58 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGIONidentity affirmatively. So long as one makes the suggested criterion for
identity of content vague and general, one can get the result that all of
our religious traditions have identity of content. Thus one might
suggest: all religious traditions (or at least those canvassed here) agree
that a person’s life does not consist in the abundance (or paucity) of
material possessions; here is some identity of content. The same goes
for identity of function. Thus one might suggest some such claim as all
religions provide meaning to life for their adherents; to that extent, our
religious traditions have identity of function.
In spite of the fact that the matters on which our traditions agree are
neither obvious nor unimportant, there is a sense in which the result
that one gets by using such vague and general criteria for identity of
content or function is trivial. The result that all religions are the same
regarding content and/or function is purchased at two prices. One price
is that what each tradition regards as important is entirely left out. The
other price is that the traditions themselves hardly make an appearance
before they are judged identical and dismissed; most of the relevant
information about the traditions is not used, and that seems just
ridiculous. I suggest, therefore, that we use high standards for content-
identity and function-identity among religions.
High standards for identity: clarity, specificity, and an interesting
thesis
What these standards should be is not far to seek. Two religious
traditions have identity of content if and only if they teach the same
doctrines. Two religious traditions have identity of function if and only
if they serve the same psychological or social function.
Some common themes
All of the religions described earlier agree on such claims as these: human
life is not limited to three-score-and-ten years on this earth; nothing that
we can lose is of ultimate value (this is one moral of the Jain story);
pleasure is not the ultimate good; violence is not an end in itself; there is a
correct description of our actual cosmic situation, our consequent basic
religious problem, and its real and accessible solution; some actual religious
tradition has the truth about these matters; it is foolish to live only for
power or pleasure or wealth. These are not obvious or trivial truths; plenty
of people would reject, say, more than three of these claims. Suppose that