What do we all believe?

This week a new website was launched. (No, not ours. Another new website!) It is www.patheos.com

 I’m told this is a hybrid word combining “path” and “theos”. In other words, the website explores the pathway to God, or more accurately the many pathways people think there are to God.

The founders, Leo and Cathie Brunnick from Colarado USA, want to provide the web browsing world with all the options there are available. You want to know about a particular faith? Just search it on patheos.com

This isn’t a bad idea. After all, my bookshelf has plenty of works on the world’s religions. This just appears to be an online version of the same, one which can be updated I might add.

However, there seem to be just as many cons as pros to this latest manifestation of comparative religion.

Time to check it out

For some reason, Time Magazine thinks all this is a new thing. It was so impressed, it gave patheos.com a whopping big promotional story this week.

The headline reads What Do Religions Believe? A Website with Answers. Has there really been no answer to this question after all this time?

But the real problem with Time Magazine is its own lack of understanding of Christian orthodoxy. Patheos.com could say anything and Time would swallow it.

For example, Time Magazine tells us in its opening paragraph the difference between Presbyterians and Methodists is:

Presbyterians believe in double predestination; Methodists that free will can help you get to heaven.

That was a new one on me. But still, you would not go to Time Magazine for your spiritual nourishment would you?

The bigger question is should you go to patheos.com?

There are pros and cons.

Thinking it through - pros

I do like the idea of being able to search for details on all faiths in the one spot, be it a book or website. At least that way you know there is a common thread running through the results.

I feel a lot better about that than getting one answer from wikipedia.com , another from answers.com, another from about.com etc. etc.

Also, I am interested in the idea of a world full of ‘spiritual’ people blogging with each other to find the truth. It seems like a gift from above. They are hardly going to enjoy hearing about how their sin leads to eternal death, but this is an enormous mission field for someone with the right gift.

Thinking it through - cons

There is a big difference between a Christian theologian comparing orthodox Christianity with other faith systems and non-Christians doing the same.

I am very happy, for example, to lend Walter Martin’s Kingdom of the Cults to anyone – Christian or not – because I know he stands firmly on the rock, but patheos.com would not presume to say what is true or not.

They treat the world’s religions like a Smorgasbord. There they all are laid out in front of us. I like pickled onions but you don’t so I have them and you have olives. And there we have ipso facto our religions. They are all therefore equal in nourishment value. One is not better than the other.

Leo and Cathie Brunnick cannot be accused of hiding this. In their FAQ’s they answer the question Does Patheos promote a particular religion? with the following;

No. Patheos is a resource for all belief systems and does not support, endorse or promote any one religion. The site strives to engage visitors of all beliefs and to elevate the global conversation on religion and spirituality, while serving as a resource for those looking to learn more.

Meaning - It doesn’t matter what you want to learn more about, as long as you are learning. Pick something that interests you on the table and give it a try.

The problem is, the Bible teaches everything on that table except the Gospel is poisonous. Jesus would say “Don’t give anything else a try, it will kill you”. And he would say it as bluntly as that.

Patheos.com – for research purposes only

This is not a site I would send Christians who are young in the faith. There are those who already claim to have spotted errors in their work.

For example it says the Sufis were an offshoot of Islam, something many Sufis deny. There are question marks in some of the more mainstream religion pages as well such as Judaism where it is claimed the Conservative Jews are the largest sect. They didn’t get those figures from http://www.jewfaq.org/movement.htm.

But then again, who’s to say patheos.com is not the only correct site? See the problem?

One of the most telling conclusions comes from Time Magazine. They quote Leo Brunnick describing the crisis he and his new wife Cathie faced trying to lead their newly blended family into spiritual truth.

Leo and Cathie are realized they were from “different Christian faiths” [!] and had to come to some sort of consensus for the sake of their children.

Time Magazine says:

"In your 20s, it's easy to say, 'I'm spiritual, without specific tenets, whatever.' That feels great until you're staring into the eyes of a 2-year-old and realize you have to give them some moral compass."

If they so choose, Patheos members can help set their own compass.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.