Kevin DeGraaf’s Blog

The op-ed page of today’s Detroit News contains a slew of letters (see this, this, and this) in response to the remarks made last week by Pope Benedict XVI in which he re-declared the (alleged) veracity of Roman Catholicism, to the exclusion of other Christian groups.

The writers of these letters expressed relatively predictable views. There were Catholics supporting the Pope’s remarks, Protestants complaining about them, and a number of people on both sides advocating tolerance and ecumenical fellowship.

I propose that all Christians, regardless of their denominational affiliation or attitude toward the Vatican, should spend some time considering the implications of the fact that there are:

• Multiple religions on the planet (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc.)
• Multiple branches of Christianity (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, etc.)
• Multiple denominations within Protestant Christianity (Reformed/Calvinistic, Lutheran, Baptist, Episcopalian, etc.)

Most, if not all, of these groups and sub-groups put forth some sort of claim of exclusive knowledge of the true nature of the (alleged) spiritual realm. Depending on the magnitude of the difference between a particular group’s teachings and your own beliefs, they might declare that you are damned and will burn in “Hell”, or they might just say that you’re wrong about the finer points of theology and while you will still be admitted into “Heaven”, you’ll realize the error of your beliefs and be embarrassed once everyone arrives there. Or something like that…

Contrast this situation with what you’d expect from a deity who exists and wants worship in this life and companionship in the (alleged) next. Shouldn’t we expect such a God to communicate with humans in an clear, consistent, undeniable manner? Wouldn’t it be trivially easy for an omnipotent deity to prevent thousands of years’ worth of human bickering, brawling and bloodshed by demonstrating his/her/its power and authority in a verifiable, unambiguous manner, thereby establishing a truly unified Church?

Before anyone objects that “God needs to stay hidden” or “God wants us to have free will” or “God wants us to take everything on faith”, consider that, according to the Bible, obvious miracles happened all the time: parted seas, frogs falling from the sky, pillars of fire, burning bushes, people turning into salt, talking donkeys, expansion of bread and fish, dead people coming back to life, etc. If ancient people received verifiable proof of the existence of a God, there’s no reason we shouldn’t expect the same.

The existence of such a diverse range of religious beliefs, to an unbiased observer, is evidence against all of them.