The Truth Behind Tolerance

Pluralism
Some people think that because we live in a pluralistic society, we have to believe that all religions are equally true.

Christians should support the idea of a truly pluralistic society, that is, one where differing views have an equal and legal right to exist. However, more recently the word pluralism has had another concept smuggled into its meaning. It usually now includes the concept of relativism, that all truths are equal and that what is true for one person or culture is not necessarily true for another. Thus relativists say people should not make exclusive claims to truth.

People are not relativists though, in their everyday beliefs and practices. It seems only when religion and morality are at issue that people invoke relativism. We don't hear people claiming that mutually exclusive statements are true when it comes to the stock market.

Relativistic pluralism is appropriate only in matters of taste, not in matters of truth. In matters of truth, we are expected to work towards agreement, to search for the objective truth, unlike matters of taste where diversity is encouraged. But clearly, the issues of religion are issues of factual truth because the claims a religion makes about reality are either true or false.

Many people claim that relativism is the answer to the truth question about religions. That is, they are claiming that relativism is exclusively and absolutely true. But this reveals that relativism is just another absolute in sheep's clothing, and is therefore no more tolerant than any other exclusive claim to truth. In fact, it is worse because it hides its exclusivity behind a deceptive façade of alleged openness, when in reality it requires the conclusion that all other religious views are not equally true, but equally flawed and that relativism is the larger, grander truth.

Relativists do not recognize the right of others to reject their relativistic view. The proceedings of the 1993 World Parliament of Religions showed how intolerant tolerance can become with its consistent attack on exclusive religious claims.

Religious relativism is not only deceptive and intolerant, it is also incoherent.

Relativists claim that "all religious claims are relative" but that is a religious claim that is not relative. It fails its own test and is thus self-contradictory; and self-contradictory statements are false.

The real question is: "Which exclusive claim is really true--Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, relativism, etc.?" And that can only be determined by an investigation into the evidence supporting the claims of each view.