The Meaningless of Pluralism – A Response to Samir Selmanovic

“To say that God has decided to visit all humanity through only one particular religion is a deeply unsatisfying assertion about God” (Samir Selmanovic, It’s Really All about God, 9). Before we consider this assertion, here are some notable authors who recommended this book: Marcus Borg, Brian McLaren, and Paul Knitter.
When we say that God has revealed Himself to humanity through a particular religion, we are making this claim based on Scripture. The Bible either is or is not divinely inspired. The same could be said of any religious text of any religious tradition. The Bible makes this claim about itself, and we either choose to believe it or not.  If we choose to believe it, then we must exclude anything that disagrees with it. If we choose not to believe it (or remain in doubt as to its truthfulness), then we may remain open to whatever religious faith or faiths we choose.

If we refuse to accept the Bible as a reliable source of truth or any other source for that matter, then we are left with no other source of truth than our own experience. If we are to remain trapped into our own experience, then any discussion of truth seems like a futile endeavor and only an exercise in in expressing the exhaustive supply of human opinion. Human opinion, like that of Selmanovic, is very shaky foundation upon which to build a worldview, a moral compass, and an understanding of life’s meaning and purpose. In essence, Selmanovic leaves his reader with an opinion that is no more than meaningless chatter which has no hope of ever becoming or being recognized as meaningful.