Could All Religions Be True? The Short Answer is Yes. Essays from Outside the Spiritual Box

By Jack Preston King

The Philosophical Problem of Religious Diversity, stated simply, is that the religions of the world contradict each other in important particulars, including, but not limited to, the existence of God, the nature of God, the number of gods, the role God or gods play in human affairs, and our destiny after death (Heaven? Hell? Purgatory? Reincarnation? Oblivion?). Religious believers typically solve the problem by embracing one religion and rejecting the rest. For atheists, the contradictions invalidate all religions equally.

But is there a third way? Could all religions be true? What if followers of just one religion and atheists who reject all religions are both wrong? Are there ways to think about reality in which diverse religious beliefs, even in their conflicting particulars, could all be simultaneously true?

So far, Jack Preston King has found four. In Could All Religions Be True?, King explores those theories in depth, then takes the reader on a rollicking journey outside the spiritual box, forging new and enlightening paths through religion, spirituality, the soul, the afterlife, mythology, out of body experiences, even Goddess worship and Jungian Psychology.

Could all religions be true? The short answer is Yes!

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Paradigm Press
• Release date: Jan 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463318829

Jack Preston King

Jack Preston King is the author of "In Defense of Magical Thinking: Essays in Defiance of Conformity to Reason" and other books for rebels against the spiritual, creative, and cultural status quo. He writes unruly poems, short stories and novels, too. Visit him on the web at jackprestonking.com. He's also on Twitter, Medium and Facebook.

Book preview

cover.jpg

Could All Religions Be True?

The Short Answer is Yes. Essays from Outside the Spiritual Box

Copyright © 2019 by Jack Preston King

Published by New Paradigm Press

All Rights Reserved

License Notes:

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Brief quotes from books and websites used throughout this book are reproduced under Fair Use guidelines of US Copyright law. Questions or concerns? Email the author at [e-mail].

Cover Art via Pixabay.com/CC0 License.

Contents

The Philosophical Problem of Religious Diversity and the Price Philosophers Pay for Thinking They’ve Solved It

Could All Religions Be True? Three Mind-Boggling Positive Solutions to the Philosophical Problem of Religious Diversity

One More Way All Religions Could Be True. How Spiritual Reality Really Works . My Best Guess, Anyway

Are You Spiritual? If you answered NO, think again

What Survives Death? Your soul is immortal. But it may not be what you think it is.

Are Religion and Spirituality Two Different Things? A lot of people think so. But is it true?

Mythology is a Language. It’s How Our Souls Speak to Us. Learn to speak the soul’s language

My Out of Body Experience. #OBE #ThisHappenedToMe

How to Think About Gods - Are religious myths true or false?  It depends on where you stand.

Is God Imagination? Not imaginary, but imagination itself

God Killed the Great Mother. Science is Dancing on Her Grave. Let’s Bring Her Back to Life and Save the World. What the World Needs Now — Scientific Animism

Life Squeezes the Soul — Why We Crave Spirituality. A Jungian Look at the Big Human Picture. There’s more to you than meets the eye.

Connect with Jack Preston King

The Philosophical Problem

of Religious Diversity

And the Price Philosophers Pay

for Thinking They’ve Solved It

I was a Teenage Sci-Fi Atheist

Through the age of 16, I was a good Methodist boy. I went to church every Sunday, which included an hour of Sunday school before services. I attended weekly youth group meetings. I sang in the choir. I joined the Youth for Christ group at my school (religious clubs in public schools were common in the late 1970s).

Then one day in 1980, about halfway through the Iranian Hostage Crisis, I had this conversation with my mother:

 I’m not going to church anymore.

Yes, you are. Her tone made clear that her hackles were up and she was ready for a fight. I was 16. We’d had a number of tense conversations that year. This may have been the most difficult for her, though, devout Christian that she was.

I’m serious. I said. I’ve thought this all the way through. I don’t believe anymore.

What don’t you believe?

Any of it. God. Jesus. Heaven. Hell. It’s all made up.

What’re you now, some kind of Buddhist?

At 16 I read almost exclusively science fiction. Considering the hundreds of ’50s, ’60s and ’70s sci-fi novels stacked floor to ceiling along the walls of my bedroom, some of them pretty theologically out there– Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light, Arthur C. Clark’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz, Frank Herbert’s Dune, and many more — it was a fair question. At 16, from years of reading science fiction, I knew quite a bit more about the various world religions, numerous otherworldly faiths that existed only in books, and theological questions in general than most kids my age. I thought and talked about religion a lot, though nearly always in a sci-fi context — a holy trinity of God, spaceships, and First Contact scenarios. I felt sure, in my smug 16 year old way, that I knew a whole lot more about spiritual matters than my small-town-born-and-raised mother.

Oh, heck, no, I said. Buddhism’s made up, too.

Well, that’s a relief. She almost smiled. Then her eyes narrowed. People who don’t believe in God go to Hell, Jack. You know this.

That makes no sense to me. If God isn’t real, then Hell isn’t real, so…

Why do you think that? How did you reach this brilliant conclusion?

My moment in the spotlight had arrived. I was pretty sure I was the first person in the whole history of the world to have successfully solved the religious problem, and I was ready to preach my newfound atheism from the rooftops. I was the smartest kid on earth! Yay, me!

OK, here’s the thing, I said. "Christianity says that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all the same guy. While we’re alive we go to church so when we die we can go to heaven. Buddhists say there is no God, no heaven, and we just reincarnate over and over. Muslims say there is a God, but Jesus was just a regular human being, not God. Jews think Christians and Muslims both have God wrong. Hindus have thirty million gods. The ancient Greeks thought Zeus…"

What’s your point?

"That they’re all the same! They’re all just stories people made up to feel like they understand the world. But feeling like a