DOCTRINE AND RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS 61identical only if their basic values – what they take to have inherently or
intrinsic worth – are similar, for the lifestyles that religions sanction are
functions of the intrinsic values they embrace. Hence our traditions are not
functionally identical.
There is an objection to this argument that goes as follows. It is possible
that a tradition embraces one set of values and that its adherents follow
another. Thus the fact that two traditions sanction different values does not
entail that they are not functionally identical, for their adherents may follow
similar or identical values.
This objection embodies a popular mistake. The values a religion
embraces are those its authoritative texts sanction; setting problems of
relevant inconsistency aside (and if the relevant texts teach logically
inconsistent values, then one cannot coherently speak of one set of values
that a religion sanctions), if the adherents of a tradition do not embrace the
values their own tradition sanctions, they are to that degree heretical or
hypocritical, and nothing about the functional identity of religious
traditions follows from their behavior or their value commitments.
Attempts to evaluate religious traditions by looking at the behavior of its
adherents is worthless as evidence regarding the tradition; what is
evidentially relevant is what values the tradition’s authoritative texts
sanction.
Diversity
I would suggest, on the basis of what we have already said, that it is a plain
fact that there is doctrinal diversity between religions; it simply is false
that all religions are the same regarding content.
The agreement on the importance of doctrine undercuts the
attempt both to represent the traditions and deny that
doctrine matters
A matter on which our traditions do agree prevents anyone from successfully
claiming to represent these traditions and go on to say that while there are
doctrinal divergences these do not really matter. Those who try to do this may be
contemporary secularists who do not care about religious matters or Religious
Studies professors who think that tolerance for different opinions requires that
the opinions not be different. They may be adherents of a religion that says that
all religions are really the same even though in fact they are not. They may be