There Are Only Two Religions
While it might not be an original phrase, I heard “There are only two religions in the world” for the first time in a talk given by author Frank Peretti.
I though it was a very succinct and profound way of summarizing the various religions in the world and how they compare to the gospel. Basically, it boils down to one of two options: Either God is God or man is god.
In his book, “The God Delusion,” Richard Dawkins summarizes his atheistic disposition by stating that, “I am attacking God, all gods, anything and everything supernatural, wherever and whenever they have been or will be invented.”1
While Atheists want to be perceived as having an impartial approach to the various faiths represented by the American population by insisting on a “religion-less” perspective on morality, there is no such thing as a “religion-less” approach to anything, let alone morality. From a purely philosophical standpoint, “religion” is the way in which you answer four basic questions:
- Origin – how did the universe come to be?
- Destiny – what happens when you die?
- Morality – how are you supposed to behave while you’re here?
- Purpose – what’s the point of your existence?
These are not lofty, theological issues or advanced, philosophical themes that only academic types bother to engage. The way you process yourself and the world around you on a daily basis is based on the way you answer these questions and from that standpoint, you are a “religious” person regardless of how often you go to church, if you go at all. And from that standpoint, there’s no such thing as an atheist. You’re simply your own god – you’ve established yourself as your own religion.
So, when you hear critics of Christianity or social activists insist that they represent a more judicious approach to moral issues and social tensions by removing the Bible from the conversation, they’re not leveling the playing field as much as they’re giving priority to that “religious” school of thought that establishes the individual as his own deity.
If religion, at the bare minimum, is the paradigm upon which one bases his perspective on himself and the world around him, then atheism “fits” in the illustration Peretti proposes in that atheism is the belief that all things can be, and should be, assessed and determined by an intellect that is entirely human. So, rather than appealing to the God of the Bible, atheists instead appeal to the “god” of human reason and humanistic thinking. However they may balk at the notion of anything that even sounds remotely supernatural is attached to their philosophical infrastructure, it is nevertheless an apt way of comparing the two schools of thought. And with that comparison comes a more direct way of identifying the fundamental difference between Christianity and other supernatural thought processes, while simultaneously defining the one aspect of Christianity that, once proven, reduces all of what would otherwise be argument against the gospel to ash.
The empty tomb. H.P. Liddon put it very well when he said:
Faith in the resurrection is the very keystone of the arch of Christian faith, and, when it is removed, all must invariably crumble into ruin. 2
1. “The God Delusion”, Richard Dawkins, Bantam Press, Great Britain, 2006, p57 2. “Therefore Stand: Christian Apologetics”, Wilbur M. smith, Baker book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1965, p577
