New Age Moon Beams

[Ask Mr. Religion]

Again, one of many ways to see the same truth. Also don't rule out the option that we are one with the truth.

Notice the New Age conviction that all spiritual paths lead to the same goal. Even though these different paths may appear contradictory, they really are not. But no New Age disciple really believes that all paths are equal. All of them reject at least one spiritual path, that of biblical Christianity. If some paths can be dangerous, does that not imply that some paths are wrong? In the final analysis one must wonder whether any path leads to the top or whether the ‘top’ of the mountain—Truth—floats freely in the clouds to be reached only by mystical illumination or channeled messages. The relativism so dear to New Age hearts suffers from a serious inconsistency.

New Agers talk about values such as etherialization and planetization, which appears to reflect concern for humans and human values. But that is all it is—a façade. Missing from New Age thinking is any cognizance of the necessary role that objective and universal ethical standards play in proper human conduct. Do I have duties to my brothers and sisters within the world community? What are those duties? Where do they come from? If they are as relative as the “truth” New Agers talk about, why should I fulfill those duties? Should human beings really tell the truth? Should they really keep their promises? What is the ground of these moral obligations?

New Agers believe, there are numerous means of arriving at Truth, distinguished by their efficiency more than their rightness. Yet they are indifferent to the problem they have created here. Since humans can never know what the “Truth” (with a capital T) is, how can New Agers possibly know when any practice or belief has brought them closer to the Truth? Does one not have to know the Truth before he can know that he has arrived?

The mindless relativism New Agers adopt must, sooner or later, collide with basic human values. New Agers refuse to admin that they have limits to their tolerance for other people’s karma. One wonders what they would think and do if some other individual (who in their view is as much god as they) should choose to break into their home, steal their property, threaten their children. Is there no point at which they would scream “Stop”? Sure they would, and at that point they begin to plunder the Christian's worldview all the while clinging to their moral relativism. Once the New Ager recognizes that good and evil are not the same and that truth and error are not the same, they are on their way to reintroducing reason into their lives.

Yes, New Agers do have a belief system. But, as we have seen in the thread linked in the quote above they are not obliged to insist that their beliefs are true. Indeed, they avow, any religious/spiritual belief is at best only one of many possible ways of arriving at the Truth (with a capital T). But, given that the Truth is unknowable, it is hard to see how anyone could ever come to knowledge that he has arrived at the Truth or even, presumably, is on the right path. But since one path is as good as another, this should eventually be no problem, except for the seemingly contradictory claim that some paths are better than others and, what is even worse, that some paths may be downright dangerous.

"Other" Sigh.

AMR