I searched for the word path and read the sentence in context. 

In my view, it's problematic but I think there's enough substance there that's true that doesn't make me lose sleep over it. 

I agree that all religions are in some sense a pathway to the true God. It's at least further along than being an atheist or an agnostic. Even those could be part of a pathway in a person's life towards God eventually. 

I was raised Catholic to some degree, went to Catholic school, and got the early sacraments, but became an atheist, then became a theist, then became Catholic again, then Protestant, then Catholic again, then almost Sedevacantist, then Catholic again. But don't ask Gerry Matatics about that last step. :-) 

Francis affirms there is one God. I don't know if he realizes that that is not going to land well with folks who believe in a pantheon of "gods" like Hinduism and other religions. You're already going to insult them by making a claim to monotheism, which necessarily contradicts and rejects polytheism or pantheism. Whatever. It's not like it's an infallible statement or anything. 

If you're already going to reject the basic assertions of other religions I don't see why you need to play footsies too much with them. Sure be judicious about how you say it, but the bottom line is, there is truth, and if you claim that your way is right, and it contradicts the claims of other ways, then the other ways are necessarily and inescapably wrong at various degrees. Various degrees of wrong, are still wrong. 

Try to be less wrong. And one day, hopefully, you will be all right. 

....

From the document in question from Pope Francis 

"One of the things that has impressed me most about the young people here is your capacity for interfaith dialogue. This is very important because if you start arguing, “My religion is more important than yours...,” or “Mine is the true one, yours is not true....,” where does this lead? Somebody answer. [A young person answers, “Destruction”.] That is correct. Religions are seen as paths trying to reach God. I will use an analogy, they are like different languages that express the divine. But God is for everyone, and therefore, we are all God’s children. “But my God is more important than yours!”. Is this true? There is only one God, and religions are like languages that try to express ways to approach God. Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian. Understood? Yet, interfaith dialogue among young people takes courage. The age of youth is the age of courage, but you can misuse this courage to do things that will not help you. Instead, you should have courage to move forward and to dialogue."

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