The first premise I would suggest anyone investigate is whether or not one believes in absolute truth.

Absolute truth necessitates the understanding and logical follow through put forth by Ayn Rand and previously by Aristotle of fundamental identity or Rand’s phrase, “A is A.” She wrote, “By the essence and nature of existence, contradictions cannot exist.” (Rand’s Atlas Shrugged). This part of her Objectivist worldview is derived from Aristotle’s philosophy of non-contradiction which avers, “…the same attribute cannot at the same time belong and not belong to the same subject and in the same respect.” (Aristotle’s Metaphysics).

If one believes that there is objective truth (as opposed to a post-modern view that all truth is relative) then one must acknowledge that most major worldviews or “spiritual paths” directly contradict one another. Therefore there cannot be “many paths that climb the same mountain”…

For the sake of time, I’ll Include just three hard contradictions to illustrate the point:

Determining which worldview, spiritual or otherwise, holds the most evidence in reality is potentially the most important investigation one can pursue as it, if held with integrity, should shape one’s morals, values, and priorities. The most important question someone asked me was, “If I were wrong about my worldview, would I want to know?” I didn’t think I was wrong, but it was the catalyst to my own investigation and a dramatic change in my worldview. So, I might suggest spending some time considering how you would answer that question.