What is Christian Apologetics?
How do we know which worldview is true?
Considering the plethora of religious worldviews, how do we know which worldview is true? On a superficial level, there seem to be two options – one, all religious worldviews are equally true; two, all religious worldviews are equally false.
Let’s have a closer look at the first option. The core beliefs of various religious worldviews suggest that this is highly unlikely because they are contradictory in their understanding of literally every aspect of a religion, from the nature of God, to the nature of man, to sin, to salvation, to heaven and hell, so on and so forth. But a religious pluralist might argue at this point that every religious worldview, although, expressing contradictory beliefs, are experiencing the same God, and hence conclude that every religious worldview is equally true and valid. In other words, the religious pluralist argues that all paths lead to the same destination eventually. The adherents of a particular religious worldview, according to the pluralist, are totally blinded in that they do not experience what the others are experiencing. This view of the pluralist is problematic in many ways (I’ve addressed this in my other blog titled “Are all religions basically the same, are they just different paths to the same God?”). But, let me mention just one here.
Given that God is a morally perfect being, which means he cannot lie, God cannot reveal himself in mutually exclusive ways. If he did, it would make no sense to accept him/her/it as divine. This is exactly what we observe in world’s religions. One religion makes claim about a particular belief that stands in complete contradiction to another. Just take Islam and Buddhism, for example. Their worldviews have almost nothing in common. Islam believes that there is a personal God who is omnipotent, omniscient, and holy, and who created the world. It believes that people are sinful and in need of God’s forgiveness, that everlasting heaven or hell awaits us after death, and that we must earn our salvation by faith and righteous deeds. Buddhism denies all of these things. For the classical Buddhist ultimate reality is impersonal, the world is uncreated, there is no enduring self, life’s ultimate goal is not personal immortality but annihilation, and the ideas of sin and salvation play no role at all. Examples like this could be multiplied. Both these worldviews can never be equally true at the same time, considering the fact that God is a morally perfect being.
How about the second option? Given that all religious worldviews contradict each other on a fundamental level, could it be that all of them are equally false? Let’s find out! Consider the following statements, for example:
John Marshal is in Chennai!
John Marshal is in Delhi!
John Marshal is in Kolkata!
John Marshal is in Mumbai!
Now, it can easily be said that all of the above statements cannot be true at the same time. But, could it be the case that all of them are equally false? Yes, it is possible! It is possible that he is elsewhere, in Bangalore, for example. But, it is also very much possible that one of the above statements is true, that he is in Chennai, for example. So, the question boils down to this: what evidence does one have to suggest that he is in one of the above places or he is not in any of the above places?
Now, let’s superimpose this analogy to the various religious worldviews. Given that religious worldviews contradict each other fundamentally, and that they cannot all be true at the same time, could it be that they are all false, or that one of them is true? Well, it all depends on how much evidence one has to suggest that it is true. So, how do we test every religion for its truthfulness? Well, I would like to propose the following three tests for truth.
First, every worldview, whether it is Humanism, Materialism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or any other worldview for that matter, must be logically coherent and consistent within its own system. Second, if the worldview makes empirically verifiable claims, then it must stand the test of verification. For instance, Christianity claims that Jesus lived in history, he died and rose again. Now, this is falsifiable. So the question is: does Christianity provide evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to suggest that its claims are true? If it does, then it’s probably true. Third, is the worldview under study experientially relevant to one’s day to day life? This is very significant because, a worldview must be comprehensive, addressing every aspect of life. So, how do we know which worldview is true? By applying the basic tests for truth which are coherence, correspondence and relevance. In other words, the worldview under consideration must be logically coherent, empirically verifiable and experientially relevant in order to be true.
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