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Issues, Etc.

Objections Overruled, Chapter One: Religions Are All Saying the Same Thing, by Craig Parton

Issues, Etc.

Lutheran Public Radio

Christianity, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.81.9K Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2023

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Transcript

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0:00.0

Objections overruled one in two audiobooks are produced by Lutheran Public Radio and are made possible with support from listeners like you.

0:08.0

You can contribute to the production of future audiobooks at issuesetc.org-support.

0:14.0

Look for objections overruled three in December of 2023.

0:19.0

Lutheran Public Radio presents objections overruled answering arguments against Christianity, edited by Jeffrey Schwartz, narrated by Bob Sauer.

0:31.0

Forward.

0:33.0

During my time as a journalism student at the University of Missouri Columbia, I took a religious studies course. I had nothing to fear.

0:41.0

I couldn't remember a time when I wasn't a Christian since my baptism as an infant. I attended a Lutheran Elementary School. I seldom missed Sunday morning services at campus Lutheran Church in Columbia.

0:54.0

Much to my surprise, I was wrong. The professors started making statements like, Jesus never claimed to be God. All religions are equal. The Bible isn't a reliable historical document.

1:08.0

I had never heard these claims. I started wondering why my parents and pastors never informed me about these revelations. What were they hiding from me?

1:18.0

Since the course caused severe doubts to my Christian faith, I ended up dropping it. Objections overruled is a book designed to help high schoolers, college students and their parents find simple responses to common arguments against Christianity.

1:34.0

Jeffrey Schwartz, General Manager, Lutheran Public Radio. Religions are all saying the same thing. Craig Parton. Many people believe that religions are basically the same or may as well be the same because they have the same goals.

1:51.0

In fact, the world's religions all have mutually contradictory views of God, man, evil, history, authority, ethics and morality and salvation.

2:03.0

These contradictory views also result in religions having fundamentally different goals. Since all religions contradict each other, they cannot all be right.

2:15.0

The current religious buffet table offers a staggering variety of options. In my town of almost 100,000 people, there are over 200 religions represented. All religions make various assertions about God, the ultimate or the purpose of existence.

2:34.0

The similarity of religious practices leads many to conclude that religions teach the same core principles. However, people often conclude this after reading the quote of the day on the local Unitarian Church sign.

2:49.0

Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and Krishna get equal time on the marquee and end up supposedly saying the same thing about world peace and social issues.

3:00.0

This is not a serious analysis of what various religions in fact teach. People want religions to say the same thing. They want to bring unity out of diversity so that it will work out in the end. All will live happily ever after.

3:17.0

We desperately and understandably wish this to be the case. Surely no one is absolutely wrong. Isn't each religious idea like the Indian parable about the various people who examined the elephant while wearing a blindfold? Each description of one part of the elephant was true as far as it went.

3:38.0

We do our best hoping that if there is a God, nothing more will be required. God grades on the curve and any other standard would be grossly unfair. Marit is what we reward in work, school and play and it is confirmed hourly. Getting what you deserve seems to be pretty much the way the world operates.

4:00.0

But the incompatibility of the world's religions is logical, not sociological. This means that where issues contradict each other, they are of fundamental importance.

4:12.0

Efforts to gloss over indifferences by focusing on similar practices are dangerous misunderstandings of the world's religions. This can easily be seen in how widely religions vary in their beliefs about God,

4:26.0

man, evil, history, authority, ethics and morality and the way of salvation. God is viewed in fundamentally incompatible ways among the world's religions.

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