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What's Bothering Oprah, Eckhart Tolle and Today’s New Age Thinkers
Frank Pastore
"The Frank Pastore Show," KKLA, Los Angeles
March 28, 2008
I have a few questions—but they are not about whether Oprah Winfrey, Eckhart Tolle or Marianne Williamson are good, smart and nice people. I’m sure they are. My concern is about the ideas they hold—since good, smart, nice people can hold false beliefs and be wrong about all kinds of things. Sometimes, even the most important things.
I have questions about their worldview.
A worldview is made up of the answers we give to life’s most fundamental and profound questions. It includes the answers we give to questions of philosophy, religion, ethics and theology. And they are questions that have been asked and answered by every culture in world history.
When comparing and contrasting religions, worldview categories are the most basic level of inquiry.
If you know a person’s worldview, you know a whole lot about them. Oftentimes, you even know more about their thinking processes than they do.
Right now, Oprah is co-teaching an online class with author Eckhart Tolle, based upon her current Book of the Month, his “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.” And, Oprah’s promoting a daily radio show on her XM channel featuring Marianne Williamson teaching from “A Course in Miracles.”
Both Tolle and Williamson are New Age thinkers. Oprah says she’s a Christian—arguing that she can reconcile “her” Christianity with what they’re teaching. If she’s a Christian, she’s an ignorant one, because Christianity is incompatible with New Age thought.
Here’s how the two opposing worldviews, Christianity (C), and New Age (NA), answer some of the most basic worldview questions. The New Age answers are ones that would be commonly held, though certainly not universal, as the belief system is loose, eclectic and unique to each individual adherent.
1. Why is there something rather than nothing?
Christianity (C): God created the universe at the moment of the beginning of time, matter and space. Big Bang cosmology and all modern science affirms this.
New Age (NA): The universe is beginning-less, endless, eternal.
2. Does God exist?—and is He personal?
C: Yes, God is personal, and the Bible teaches God is three persons sharing one essence, what Christians refer to as the Trinity. More specifically, God is tri-personal.
NA: Yes and No. Yes, God is an impersonal force that exhaustively fills every atom of the eternal universe: All is God, God is all, God is all of us and God is each of us. No, there is no personal creator called God who is outside of time, matter and space.
3. Who am I?
C: A creation of God.
NA: God.
4. How did I get here?
C: God created man with moral freedom and invited him to join the presence of the Trinity. But man exercised his freedom in rebellion to God, and now only through the work of the incarnate God and second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, can that severed relationship be restored.
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champ1979
9/12/2008 6:49 PM
I am not an NA, but I believe that this article points out a few misconceptions about the ancient eastern belief. I say Eastern because even though the author has done the comparison with New Age, almost all of the concepts (such as Karma) are from ancient eastern religions.
1. The Big Bang theory only describes how and when the world "started" but does not say what it was before the "bang"--it does not necessarily negate the existence of a universe prior to the big bang.
2. Eastern religions also believe in the Trinity, that God is 3 persons. I believe the Bible also points out that "ye are all gods..."
4. According to Eastern thought, yes we are here by the law of Karma, but that is only the "how", not the "why". Why we are here is captured by this statement from the Eastern Wisdom: "I separated myself from myself so that I may love myself."
6. The meaning of life is not enlightenment--that's the goal.
7. God is true, good and beautiful--even according to Eastern thought.
1. The Big Bang theory only describes how and when the world "started" but does not say what it was before the "bang"--it does not necessarily negate the existence of a universe prior to the big bang.
2. Eastern religions also believe in the Trinity, that God is 3 persons. I believe the Bible also points out that "ye are all gods..."
4. According to Eastern thought, yes we are here by the law of Karma, but that is only the "how", not the "why". Why we are here is captured by this statement from the Eastern Wisdom: "I separated myself from myself so that I may love myself."
6. The meaning of life is not enlightenment--that's the goal.
7. God is true, good and beautiful--even according to Eastern thought.
floppyjoe
6/22/2008 2:01 PM
1. If its not Eternal then how do we have eternal life? The world was created, all forms, but before this there was space and after this world there will still be space. There is more space in you then there is matter.
2. What can be more personal than self?
3. More so, we are not a creation of God, we are people "cut-off" from God. From self.
4. to be continued for time constraints (ironically)
2. What can be more personal than self?
3. More so, we are not a creation of God, we are people "cut-off" from God. From self.
4. to be continued for time constraints (ironically)
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11. Karma is misunderstood. I would like to answer the questions posed by the author here:
Who started karma and reincarnation and why?
- Nobody did. Karma is a law just as gravity is.
Who decides what behavior gets rewarded and what gets punished, especially since there are no moral categories?
- Nobody decides. When you swing a pendulum to one side, it automatically returns by the law of gravity. The nature of the thought (which is behind the action) will determine the consequence.
How can there be a “who” to all this when God is a “what,” an impersonal force like gravity?
- God is neither a "who" nor a "what". God simply is. "I am that great I am."
13. Is there life after death?
- I think the intended question is "Is there birth after death". Because according to Eastern thought, life is eternal.