God is Too Big For One Religion

Melinda Penner:

This is purportedly a pluralistic claim. On it's face, it has some appeal to God's vastness and greatness, along with a nice open-mindedness. But it's actually just as much an exclusive truth claim as any other claim by particular religions.

It's a way of telling most religions they're wrong for thinking their view of God is the right view. So most religions are wrong for thinking they're right, and this pluralistic claims is just as much dogma as any other doctrinal claim about God. You really can't avoid it as soon as you say something about God.

It's also not rational. All religions can't be right because of simple logic. The law of excluded middle means God is either personal or impersonal. There aren't any other options, and He can't be both. So the answer to that choice excludes a number of religions, whichever option you choose. Religions make claims that are mutually exclusive - they can't all be true.

What matters about religion isn't whether claims or descriptions of God are too meager or modest, but whether they're true or not. If God exists, then some things we say are true and others are false. We should discover which is the case rather than gloss over the differences.

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