Many Paths???

[Vinayaka]

As a Baha'i I see Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam as all having Divine origins.

And the others?

 

[Jim]

@rocala I’ve been searching on the Internet to try to find out what people mean by “supreme truth,” who say that all paths lead to it. Most of the search results that came up were about a terrorist organization with that name. Most the ones that I found saying that all paths lead to it, did not say what they mean by it. One of them equated “supreme truth” with God. Another compared it to a mountain top. Some others describe it as some kind of experience, or state of being.

I’m wondering now if people are thinking of it as something to know, or something that can happen to them, that will make them as happy as they could ever want to be, forever.

 

[Vinayaka]

@rocala I’ve been searching on the Internet to try to find out what people mean by “supreme truth,” who say that all paths lead to it. Most of the search results that came up were about a terrorist organization with that name. Most the ones that I found saying that all paths lead to it, did not say what they mean by it. One of them equated “supreme truth” with God. Another compared it to a mountain top. Some others describe it as some kind of experience, or state of being.

I’m wondering now if people are thinking of it as something to know, or something that can happen to them, that will make them as happy as they could ever want to be, forever.

Good points.
Pretty hard to make the claim that all paths lead to the ultimate truth, if we can't agree to exactly what such ultimate truth is.

 

[Jim]

What I mean Jim is the correct one. I do not think there are "other kinds of truth".

“Supreme truth” means “the only truth”? All the truth there is to know?

 

[Jim]

Good points.
Pretty hard to make the claim that all paths lead to the ultimate truth, if we can't agree to exactly what such ultimate truth is.

We can’t even agree on what “truth” means, or how to know if anything anyone says is true or not.

 

[Jim]

Maybe it’s an idiom, like “kick the bucket.” Saying that all paths lead to the same ultimate truth has somehow become a popular way of saying “I’m not claiming that my way is the best or only way.”

 

[Windwalker]

I have often heard and read that different religions are just different paths to a supreme truth.
Is this true? Do you believe it?

Yes. I believe this is true. Many religions understand this as the truth.

Obviously there must be an ultimate truth, but do all religions show a way to this?

“Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain, but at the peak we all gaze at the single bright moon.”

― Ikkyu, 14th century Buddhist poet

Each of the major religions have different paths to the same destination.

 

[osgart]

Then once you find the ultimate truth, then ya gotta live it. Maybe the ultimate truth is just the beginning, and there is ever so much more. The ultimate truth is the foundation, the springboard.

The only ultimate truth i have found is moral truth. Its basic stuff that centers around trustworthiness, and deserve.

Ya gotta live it to bear its fruits. It has to take root deep in the heart. If it dont take root there its just lipservice, empty and hollow.

Maybe one finds the Holy Grail like a needle in an endless pile of haystacks. And one sees the Golden Road, and another just passes it by like nothing special to it. Then yet another knows its true but never able lives it. And still yet a thousand more people cant even comprehend its noble simplicity. And a thousand more are dead set against its truth.

 

[Dawnofhope]

And the others?

Not every word spoken by everyone is Divinely inspired.

 

[Jim]

Here’s what I’m thinking now. It might be very complex. Sometimes people claim that some beliefs or practices are the only way to salvation, to all truth, or to all the best possibilities in this life or after it, or some other final destination. Sometimes people think of one or another of those as finding the supreme or ultimate truth. “Supreme truth” or “ultimate truth” means different things to different people, sometimes even to the same person at different times. Sometimes people think of what they want most of all in life as reaching some final destination, and sometimes they think of that as finding the supreme or ultimate truth. Sometimes they think of some beliefs and practices as being the only way to do that.

Saying that some different religions lead to the same truth might be a metaphorical way of saying that people can find what they need in any religion, to live the best life they can. If that’s what it means, I agree with it, but I would also say that people can find what need for that, without believing in any religion at all. I would even say that all beliefs get in the way of doing that.

 

[Rival]

Either your religion is true or it's not. Objectively speaking, both Judaism and Islam cannot be true at the same time. Or Christianity and Heathenism. You get the idea.

 

[Jim]

To summarize what I said, if saying that different religions are different paths to the same destination is a metaphorical way of saying that people can find in any one of them what they need, to live the best life they can, then I agree. I would also say that people can do that without believing in any religion at all, and that all beliefs of all religions can blind people to that and turn them away from it.

 

[Audie]

I have often heard and read that different religions are just different paths to a supreme truth.
Is this true? Do you believe it?

Obviously there must be an ultimate truth, but do all religions show a way to this?

No, there is nothing obvious about an ultimate truth existing but
if there is, nonsense like chanting, soinning prayer wheels
growing long fingernail or crawling up a mountain are not
going to get anyone there.

 

[e.r.m.]

I have often heard and read that different religions are just different paths to a supreme truth.
Is this true? Do you believe it?

Obviously there must be an ultimate truth, but do all religions show a way to this?

No, they don't.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."

Even if people reject this, because of this people cannot combine Christianity into other world religions. And since Christianity cannot be combined into world religions, then not all paths can show the way.

 

[wandering peacefully]

I have often heard and read that different religions are just different paths to a supreme truth.
Is this true? Do you believe it?

Obviously there must be an ultimate truth, but do all religions show a way to this?

What is the ultimate truth?

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Interesting topic ...

 

[wandering peacefully]

I agree there is one ultimate reality or truth as there is one sun the earth revolves around. To extent each of the different religions provide a path to that ultimate truth depends on a number of factors.

1/ The extent to which a religion's founder was cognisant and a channel for the supreme truth.

2/ The capacity of the people at the time the religion was taught.

3/ The reliability of the transmission or record of the original teachings through the ages.

4/ The ability of future generations to make sense of the historic and literary context of the original teachings and distinguish the pure original teachings from acquired myth.

As a Baha'i I see Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam as all having Divine origins.

So they are all divine. Which one is the ultimate truth?

 

[Bird123]

I have often heard and read that different religions are just different paths to a supreme truth.
Is this true? Do you believe it?

Obviously there must be an ultimate truth, but do all religions show a way to this?

Religion isn't going to lead you to the ultimate truth. We are all already on that path. It's called LIFE. Yes, there are an infinite paths to get there. One's free choices determine the path each wishes to travel. Yes, in time, we will all get there.

I have found no religion that really understands God. On the other hand, they all carry pieces of the puzzle just like each of us.

That's what I'm seeing.

 

[wandering peacefully]

then not all paths can show the way

Show the way to what?

 

[Dawnofhope]

So they are all divine. Which one is the ultimate truth?

Of the religions listed, their ages vary between 10,000 years old in the case of Hinduism and 1,400 with Islam. The Quran most accurately and reliably reflects what the Founder of its religion taught. After that the Gospels which records the life and Teachings of Christ. That being said there is good reason to see Divine Inspiration within the Vedas, Buddhist Pali canon or the Torah.