Judaism Is More Likely to be True Than False

The Pluralistic Hypothesis: The great world religions constitute different ways of experiencing, conceiving and living in relation to an ultimate divine Reality (the Real) which transcends all our varied visions of it. The pluralistic hypothesis maintains that a divine reality exists, that human individuals are able to come in contact with that divine reality, and that the great world religions are human responses to that divine reality. This hypothesis draws on Kantian epistemology, which claims that the natural world is represented to the human mind as mental categories determined by the structure of the mind. Our understanding of the natural world is then not a perfect reflection of how reality actually exists, but is instead a mental construction of reality that is fundamentally distinct but still representative of the way the world is. Divine reality is similarly incapable of being understood within the realm of human understanding. Human language and categories are incapable of expressing the true nature of the Real. Religious experience is a function not only of informational input from contact with the divine but also of socio-cultural circumstances and the inherent cognitive structure of the human mind. Humanity is incapable of experiencing the Real in a manner that would convey information about true divine nature. Accordingly, the religions of the world are peculiarly human reactions to contact with the Real. An analogy to be used might be the idea of color. “Blue” as experienced does not exist in the real world- “blue” light is described by wavelength and location on the visible spectrum but this is not the same as the color I experience. “Blue” is simply created by the interaction of my mind with reality, yet is still a real interaction with reality. In the same way, the religions of the world represent humanity’s attempt to understand and explain encounters with the divine. We can then understand religious accounts such as the resurrection of Jesus as actually happening insofar as humans experienced these events and these events were real experiences of the divine. These accounts are not “true” though, in that the Real did not actually become man, die, and resurrect. Observations: 1) Universality of Religious Experience Experiences of god, gods, the underlying nature of reality, etc. is found in nearly every society irrespective of location, historical time period, or contact with other cultures. Creation myths, salvation myths, and supernatural explanations of reality exist in every society. Religious experience in the form of eyewitness accounts of miracles, direct revelation of deities, personal transformation, and fulfilled prophecy are found across cultures. Examples of Revelation: -The many miracles of Jesus, performed in front of crowds and reported by multiple sources. -The Hindu Vedas: Among the oldest religious texts, thousands of years old, that traditionally were divinely orated to mankind -Buddhist Martyrdom of Ichadon: Ichadon predicted that upon being executed a miracle would occur. When he was beheaded, milk sprayed from his neck. Buddhism was then made the state religion of the KoreankingdomofSilla. Examples of Prophecy:-Jesus' betrayal: Zechariah 11:12 - I told them, "If you think it best, give me pay; but if not, keep it." So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. Matthew 26:14-15 - Then one of the Twelve- the one called Judas Iscariot- went to the chief priests and asked, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. -Marcus Garvey’s prediction of Haile Selassie I (Rasta): "Look to Africa, when a black king shall be crowned for the day of deliverance is at hand!" - Prediction of Ethiopian Messiah (Rasta) Psalm 68:31 “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.” 2) Transformative Capability of Religion Examples of individuals with extreme commitments to ethical principles and religious devotion are found in nearly all religions. All traditions contain accounts of individuals with religious conviction drastically opposed to typical self-interest; all traditions show an ability to reorient individuals toward a transcendent reality. 3) Religious Diversity There exist many religions with mutually exclusive dogmatic claims. Contentions: 1) Absolutist/Exclusivist Religious Worldviews are Problematic i) Unjust Exclusion from Salvation An individual’s religion is generally determined by the circumstances into which they were born, and often these circumstances totally exclude the possibility of hearing about any specific religion. If I am born inChicago, the odds of me being Muslim are very different than if I am born inCairo. Millions of people have been born to locations where they will never even know major religions existed. Exclusivist religion means that the single largest determining factor in an individual’s salvation is the luck they had at birth. In exclusivist religion, salvation is conditioned on being born in the right place at the right time and so excludes the majority of humanity. ii) Lack of empirical confirmation of any single religion If one religion were true, we would expect to see some empirical confirmation of this fact. We would expect that miracles happen only for or more often for members of a certain faith. We would expect that a certain religion would generate the most saints. Yet what we see is that miracles are claimed and saints exist in all religions. iii) Failure to account for above Observations The facts that religious experience is a universal phenomenon, that religions have a transformative capacity, and that religions come in a staggering variety of theological shapes must all be accounted for in any explanation of divine reality. Exclusivist positions effectively explain observations 1 and 2 for a specific religion but fail to explain why these observations are true across the diversity of religions. Exclusivism is generally unable to explain why religious diversity exists at all- why across the globe different religions keep popping up. 2) The Pluralistic Hypothesis Solves Exclusivist Religion’s Problems i) Religiously all-inclusive Pluralism allows that most religions are the result of real interaction with the divine. It therefore allows that salvation is open to all members of humanity. ii) Accounts for religious diversity Pluralism is able to account for all three Observations. It explains why religious experience is universal, why religion has transformative capability, and why religions take on the diverse forms that they do. iii) Pluralism reinterprets Judaism in such a way that it is not “true” in the conventionally understood sense. Pluralism blatantly violates items 2, 5, 7, and 9 of the 13 Principles of Jewish Faith listed by Pro. Underview: Why Pluralism is more probable The fundamental problem with Exclusivist religions is that these religions all share similar strategies in establishing their truth. Exclusivist religions claim revelation, prophecy, etc. as evidence for dogmatic claims. The claims of these religions are then all in competition with each other. It is then not enough to merely show that one religion has valid evidence, but the exclusivist must also account for the evidence all competing religions claim. Pro must explain why all other religions exist and why the prophecies, miracles, saints, etc. of other religions are false. Alternatively, Pluralism accounts for all evidence in favor of all religions. This means that I could concede that all evidence in support of Judaism is correct and still hold Pluralism to be true. Pluralism then accounts for all revelation and prophecy in favor of Judaism without the challenge of explaining the evidence in favor of other religions. Comparatively, Pluralism and Judaism both account for the evidence in favor of Judaism, while only Pluralism accounts for evidence in favor of all other religions. By accounting more fully for religious evidence, Pluralism is clearly more probable.