I find bits of each of des's 5 ideas useful. The most useful is Mystery. Here are 2 quotes I find meaningful on that:
"now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face" I Corinthians 13:12
"my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9
On des's suggestion 1, "it's not true": Human limitation is such that we humans can misunderstand anything, including Christianity or any other great religious tradition; and Christianity, like the other great religious traditions, certainly have practitioners who don't get the essence of their own traditions. I think there is something really wrong about, for instance, the idea that Christians should run the world as an empire, which is a belief that's out there. So I don't think everyone could be right. In fact, I rather doubt that *any* of us is 100% right (including myself, of course).
On des's suggestion 2, "The basic beliefs are the same": This is a partial truth; although the Golden Rule doesn't seem to me to be the essence of Christianity. (It isn't as challenging as the Great Commandment, John 15:12.) I did see an interesting book the other night, finding roughly parallel quotes between the Bible and Buddha's teachings.
On des's suggestion 3, "Blind men and the elephant": Certainly all of us have serious limitations of vision (I Cor. 13:12 again)
On des's suggestion 4, "river of wisdom": This one is a little vaguer, but we are created in such a way that we *won't* see everything the same way. This is not always a limitation. Some diversity is good for us as a species.
-- oaklandguy 4/8/05