Ontology Comparison Table

There is an immanent spiritual world with many realms where both good and evil beings reside.

Science can only prove the existence of the physical world; so, only the physical world is worthy of discussion.

The relation of the spiritual realm to our current scope of reality is simultaneously three-fold: That within which everything is contained, That which is immanent in everything, and a completely Transcendent Being.

The Supreme Being created the material universe, and then retired from creative activities.

There was a pre-biotic soup, from which everything suddenly exploded. Now some proponents of String Theory say that this 'big bang' actually happens every 22 billion years, etc. Quite a few theories out there right now.

The Supreme Being emanates the material universes, and then enters into every one of them.

Human beings are inherently evil, sinful and condemned.

Some say humans are a chance accident of evolution. Some others now posit an "anthropic principle". In any case, "evil", etc have no objective meaning, and morality is relative because there is no transcendent Reference Point. Evil and morality have only valuable in a Utilitarian framework.

Human beings are inherently pure, divine spirit-soul, not the gross or subtle psycho-physical bodies. In our material condition, we are trapped in a shrunken, fallen consciousness. When this consciousness blooms, our full dharma is revealed. In our obsession with original sin, we should not forget our original innocence.

Salvation from sin and material existence is possible only through the intervention of a divine intermediary.

Material existence is all there is. Since there is no sin or afterlife, the entire subject of salvation or liberation is irrelevant.

Salvation ultimately depends on the intervention of a divine intermediary, and also upon the willingness of ourselves to accept this Causeless Mercy.

After salvation we keep the same identity we have now, even our present relatives and pets.

Material existence is all there is. Since there is no sin or afterlife, the entire subject of salvation or liberation is irrelevant.

All material designations and relationships pertaining to our false ego and extended false ego have nothing to do with spiritual reality. However, in our constitutional spiritual position, we are related to everyone through the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this spirit, once of the sages of the Esoteric Teaching proclaimed, 'vasudhaiva kuTumbakaM', the whole Earth is my family.

God communicates only with a few people, most of whom died long ago.

Only intellectually brilliant people with access to the latest scientific and technological education are the torchbearers of human progress, and the high-priests of modern, enlightened society.

God communicates with those people who possess the qualitative qualifications outlined in texts such as the Bhagavad-gita. Each of such people then become His willing instruments based on their natural endowments.

Truth is the dogma that was arrived at by a consensus of scholars, and its very dangerous for anyone to raise ANY kind of question, because it may undermine the (blind) faith of the masses and the authority of the high-priests who were appointed or elected by popular vote.

Truth is the consensus understanding of human society lead by technocrats, arrived at by a process of argument and debate.

Truth is eternal, though the degree of understanding is based on time, place/culture, and the maturity of individual recipients (desha, kAla, pAtra).

Although in theory God controls everything, in practice our actions cause the results we get.

All effects are produced by our arbitrary interactions with static, omnipresent natural laws which are impersonal.

God is the Controller, prime Initiator and Sanctioner of all movement at all ontological levels. The individual soul can either be under His impersonal Law of Karma, or His Personal Grace, depending on its orientation.

Human beings are the owners and controllers of the universe, by the will of God.

Humans are a product of material evolution, and its bleeding edge. By the law of natural selection, inferior living entities are food for superior living entities.

Human life is precious because of certain endowments that enable the soul to control its own spiritual evolution. These endowments are not to be wasted in the vain pursuit of controlling material nature.

It is possible to represent and model anything, even God, using simplistic jargon within out current scope of consciousness.

It is possible to represent and model anything, even God, using numbers and mathematics.

Numbers, mnemonics, and all symbols can never totally capture anything, because countable numbers themselves are floating on a sea of infinity, and are somehow cognized as such because of a finitizing principle in consciousness that itself is beyond empirical analysis. For example, the symbols "1/3" and "0.333333...." are representations of the same point, yet they may be shown to be numerically unequal by manipulating mathematical equations. Thus, even the attributes of the material energies of God cannot be captured in any finite symbols, though symbols may be used to point towards a better understanding. Symbols and material attributes serve as impressions within one scope of consciousness that point to a higher-dimensional reality, just as it is possible to draw a 3-D cube representation on a 2-D paper. Similarly, this universe of material attributes constitute an eidolon-image for spiritual reality, which is not devoid of qualities at all (as some voidist and impersonalist spiritual traditions speculate).

Both human and divine law are based on the principle of revenge: ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction

An impersonal law of karma is only one limited facet of the way the Divine interacts with the soul in different stages of spiritual maturity. A person in one level of spiritual development may be permitted a balanced tit-for-tat revenge in the name of values like justice. A person in a higher stage may be advised to restrain and forgo revenge in the interest of higher qualitative values like compassion. A fully self-realized person is supposedly in fully harmony with the rhythm of the Universe, and there is no question of "me" and "you", so things like revenge have no meaning in this consciousness that is beyond duality.

Any violence committed in the course of expanding the influence of one’s religious group is not a sin.

Other opinions should be tolerated within our framework that is solidly based on our philosophy. Thus, although other viewpoints about reality are tolerated, they are actually castrated by introducing such ideas as the incompatibility of "faith" and "reason", objective reality divorced from subjective experience, a "secularism" wherein spiritual values have no place in the public space, etc.

Violence is defined as that which is detrimental to the spiritual development of a person.

Our religious group is the only valid and true one; all others are false and inimical.

We have the right attitude and value "objective" reality; everything else is "mere faith" or outrageous mumbo-jumbo.

Every ontological level of experience is subjective, but it has its own objective logic based on the epistemic characteristics of that ontological category. The primary constituent of our experience of Reality is value, meaning and purpose. Whatever gives more meaning and value to experience is true. Because subjective value and meaningfulness form a important vector of experience, we reject any paradigm that diminishes the value of the psycho-spiritual. The experience of the waking state, dream state and deep sleep state are all of value, though the value of any state of consciousness is measured by the epistemic characteristics of that state. Applying the measuring characteristic of one state (like the "objective reality" of the waking state) to other states and using it to dismiss their value is a silly mistake.

God’s favor upon a person can be measured by material success.

The superiority of a person/nation is measured by its economic and technological might - hard power.

A person's spiritual destiny may take him through material success or hardship.