Theology isn’t the free search for truth, but rather a defense of an already held position.

No rabbi will come to the conclusion that the Hopi are God’s Chosen People. No pastor comes to the realization that Krishna rather than Jesus, is Christ. No official Catholic theologian discovers the Hindu Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva rather than the Christian Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No imam recognizes Bahá’u’lláh as a Prophet of Allah.

Why?

Because theology is really apologetics explaining why a belief is true rather than seeking out the truth in and of itself. All theological reasoning is circular, inevitably “proving” the truth of its own presupposition. My Master of Divinity degree was designed to equip me to vigorously propagate and defend an already determined theological proposition.

It’s unfortunate that religion makes a free and responsible search for truth and meaning nearly impossible. We could be reaping the benefit from our collective religious and spiritual experiences, traditions, teachings and stories rather than arguing and killing each other over them.

The true religious and spiritual leader will skillfully promote what is good, beautiful, peaceful and harmonizing about their tradition, while having the courage to confront and refuse those parts that kindle or provoke division, discord, hate, fear, oppression, injustice, power, superiority, and greed. Jesus did this. He affirmed what he saw as good in his Jewish tradition, and he also lambasted what he saw as religious and spiritual abuse.

There is a story of a six blind men, who had never come across an elephant before. They are given the opportunity to learn and conceptualize what the elephant is like by touching it. Each blind man feels a different part of the elephant body, but only one part, such as the ears, trunk, side or tusk. Based upon the part of the elephant they touched, they each concluded the elephant was something different – a pillar, rope, tree branch, hand fan, huge wall, solid pipe.

The descriptions of the elephant based on their partial experience were in complete disagreement on what an elephant is. These differences created suspicion and hostility among the blind men. It erupted into a brawl about their different ideas about what an elephant is. The moral of the parable is that humans have a tendency to cling to and project their partial experiences as the whole truth. We dismiss or make wrong other people’s experiences, and become divided against one another. We fight and wound one another.

The truth is bigger than any one meaning system – whether it be religion, spirituality, philosophy or science. It is within our power to fully embrace and follow our meaning system without creating division, destruction, hostility, or hatred. Within every meaning system we can find a rationale for love, solidarity, harmony, compassion, justice and the responsible search for truth. If you can’t find it in yours. you need a different one.

That theology is primarily an apologetic for an already established belief system, doesn’t make theology wrong. You just have to recognize what it is and what it isn’t. We have all heard the phrase “consider the source”. Source evaluation is the process of critically evaluating information in relation to its given bias or purpose.

Khalil Gibran wrote, “I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.”

Jim Palmer

About the author: David K Egyir

EGYIR is passionate about helping serious people like you to escape the most dangerous — common but avoidable — problem most people (rich, poor, educated, uneducated, religious, and non-religious alike) face in life. Also, he designs and builds beautiful, cost-effective and functional buildings, and graphics. And he helps executives, marketers, and business owners to make effective presentations; what you may call winning presentations.

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Especially as a life-coach, he has been popularly adjudged the best coach for excelling in education, increasing wealth, eliminating stress, and enjoying true fulfillment in life! Egyir understands life thoroughly and shares amazingly liberating insights from a uniquely empowering perspective. He has a firm conviction that, “The greatest tragedy in life is that majority of people have accepted to be less than they were born to be and are thus accomplishing far less than their true capabilities.” To that end, he authored (wrote) Purpose Compass, the exceptional life-coaching book that reveals 4 habits that are currently making your life difficult, or otherwise may soon make your life difficult, but which your parent, teacher, or pastor would dare not talk about; how to escape them and get to live a stress-free life of purpose faster! And 13 other equally amazing books that constitute the Zing4Life! Series.

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