Answers to Sunday School Questions, Part 6

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             Last Summer, we took up questions from our Adult Sunday School Class at First Presbyterian Dyersburg, Tennessee.  I have adapted the answers I gave in articles in the church newsletter, and I wanted to share them here.  I hope you find the short essays helpful. 

What do I say when a person says they believe in many gods?

            Why do you believe in many gods/religions when those religions contradict each other?  See the essay above for where to go from there.  The point is that logic applies to all of reality.  It must.

            To say that all religions are equally true is to say something can be true and not true at the same time and in the same relationship.  That cannot be right.  Some religions agree on some things, but the contradictions are many.

           As an aside, to say that nothing can be known about religion is to say something can be known about religion; namely, that nothing can be known about religion.  It’s kind of like saying “I cannot know anything.”  I know something, namely that “I cannot know anything.”  In philosophy, this is called a “self-defeating belief” because it proves itself to be false.

            Usually, if someone says I can’t know anything, I just say, “Really.  Is that so?”  Then I just look at them and smile until they think about it for a bit.  Smart people can figure it out for themselves.  

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