by Ryan Thomas

Created on: September 21, 2008   Last Updated: February 06, 2009

Modern American society likes the path of least resistance. We have cars that take us anywhere we want to go with the turn of a key. We have microwaves that allow us to cook whole meals with the push of a button. We even have those handy credit cards that, thank God, save us from the arduous task of counting out cash for everyday purchases.

Taking the path of least resistance in everyday living is not a bad thing. If the automobile were never invented, we wouldn't have ambulances. Without microwaves, I wouldn't be able to enjoy that delicious hot pocket I just had 5 minutes ago. And without credit cards, well, I'll stop there.

Unfortunately, this way of thinking has bled over into our cultural philosophy. Now not only do we have technology that affords us more convenient living, but we've also accepted ideas such as pluralism and subjectivism that offer us more convenient thinking. The foundational concept behind these ideas is that there is no absolute truth. With no absolute Truth, no one has to be wrong anymore. Everyone can just be right. This alleviates us from the responsibility to not only to critically examine our own beliefs, but also to respectfully challenge the beliefs of others with civility and respect so as to facilitate mutual intellectual enlightenment.

The search for Truth is arguably the most difficult journey man has ever embarked on. It involves some very hard questions, such as those regarding God's existence and man's place in the Universe. There is one very influential institution that has attempted to answer these questions: Religion. From Islam to Christianity, every religion has its own version of Truth and its own recipe for spiritual fulfillment.

Sacred scripture from almost any major religion claims its authority from God. The Bible plainly states that all Biblical scripture is inspired by God. The same is true for the Jewish and Islamic holy books. Therefore, to say that scripture from any one of these religions is not inspired by God is to say that their scripture is wrong.

In philosophy, the foundational premise behind rational thinking is the law of non-contradiction. It's pretty straightforward: two contradictory statements cannot both be true (i.e., one must be wrong). It has to do with a principle called mutual exclusivity. If two statements are mutually exclusive, that simply means that they cannot both simultaneously be true. For example, the statements "my computer exists" and "my computer does not exist" are mutually exclusive; they cannot both be true.

The problem our society doesn't want to face is that the different world religions make very, very different claims regarding God, human existence, and Truth itself. For example, the Bible states very explicitly that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, there is only one God, and Jesus is God incarnate. The Koran on the other hand claims that entrance to heaven must earned through a series of good works, Jesus was only a man, and Mohammed is the true prophet of God. It also makes the claim, once again very explicitly, that anyone who is not a Muslim and does not follow the teachings of Mohammed is on the express train to Hell.

Unless God was a schizophrenic, self-contradicting being of infinite inconsistency, both of these scriptures could not have been inspired by Him. One must be wrong, for they make totally contradictory claims. To say that they could both be inspired by God is nothing less than an intellectual cop-out. Sure, it's much easier than actually engaging in critical thought. Unfortunately in philosophy however, easy is rarely ever right.

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