Religion - One or Many?

 It is often said that all religions are one, or that they are separate paths leading up the same mountain.  Recently, this notion has been challenged by a scholar named Stephen Prothero, in his book God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World.  He argues that rather than having the same endpoint, the world religions have the same starting point, namely that there is something wrong with the world, and that each religion identifies a different problem as being central.  For Buddhism, he says, the problem is suffering.  For Christianity, it is sin.  For Islam, it is pride.  Each religion has its own rituals and teachings to try to solve the problem that it seeks to address.  Thus, according to him, rather than climbing the same mountain, each religion is trying to ascend its own separate mountain.

I have a few problems with this, but I don't entirely disagree with it.  In the name of religious tolerance, perennialists often tend to overstate their case in claiming the essential unity of all religions.  They basically talk as if the differences between religions are all superficial and insignificant, and that they should all just realize that they are basically the same.  I find more than a hint of Green in this sentiment in its attempt to level the value spheres.  It tries to make peace with all religions, but in the process ends up insulting all of them.  I don't think Muslims would appreciate being told that their pilgrimage to Mecca is trivial and insignificant.  Nor do I suspect that most Buddhists would agree that their idea of Anatman(no-self) is the same as the Hindu idea of Atman(true self).  What Prothero is saying is that these differences matter, and that we can't simply ignore the cultural(LL quadrant) differences that shape these different religions and pass them off as insignificant.

And yet, I think there's a bigger picture here.  Why is it that the mystics of each religion seem to agree with each other more than they often agree with others within their own religion?  I'm a Christian, but I find myself getting along much better with Buddhists and Hindus and New Age types than I do with most people I meet who identify as Christian(I'm sure there's more worldcentric Christians than meets the eye, but they don't tend to make themselves very visible).  Perhaps these different mountains are themselves the base of a much bigger mountain.

I think the best analogy would be language.  Each language has its own unique qualities, and expresses ideas in a different manner.  French and German are very different languages, and not every concept from one language translates easily into the other.  They each have a different cultural history behind them which makes them unique, and they tend to carry with them hidden cultural biases.  And yet, it is possible to speak both languages fluently, and the same speech, book, or movie can be translated into each language relatively easily.  Moreover, speakers of the same language can develop different concepts within the same cultural context, and their ideas might resonate with ideas developed independently by different cultures with different languages, but they often tend to have their own cultural "flavor."

I think the same goes for religion.  I would say, for example, the Christian concept of "Logos" has similiarities to the idea of the Tao, but there is a different cultural resonance to it, with its own history behind it.  Each religion has its own way of expressing similar concepts, but each expression also has its own unique quality to it.  I guess I'd like to end this with a quote from one of my favorite philosophers, Alfred North Whitehead:

It is as true to say that God is permanent and the World fluent, as that the World is permanent and God is fluent.

It is as true to say that God is one and the World many, as that the World is one and God many.

It is as true to say that, in comparison with the World, God is actual eminently, as that, in comparison with God, the World is actual eminently.

It is as true to say that the World is immanent in God, as that God is immanent in the World.

It is as true to say that God transcends the World, as that the World transcends God.

It is as true to say that God creates the World, as that the World creates God.