Shorter Dan Peterson:
Atheists wonder why we Mormons think our god is the right god, while everyone else’s god is the wrong god. But in fact everyone really worships our god, which is the right god. When people find out they’ve been worshipping the wrong god (which is actually the right god), I have it on good authority that the right god will give them a pass.
How terribly condescending. I wonder if he’d be just as happy to admit that he worships Allah.
And what about polytheism?
30 January 2011 at 3:40 am
give them a frikken pass?!!!!!! oh how generous; he will spare their hides then, how very un-Old Testamenty of him.
30 January 2011 at 5:23 am
This is the very idea (subversively buried in CS Lewis' "The Final Battle") that first opened my mind to questioning the doctrine taught by the fundamentalist evangelical church of my childhood. And for first encouraging me to dissent from that rigid fundamentalism I will be forever grateful to Mr Lewis – despite the differences in our opinion now.
For those who haven't read the series, below is the relevant passage that was so mind boggling to me as an 11year old. If my parents only knew what they were putting in my hands! Sounds like Mormon supremacy doctrine may have something in common with this bit of condescending doctrine!
"But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath's sake, it is by me that he had truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek."
30 January 2011 at 6:03 am
Peterson should tell some Jews that Mormons think YHWH is really Jesus, and then ask them if they think Mormons and Jews worship the same god.
Also, Lewis was basically saying that Muslims worship the Devil (but it's OK, because God knows who's naughty or nice).
30 January 2011 at 8:22 am
I know Dan. He regularly tells people that he worships Allah. He told a whole bunch of Mormons that they worshipped Allah at a fireside. In fact, I can't remember a time when he's been here and it hasn't come up in conversation.
30 January 2011 at 9:04 am
Good to know. Now I'm curious about Zeus and Odin. How far would he take it?
30 January 2011 at 3:52 pm
I believe he used Zeus as an example in the article. I suspect he'd stretch for just about any deity of creator/divine father archetype.
Remember the old missionary discussions? "Most people believe in a supreme being, even though they may call him by different names." If I've understood Dan correctly all this time, he's just saying that most religions are worshipping the same dude, even though they disagree about his powers, personality, attributes and, you know, pretty much everything else.
31 January 2011 at 7:44 am
I think I can see why monotheistic gods would all resemble each other.
Back in the polytheistic days, you could have a goddess of the hearth, a god of war, a god of the hunt, and so on.
But when you only have one god, it kind of has to be the god of everything. Imagine trying to impress the other tribes when your only god is the god of not very much.
"Your god is puny. My god is the god of everything!"
"Oh, yeah? Well, my god is all-powerful, and all -knowing!"
There was bound to be some convergence.