Dalai Lama The Role Of Religion In Modern Society Summary

In “The Role of Religion in Modern Society” The Dalai Lama proposes the idea of “many religions, many truths.” His solution to the divisions that exists between these religions and truths involves the process of understanding other’s faith traditions through dialogue. The ideas he presents for inter-religious harmony is an optimistic world view but it is far from plausible. There are fundamental barriers to the Dalai Lama’s view of multi-religious unity throughout the world. The most crucial of these are the basic contradictions in the tenants of various faiths. For example, Christianity believes that the Messiah has already come while Judaism believes this has yet to occur. Catholics affirm the authority of a Pope while Protestants

To suggest that multiple religions are capable of this transformation ignores the abundance of historical evidence. To take an example from contemporary events, a former Buddhist monk, Ashin Wirathu was “jailed in 2003 for inciting violence against Muslims and was forced to give up being a monk” (Gold). He has continued to be involved with several incidents with anti-Muslim riots, resulting in hundreds of deaths though he claims to be encouraging peaceful relations. Individuals like this and communities that form around their messages are not a modern innovation. There are numerous incidents throughout history of religious conflict which has simply been impossible to resolve through dialogue. Most notably, the relationship between Palestinians and the Jewish people who occupy Israel (both claimed as their homeland). Throughout the present and the antiquity, dialogues between these people have produced little results. Another example in history is the Spanish Inquisition in which dialogue was only an option if one was willing to confess to heresy and accept the consequences that