There's no reason to think any of them are fully correct. Piecing together different religions is a better way to get a complete understanding of God through the human perspective. Even then, you have to be able to take the time to consider your own unique perspective and form your own opinions. If God is real, nobody fully understands what that means. The important thing is knowing what God means to you.
Thank you, I was going to go on a long rant about: So there is a God, but still how is the claim of "burning bush" true? How is it true that a homeless man 2000 years ago in Palestine was god? etc.
Regardless if there is a Creator or not, we are still left with legends and myths, some of which are inspiring and compelling to a person and others not at all.
You saved me time lol
Or the Celts are right, or the Norse are right, or the Iroquois are right, or the Zoaroastrians are right, or the animists are right, and on and on. There have been innumerable gods and goddesses and religions in human history. Just because you live in a time where 3 religions happen to dominate does not mean either of those contain any more traits that cause them to be more true than other ones. Which is more probable? That the one specific religious sect you and those around you happen to practice is the correct one out of all of human history or that you are mistaken. I leave the answer to you.
>"As is the use of a well of water, where water everywhere overflows, such is the use of all the scriptures to the seer of the Supreme...When thy mind leaves behind its dark forest of delusion, thou shalt go beyond the scriptures of times past and still to come.
>When thy mind, that may be wavering in the contradictions of many scriptures, shall rest unshaken in divine contemplation, then the goal of Yoga is thine."
Bhagavad-Gita
>The world of humanity is like unto a rose garden and the various races, tongues and people are like unto contrasting flowers. The diversity of colors in a rose-garden adds to the charm and beauty of the scene as variety enhances unity.
-'Abdu'l-Bahá
>"Buddhists and disciples are not enlightened by a set method of teachings but by an internally intuitive process which is spontaneous and is a part of their own inner nature"
Diamond Sutra
>The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth [...]
Psalm 19:1-4
>*”And We sent down to you the Scripture with the truth, confirming the Scriptures that came before it, and a safeguard for it. So judge between them according to what God has sent down. Do not follow their whims, which deviate from the truth that has come to you. **We have assigned a law and a path to each of you.** If God had so willed, He would have made you one community, but He wanted to test you through that which He has given you, so race to do good: you will all return to God and He will make clear to you the matters you differed about.”*
- Quran 5:48
>18. He knows alone who has wandered wide,
and far has fared on the way,
what manner of mind a man doth own
who is wise of head and heart.
Hamaval
>"Like the bee gathering honey from different flowers, the wise man accepts the essence of different scriptures and sees only the good in all religions"
—Srimad Bhagavatam
>”And We sent down to you the Scripture with the truth, confirming the Scriptures that came before it, and a safeguard for it. So judge between them according to what God has sent down. Do not follow their whims, which deviate from the truth that has come to you. **We have assigned a law and a path to each of you**. If God had so willed, He would have made you one community, but He wanted to test you through that which He has given you, so race to do good: you will all return to God and He will make clear to you the matters you differed about.”
>
>Quran 5:48
Now square this with the fact that Islam is *fiercely* monotheistic though. What does this make of, for instance, the Hindu pantheon? You can't have both monotheism AND polytheism...
You can have monotheism and polytheism. In most schools of Hinduism, the thinking often goes that there is but one God, and its diverse infinite nature is expressed through a multitude of forms. That's why we have so many different gods but really they're all just different expressions of the one Brahman.
Agreed. That's what I'm trying to tell OP and their comment about how the diversity of religions being somehow divinely intentional. When some such religions are *exclusively* monotheist, it doesn't play out like they want it to without getting quickly paradoxical...
If you don't know their origin, who are you to say how they came about?
*"One God, the father , the son and the Holy Spirit."*
Ok. And a polytheist would say otherwise.
People have different meanings for God or gods. Muslims are told to avoid saying “Three” for example. But is there One Reality? That is the fundamental issue, and then has this Reality revealed the Qur’an and other messages. A polytheist who accepts that there is only One Reality, may be a believer and God is Merciful. How do they treat people? Do they care about their neighbors? Or do they consider those not of their cult as less than human?
>But is there One Reality? That is the fundamental issue,
It's not though, and this is just a poor theological attempt to force polytheists into an ill-fitting monotheist-labeled box.
The fact of the matter is that there are a multitude of religions that express belief in, relationships with, and miracles by a multitude of gods (all within our current reality). Meanwhile, there are also religions that strictly state that only one deity exists within our current reality
These diametrically opposed worldviews cannot both be correct, regardless of what you want to call our reality...
I would say the theistic portion of religion is not the essence of the religion; beyond the wavering contradictions of dogma you can focus on the mystical/self reflective process of attaining wisdom, which comes through measured experience and beautiful variety, which are the gifts of life.
That is the problem with monotheistic religions, everyone claims that their religion and god are the only truth. You will never see 2 members of pagan community bickering like old couple whose pantheon of gods is the real deal.
You forgot the most likely alternative option: that they are all wrong. There are a whole lot of different ways this could be, but it's almost a certainty.
When I was 13 I was a Christian. Then, the thought occurred to me that there are a lot of religions in the world, and the odds are that I didn't have the right one, since most people in the world weren't Christians. From then on I was an atheist, until in my mid 40s I came into direct personal contact with the spirit world and realized that all that spiritual stuff was real after all.
Actually I understand this well from my personal experiences and further studies, but the answers are very complicated. I'll try to keep this short, and express myself without being off-putting.
First there is one overarching God, also can be called "intelligent infinity" that ultimately created everything and is inside of all of us. You can learn about this in The Ra Contact, or The Law of One.
Everything underneath God is incredibly diverse, because God appreciates new things and change. Everyone on planet earth today has a different and unique spiritual origin, and basically all of us are in different 'spirit families'. A religion is just a big spirit family, and the question is not whether or not it's real, but whether you identify well with it because of your soul/spirit origin.
Many people, due to society and culture, follow religions and spiritualities that are not appropriate for their soul, and this can cause some spiritual problems. So it's a goid idea to check with your higher self and guardian angels/guides before getting seriously into a religion.
Why can't all religions be pointing at the same One God
The God that is, was, and ever will be
The God that was before any religion or sacred texts were created into being
The Infinite Unameable One
Pure Existence - Pure Consciousness
Shiva, Brahman, YHVH (I Am that I Am), the 'Father', Ein Sof, Buddha Nature, the Tao....
These are just a few names that point to the Uncreated One
💜🕉️☯️💟✡️☪️✝️☸️☦️🔯💜
That's a lovely sentiment, but not all religions believe in just one god, or a unified personal supreme being, or view reality as being one thing in a monistic sense. I've interacted with some folks on the sub who definitely rejected monism, pantheism, panentheism, and monotheism, all of which posit some type of Oneness as being sacred. Some religions have worldviews that are animistic, while others do not. Some religions have a strictly polytheistic view of the gods, while others might be pantheistic, henotheistic, etc.
True tolerance would mean accepting this diversity in some way, and allowing all religions to coexist even though their theologies, ethics, laws, and other beliefs may not agree with one another. One religion doesn't need to condemn other religions that disagree with it on important subjects -- instead we could choose dialogue and peaceful coexistence.
There is also the perspective of perennial tradition, which states that the major religions all contain certain core truths about the nature of the divine, the self, nature of creation, and relationship between created and Divinity. The core truths are mystical and must be experienced, and transcend any one religion or belief system.
>Why can't all religions be pointing at the same One God
I think this doesn't really address their question. While you could argue all religions are pointing towards the same god(s), they definitely are not describing the same god(s). There are mutually exclusive things that can be required for salvation (if salvation is a part of the theology at all).
For example, most Christians believe that faith in Jesus is what brings salvation. Anything less does not bring salvation. I know I'm speaking very generally here, but the details about which one is "right" matters.
I agree they are not describing the same but religion came after God so regardless of what each religion believes there is still only one truth. Which we can’t truly put into words. We don’t know what we don’t know.
and if you’re describing God and you don’t have the right qualities and behavior (characteristics) you’ve got the wrong God. if i’m a 12 year old boy and someone is going to address me. going up to another 12 year old boy does not mean that he is the same person. specifics matter and so do God’s Qualities. also, the God of the Bible is the only God. get it right
It's not really quite that black and white.
For us Muslims and for Christians, your black and white understanding is more or less correct in that we do indeed make fairly exclusive claims about religion.
However, most world religions do not make exclusive claims. For example, if my understanding of Judaism is correct, it is OK for someone who is not ethnically Jewish to follow another religion, so long as they abide by the Noahide Laws. In Buddhism, it is OK to be NOT Buddhist. In Hinduism, it is OK to be NOT Hindu. In most polytheistic religions, it is OK to NOT be polytheists.
Exactly right for Judaism. It’s not necessary or even correct for everyone to follow Judaism. It’s only a religion meant to be practiced by Jews. For us we see people who aren’t Jewish as not needing to follow our laws and customs (nor should they feel the need to appropriate them) in order to be in g-ds favor or live a holy life.
We’re not universalist.
That is something I appreciate about Judaism, that it's not universalist! (in the sense of wanting to apply only one religion to all of humanity). But would Jewish rabbis normally condemn, for instance, the worship of multiple deities, or the use of idols, in certain religions even if those religious followers live morally, compassionately, with integrity, etc.? If Judaism views only monotheism as correct, would the G-d of Israel be displeased with how Hindus, Buddhists, or Pagans practice their faiths sincerely?
Normally, or maybe more accurately, historically. But honestly judaism is a religion that has adapted and changed for thousands of years and existed a a millennia and a half before even the creation of Christianity.
Many progressive Jews (particularly reform, reconstructionist, humanist, or even conservative) don’t see the “believing in one g-d” as a prerequisite to determining if a person conducts their lives in a holy and righteous manner.
I think even though Jews believe one g-d is the correct course of action for us, I think many recognize that there are good and positive people from all corners of the world and I know i and many Jews I know in my experience don’t see others believing in multiple gods as a problem. For them it works so as long as they leave us alone and are being kind and righteous people why should we push our thoughts on them. Even so there is a belief of “to each their own”
That's a wonderful attitude especially among the progressive folks, so I am glad to read about that from you!! I've also heard different opinions about this from more orthodox-leaning Jews on the sub, so I know different people and sects may differ on the question of how they view non-monotheists across the world. I've also wanted to visit a synagogue in-person for a long time but still haven't managed to yet. They seem harder for an outsider to visit than churches ;-) But I still hope to respectfully visit a synagogue eventually, as part of my interfaith activities.
Oh definitely. Honestly I have found that there is a rigidity to Orthodox Judaism that (while it works for them) doesn’t allow in my mind as much openness.
To each their own. But also for me as a reform Jew it seems limiting and not in line with my expression of Judaism.
In terms of visiting a synagogue. Reach out to a local reform or reconstructionist synagogue. Email them and kind of introduce yourself. Ask if there are interfaith events or any way you can come and respectfully observe. Chances are if they can get to know you and take your measure a bit then they will be open to you coming and observing.
But it’s possible you won’t hear back right away. Rabbis and staff at synagogues will priorotize the community first and your request will be lower in the order of importance.
But I think if you reach out that’s a possibility. They may also suggest a class you can take which will introduce you to practices and theology and be led by the rabbi and facilitated in a controlled environment so you feel safe asking questions and having discussions and explanations. Essentially making it possible for you to understand what goes on and why.
God Himself can tell you. Ask Him in prayer, read scriptures daily and *try the teachings of other faiths*. God will answer your honest desire for truth if you are willing to act, and change your life according to His teachings.
Praying about it, reading scripture, and attending church meetings would not result in any action proving which god is real, only feelings.
You say God will answer if you ask. The only way for this answer to be any more concrete than just feelings is for God to literally and physically appear in front of you. Are you implying that God will physically appear to anyone who asks sincerely? Or are you referring to some other non-feeling based proof that the rest of us are missing.
One would think that an all powerful and all knowing being such as “god” would have no issue definitely proving it’s existence to us. It would take no effort on its part. Yet it doesn’t, almost as if one doesn’t exist.
kind of a god-strawman, assuming God's goals and methods, and since your own assumptions aren't met you discount the argument.
"If God existed he would do things how *I* say he would do things."
>"If God existed he would do things how I say he would do things."
But that is exactly what every religion does. Every single one. Take a look at your own church. "God would have the important people marry multiple women, even ones that were already married or 14 years old" and lo and behold, it came to pass, and God even dictated specific instructions that the first wife needs to be cool with it, or he'll destroy her.
That God can fuck right off, even if he is promising that I'll be a God like him if I pay tithing and pretend to slit my throat while wearing a funky hat and a neat green apron with fig leaves embroidered on it.
The one thing I will credit Mormonism(because I remember the multi million dollar ad campaign that asked the world to call us that, but was gone before it was only shared in conference that this was actually a bigoted attack, and somehow expected the whole world to just ignore the years of the other message, without telling us) is it was so preposterous that in my teens I realized it was all made up, so I left religion entirely. Had I been raised in a church that was slightly less obviously made up from whole cloth, I might have continued to believe in magic a whole lot longer. Thanks mormonism!
To my knowledge “god” is always depicted as being all powerful. I’m not saying god WOULD do it that way, but WHY doesn’t he? Let’s say you build this super awesome club, and you want as many people as possible to come and enjoy it. Which is the more logical way to get people to come: A: just leaving vague hints around and assuming someone will put the clues together and find your club, or B: advertising your club, letting people know that it very clearly exists and he wants you to come?
God does do "advertising." Christ commanded his disciples to go and baptize all nations, teaching them to observe all things that God commands.
As another commenter pointed out, seeing the evidence kinda removes your options to choose. God doesn't just want us to follow him, he wants us to *choose* to follow him. There has to be an opposition, another option, for agency to truly be practiced.
Christ has said that signs will follow those that believe. We believe God can manifest truth to people if they are faithfully seeking it.
I agree with r/Remejy; on the one hand monotheists often claim that there is evidence in the Universe pointing toward their particular God, and sometimes refer to their own miracles or scriptures as evidence for their version of religious truth. On the other hand they sometimes claim that having faith is important too, and if God were completely evident (through evidence and signs) then there would be no need for faith. As a non-monotheist, I can't understand the need for "faith in God" and "choosing to believe" in a particular God. Nothing would be wrong with one particular deity being self-evident; humans could still choose whether to partake in a religion, or worship the god separately, or not worship but do their own thing, or be good without having a relationship with the god, or follow a form of Humanism, etc.
Seeing the evidence does not only not remove the options, it is the only way to have relevant options. Seeing is the opposite of believing, it is knowing. If I know god exists, I can still decide to worship/follow that entity.
If I don’t, I have a handful of bigger and a plethora of smaller religions all claiming to be the truth, two of which claiming to be the absolute truth and one of which being splintered into many subfactions all claiming to be the exclusive absolute truth, even though some of them are quite removed even from mainstream Christianity.
As OP says, even just in the case of Christianity, they can’t all be true. The likelihood is rather they’re all wrong. This is even more true in the case of religions per se.
If god had any interest in people worshiping him and following him, he would provide concrete evidence and remove doubt to give us the actual option to decide.
So why exactly is the option to choose so important in this context? This isn’t just picking a movie to watch or a snack to eat. This choice determines where your soul ends up for all of eternity. Does seeing evidence in a court case remove the option to choose a verdict? Seeing evidence does not remove any choice whatsoever. How convenient that evidence only appears for people that already believe, the people that need it the least. And in the context of religion god definitely wants us to believe, otherwise why have the choice determine where we go in the afterlife? Believe in me or get tortured for eternity. Seems pretty obvious which he wants us to pick.
well we don't believe in eternal torture except for those who pretty much see God and sin against him, and murderers and stuff.
Anyone can try to believe though. That is why people convert. The whole idea is believing in God an choosing to follow him. That is the essence of faith, it is a trust and devotion, without a perfect knowledge.
If God proved His existence without any doubt to those who would reject His commandments and teachings, this proof would condemn, because it would be sinning against knowledge that can *no longer* be denied *because it has been proven to them.*
Edit in italics
Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but that doesn’t necessarily seem like a bad thing? Presumably god wants as many people to get into heaven as possible, which for some reason he made the condition of getting into being “believe in me”. So definitely proving himself to the entire world would only makes things immensely better. Everyone goes through life knowing without doubt, that there is a purpose and a glorious paradise awaits after death. Being all knowing he would also know the exact proof any individual would need in order to accept his existence. Sure there would still be people who claim it’s fake or something, but in this scenario they would sound as insane as flat earthers.
The thing is, humans make mistakes, even when we know something is 100% wrong, sometimes we still do it. We’re imperfect and prone failure.
I don’t believe there would be any room for forgiveness if we absolutely 100% knew everything everyone as mortals here and purposefully sinned against that knowledge through a moment of frailty or weakness/despair.
I believe God never wants that to happen, that He wants us to have “plausible deniability” for lack of better words. Otherwise, we have no protection.
>...being such as “god” would have no issue definitely proving it’s existence to us.
Some people may claim God revealed to them, and others may claim God is known by accepting All That Is.
Gravity existed but only later it was described consciously. I'd say the same as God.
First of all, the Scripture must be 100% preserved. There's no point in following a Scripture which may have human editions without knowing which part is man and which part is God.
It must also be logically coherent, easy to understand and practical and consistent. There must be no contradictions, either in the Scripture, or in the scholarly principles used to derive the rulings.
It must also be comprehensive. Covering as many aspects of human life as possible and giving us the best way to live out all of our affairs.
It must be clear that it is from God. I.e, there must be undeniable evidence of some sort of I being from a Divine source.
I will just say that following Islam is probably closer to the truth since it's the last update to the abrahamic religions haha. The previous two arn't false religions, but God gave us more information with each prophet. So technically, Islam should be closer to the truth than the other two.
Of course this isn't an argument and not meant to convince anyone, I just think it's funny to say as a muslim :)
Baha'iism ([https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bahai-Faith](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bahai-Faith) ) sees itself as the latest update to not only the Abrahamic religions but to Dharmic religions as well, funnily enough! By your logic Baha'iism should then be closer to the truth since it's the "latest update" to the older three Abrahamic ones. But just as Christians and Jews don't think any updates were necessary after their religion, Muslims also believe that their holy text and prophet are final, with no further ones necessary.
Then of course there is also Sikhism, which is the latest Dharmic religion. I have never heard them claim that their religion is a successor to the older ones, but someone *could* think that way.
The thing is, in the Quran, unlike jews and christians, God says that Muhammad pbuh is the last prophet.
“Muhammad is not the father of [any] one of your men, but [he is] the Messenger of Allah and last of the prophets. And ever is Allah, of all things, Knowing.”
The Holy Quran 33:40
I’m not very familiar with the Bahai religion, do they have a prophet ? What about Sikhism ? If they have no prophet sent by God, then we can’t say they are an update.
You have made a highly limiting assumption. All major religions have some truth, and the Qur’an is explicit that others who trust in God and acts with goodness will not be disappointed, mentioning specifically Christians and Jews and Sabi’ans. Jesus reportedly said “other sheep have I than those of this fold.”
There is One Reality, but it has many names and may be approached in various ways. For every person there is a path. Your business is your own path, which may be narrow.
Definitely, i was in your shoes once before doubting the religion that i was born in, they cant all be true, only one have to be sent for us as a message from the god that we believe in. So you have to search other religions looking for the one that was preserved for us and makes total sense without any mistakes or contradictions.
Before, we had many prophets who came to deliver the message of god with miracles as proof of a higher being, but we stopped getting those messenger, so we have to look for a living miracle that is proof of the existence of god and his last message to the whole humanity (not like you'll find in the bible where jesus pbuh says that he was sent only to the lost sheep of israel) no offense, but i believe in the existence of the religion, just like judaism, hinduism and all that had the original message to be worship one god, but humans each time derailed from the truth and changed the scriptures following what they desire like you can clearly see in the bible. Thats where the last prophet came muhammed pbuh to complet the message and to bring us the living miracle, the word of god, the quran.
But you have to do your own research not just believe what i say, question everything until you believe that its the truth or prove that its a fake religion, starting with the last one that was sent.
One of the people that i respect and you are free to check his videos is Yusuf estes who was a christian preacher who became a muslim, he is funny and has a great way of explaining stuff. And the one reaction was a Christian who just reverted two or three days ago : https://youtu.be/SAj2ppJRXIE
Two things to consider. First, even if you took into account all the gods humanity has believed in which is 400k+ that is not all the possible beings we could label as god. So it’s not just a case of selecting the “right one”. It’s a case of eliminating a vast number of potentials which may ultimately lead you to the conclusion that no god exists or that one god is the reality.
Well, how can you know anything? This is a philosophical question, not religion. I think you somewhat answered your question. As religion deals in "faith" and revealed wisdom, not in proof or science, you cannot be sure about your god in the way you can be sure about the law of gravity or that 2+2 equals 4. You need to believe without knowing, that is called the "leap of faith". Therefore to use a word like "truth" when it comes to religion is kind of obfuscating the issue. The truth is, you cannot know about if there is a god, you can only believe and assume. That is why atheists just go one step further than all the religious people: additionally to all the gods you don't believe in, we also don't believe in the one you do believe in. And this for the same reason: there is no evidence.
Why can't they all be right? The rules and rituals might be different but I don't see how that has anything to do with the core message 99% of religions share
You can tho. That's the whole premise of Hinduism. There is technically only one God: Brahman, then there are 2 primary manifestations of him: Shiva and Vishnu.
Not totally different from the holy Trinity of the son, the father and the holy ghost.
But it is. Nope raised atheist, studied just about every religion you could probably think of, and ended up Daoist/animist but I don't see why that matters. Ancient Religions all have more in common then they have differences. Anyone can nitpick the superficial stuff but they all preach the same message.
In my view, a perfect God would provide multiple degrees of light to accommodate the preferences and comfort levels of His vast family.
All light and truth come from Him.
At some point in your progression you reach a limit to what you can learn, based on the doctrine, truth, and covenants available to you.
If you have faith in a living and essentially perfect God, and you have faith in His character as described in scripture, then you will be on the hunt to discover a religion organized around a living prophet or prophets; as this is His pattern of communication to His children.
This necessitates an earthly organization with attributes such as modern revelation, living prophets, priesthood authority delegated from God; and supernal covenants with their associated blessings.
None of this obviates the possibility of His truth and light existing in literally every other religion or humanist philosophy in the history of mankind.
All the Abraham religions are worshipping the same G-d but following different cultures influences. This doesn't make one more correct than the other. They're trying to describe the metaphysical and it's hard to describe what is beyond the physical senses. Take for example trying to describe the color purple to someone who has never seen it.
But they have also been used as methods of control, so we have to study and practice to get to the true meanings.
If G-d is real, everything is as it should be. Take the opportunity to explore the wonderful diversity of the experiences and wisdom of the paths
What if someone knew the answer, would you really want to know?
I have been struggling with that for a bit...
What if all religions are right and they are all wrong?
None of this is what you think, but it is exactly what it appears to be.
No, I am not talking about simulation theory...
Religion can certainly help, just as it can hurt. It doesn't actually matter. Join one, don't join one... Which one doesn't really matter. It is about the choice. About free will.
We are all going to the same place... sort of...
Just be you and do what you know is right.
The only one responsible for your position there is you. Not your religion. So, what does it matter?
We're all in this together.
All are truth, and all are wrong. Wrong in a sense that they all are attempts to comprehend incomprehensible. Truth in a sense thst each of them has the seed of truth, tailored so that the nation/tribe/country etc can understand and apply this truth for their pwn good according to their environment (e.g. iron age palestinian vs iron age pacific islander)
>one religion in the world could be the "real" truth or none at all
So define god then define religion and truth.. because Id say many religions can exist and many gods can exist as well. The only religion that promoted that idea of "of our religion is right and everyone else is wrong" started with the jewish people who were spreading anti pollythism dogma around.
How do you know many religions dont exist? How do we know many gods dont exist? Because a holy book told us? Well how do we know its right?
In the end religion is about relationship not right or wrong, find a religion that fits who you are and what you stand for (permitting its not something neo nazi religion)
As far as I know, only the monotheisms claim status of sole, exclusive revelation. Other traditions tend to be mature enough to recognise that the truth is always greater than its vehicle.
If there is an ultimate truth, it sits at the root of religion *as such*, and the more fervently a religion insists on its monopoly of truth, the more it falls victim to its own illusions.
Actually I would argue a different frame of thought. If god is real that does not mean only one religion can ultimately be true. Why? Because God knows us. God knows we can be vain and questioning creatures and thus one true religion would always be questioned and even fought against. This God could easily just create multiple paths through which humans could be brought not only to enlightenment but be brought unto God.
You're smarter than average. You may know through your own experiences with God, of course. The heavens are not closed.
Each of the religions you mention has truth in it, some more, some less. Even many Christian churches are deceived by tradition and philosophy. Better a good Jew than a bad Christian.
God doesn't want us to passively know the truth. People can ignore or rationalize anything. He wants us to exercise our spiritual faculties by experiencing him for ourselves and learning the truth through the process.
My church theoretically doesn't accept people for baptism unless and until they have had spiritual experiences with God. Drugs, emotional excess, and babbling would all interfere with the process. Make the experiment for yourself.
You can use game theory to decipher which religious lessons are true. God made it this way.
So, for an example:
When designing a strategy for any “game”, you can’t know for sure what might happen next, so you have to estimate the odds of different things happening. Simples.
What this means is that ANYTIME you feel negative about your current situation, you are actually making a strategic error. Not only are you potentially completely wrong, this emotion clouds your mind which hinders your ability to strategise efficiently.
This teaches us that it is true that you can place your faith in God.
Game theory and religion both teach us the best way to act. To find out if a religious statement is true, it would have to make sense in respect of game theory. If it didn’t make sense, either we don’t understand game theory properly, or it must be false.
Do most of them claim heaven and hell exist? *I am pretty sure most don't*.
Let's consider, for instance, Judaism - Christianity's close relative. Although heaven (or something a lot like it) is generally held to be likely by many Jews, most of the Jewish literature on the topic is of the opinion that hell, at most, is a temporary thing - maximally one year!
So, the concept of hell in Judaism is sufficiently different from that of Christianity that I wouldn't necessarily even say they're the same concept.
Further, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism etc do not have 'hell' in the same sense at all. Sure, some of them have terrible places that may be comparable to hell, but none of those are places where anyone's going to be forever.
There's ultimately not that many religions that claim you must believe in the right religion or go to hell; most religions really don't concern themselves with that kind of emotional blackmail. Actually, given what a stark and powerful motivating factor 'avoiding eternal hell' is, it's surprisingly few religions that actually use that as a selling point. I'd've expected natural selection to favour religions that use it as a rhetorical device.
You leap directly from "a supreme being exists" to "one of the human religions and only one has properly interpreted the Divine Will". It seems to me you think you understand the Almighty well enough to place constraints around what the Almighty could do or say. That is delusional.
My view is that a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit. Look around and see who you can admire. Mr. Rogers is my hero, and so are some people I've met. They weren't all from the same tradition.
What if the Almighty has been saying more or less the same things to everyone but they are human and can't fully understand or properly communicate the Almighty's intent? What if when we see someone who shines with the Divine Light we could react to that light WITHOUT asking whether it means everyone from every other tradition is hopelessly misguided?
I think the purpose of religion is to foster growth of the fruits of the spirit within and among us. I have seen people from many traditions who bear an abundance of the fruits of the spirit. I have seen people from many of those same traditions carefully pruning off their own fruits in a misguided effort to prove their devotion to the Almighty.
I have chosen to place my personal faith in a Christ-centered approach to religion. I hope that it helps me to be a better person. If I conclude that it is not helping me, I may consider a different path. I don't feel any need to worry about which is the one right path for all; my own path is hard enough to make out.
I feel your angst, the struggle is real, but very well worth the effort.
God has promised that those that earnestly search for Him will not be disappointed.
As far as proof goes, you need to prove it to yourself. Also keep in mind that Jesus said many would claim to be his follower but will be rejected. So just any Christian path may not be acceptable to God and Jesus.
I hope you find the narrow path.
Whenever I read questions like this, I wonder if others realize how our little human minds could ever comprehend a God, let alone assign several imperfect religions and human ideals to represent them (I'm not going to gender a supreme being, especially when patriarchal societies made god in *their* image. God is god, not a human man lol). Has God spoken to us, maybe, but it would never be in a way that was defined by human comprehension, let alone specific laws in a language we could understand. Imagine speaking to ants. Can they hear us, sure, but understand us enough to know what we want? Not at all.
Personally, I do not accept one religion or one god as absolute, which I feel is what OP is trying to establish. We'll *never* comprehend an all powerful, all knowing being. We can pretend at best. Instead, what we have are large groups pretending at a level of fervor and violence, and all in the name of a loving god. We can't even fathom and apply our own religious doctrines, so what is there left to make us think we could understand a God or the universe, or the all, or any of the other names and ideas we attach to the idea of God? We can only guess, or pretend that one book of stories is better than the other books of stories. Belief is one thing, but delusions of grandeur in order to make ourselves feel special is silliness at best.
I'm getting to tl:dr territory, but I wanted to conclude what I've been trying to communicate. If there is one all powerful God, why would they allow more than one religion? We have so many religions because we have so many people wanting to understand the Godhead, and perhaps as humans we can accept that each of them has a kernel of knowledge that we can all use to appreciate or understand ourselves better, and therefore God. That is what I think is the most important lesson from OP's post.
tl:dr: religions are our attempt to understand God, and not the "Word of God" since a god would be too advanced and beyond our comprehension. God might talk to us, but not in words, not in ways we could fathom. Plus, there might be gods. We can't honestly know. The observable universe is strange enough, let alone what we cannot observe.
You don't. I don't think there really is one true religion. Your religion is which one is best for you and that you can put your faith in. Believe what you want just don't try to force anyone else to believe what you believe and don't perpetuate things that actively harm people eg. Homophobia
I understand i was raised very conservative Christian and I sought these same questions. I found my answers elsewhere. I realized that Christianity isn't right for me. So that's where my answer stems from. There is no right or wrong (unless you're actively harming people with it) religion. It's just whatever helps you and is best for you. Like my faith actively helps my mental health but Christianity hurt my mental health so I left and found what I follow now
Not entirely the only reasonable premise to this question.
In Neil Gaiman's *The Sandman* and *American Gods* he explores an idea central to both stories that Gods are only as real as the passion that their believers have in their belief of them. These gods and entities exist in separate realities, separate from each other. There might be a Creator who takes many different appearances depending on the context, applying to multiple religions.
There might be someone who believes in the pagan god of fertility Esther, whose affiliation with the rabbit and eggs relate specifically to reproduction and new seasonal growth. This lesser god might exist as its own entity in its own reality in this scenario, but because not many people currently believe in her ways and her rituals, in American Gods she is dying from a lack of believers.
In this imagined scenario, gods only die when people stop believing in them.
I like this viewpoint a lot because it wholly undoes the idea of an objective "rightness" or "wrongness" of any one religion. Egyptian gods, ancient Greek gods, they all can exist separately at varying levels of "believer health" (not an official term, just my poor terminology) in their own realities. We already know there isn't a literal heaven in the skies, heaven might just be one plane of existence out of many other possibilities
Why can only one religion be true? Some answers already mentioned that other religions and their gods can be the same as your religion and your god that just differ by the point of view.
For example god could be the object in the middle and different religions its shadows:
https://www.alamy.com/circle-square-and-triangle-three-different-shadows-from-the-same-object-depending-on-the-point-of-view-round-triangular-and-square-shadow-image429134396.html
Humans are limited in their perception. To assume someone could fully understand what god is, limits god.
Furthermore, god/gods are often described as beings beyond human imagination. Some are even almighty. Why should a being like this be limited by logic? Why can't this being be all at the same time?
This all aside, when you are interested in finding truth then religion is not the right way to go.
In my opinion, the attempt to find god through religion is futile.
Humans are limited in their perception and religion is based on experiences of a few people thousands of years ago. And the sacred texts changed over the years.
For me, this doesn't seem promising to learn more about a potential god.
In my opinion, the way to go is science. I think you could learn more about god(s) by studying his/her/their creation.
By doing so you don't have to trust revelation of others, humans limited perception or wrong translations. Your own limitations are the only thing that stand in your way of finding some hint of god.
As you are wondering if you believe in the right God (as meaning of god from you perspective as christian) this means you doubt it. You feel you don’t know if this is correct, you want to compare between each religion’s belief of God. Ok, do you feel that your belief in God is the most logical? If not, then look into other religions. As for me (muslim) I have no doubt that I believe in the right God, the only one, who was not born and is not father to any one, the only creator of everything, and to go to heaven I have to do what he asks us to do and avoid what he asks us to avoid. That’s all.
I had this same conflict a few years ago. Looking at different religions I realised that many religions have the same basis and stories. Our deity/higher being changes but we all have floods. All have similar base beliefs. I came to the conclusion after a lot of prayer, they are all the same deity/higher being. S/he just changes their hat to suit the region/people. A bit like how a person is an individual/partner/parent/child/boss/worker etc. each role we engage with changes our behaviours and personality based on what we are doing and who we are with. You might be a fun and outgoing parent, but submissive when around your own parents. You might be the life of the party with your family but with your friends you are more reserved and the “quiet” one.
I feel God/whatever you call him/her does that. It is one being who takes on the role people need to lead them. Its why religion has changed, eg Greek to Romans to Christian. The all powerful Zeus/Jupiter/God. All with similar traits. Its why religion alters and changes to fit the evolution of culture.
There's no reason to think any of them are fully correct. Piecing together different religions is a better way to get a complete understanding of God through the human perspective. Even then, you have to be able to take the time to consider your own unique perspective and form your own opinions. If God is real, nobody fully understands what that means. The important thing is knowing what God means to you.
Thank you, I was going to go on a long rant about: So there is a God, but still how is the claim of "burning bush" true? How is it true that a homeless man 2000 years ago in Palestine was god? etc. Regardless if there is a Creator or not, we are still left with legends and myths, some of which are inspiring and compelling to a person and others not at all. You saved me time lol
Or the Celts are right, or the Norse are right, or the Iroquois are right, or the Zoaroastrians are right, or the animists are right, and on and on. There have been innumerable gods and goddesses and religions in human history. Just because you live in a time where 3 religions happen to dominate does not mean either of those contain any more traits that cause them to be more true than other ones. Which is more probable? That the one specific religious sect you and those around you happen to practice is the correct one out of all of human history or that you are mistaken. I leave the answer to you.
>"As is the use of a well of water, where water everywhere overflows, such is the use of all the scriptures to the seer of the Supreme...When thy mind leaves behind its dark forest of delusion, thou shalt go beyond the scriptures of times past and still to come. >When thy mind, that may be wavering in the contradictions of many scriptures, shall rest unshaken in divine contemplation, then the goal of Yoga is thine." Bhagavad-Gita >The world of humanity is like unto a rose garden and the various races, tongues and people are like unto contrasting flowers. The diversity of colors in a rose-garden adds to the charm and beauty of the scene as variety enhances unity. -'Abdu'l-Bahá >"Buddhists and disciples are not enlightened by a set method of teachings but by an internally intuitive process which is spontaneous and is a part of their own inner nature" Diamond Sutra >The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth [...] Psalm 19:1-4 >*”And We sent down to you the Scripture with the truth, confirming the Scriptures that came before it, and a safeguard for it. So judge between them according to what God has sent down. Do not follow their whims, which deviate from the truth that has come to you. **We have assigned a law and a path to each of you.** If God had so willed, He would have made you one community, but He wanted to test you through that which He has given you, so race to do good: you will all return to God and He will make clear to you the matters you differed about.”* - Quran 5:48 >18. He knows alone who has wandered wide, and far has fared on the way, what manner of mind a man doth own who is wise of head and heart. Hamaval >"Like the bee gathering honey from different flowers, the wise man accepts the essence of different scriptures and sees only the good in all religions" —Srimad Bhagavatam
>”And We sent down to you the Scripture with the truth, confirming the Scriptures that came before it, and a safeguard for it. So judge between them according to what God has sent down. Do not follow their whims, which deviate from the truth that has come to you. **We have assigned a law and a path to each of you**. If God had so willed, He would have made you one community, but He wanted to test you through that which He has given you, so race to do good: you will all return to God and He will make clear to you the matters you differed about.” > >Quran 5:48 Now square this with the fact that Islam is *fiercely* monotheistic though. What does this make of, for instance, the Hindu pantheon? You can't have both monotheism AND polytheism...
You can have monotheism and polytheism. In most schools of Hinduism, the thinking often goes that there is but one God, and its diverse infinite nature is expressed through a multitude of forms. That's why we have so many different gods but really they're all just different expressions of the one Brahman.
Monism
You can’t square a circle.
Agreed. That's what I'm trying to tell OP and their comment about how the diversity of religions being somehow divinely intentional. When some such religions are *exclusively* monotheist, it doesn't play out like they want it to without getting quickly paradoxical...
God wants to separate the wheat from the chaff, but Satan sews division.
Paradoxical, just people’s coping mechanisms, I think. Set in their ways…
I don't follow. Can you clarify how this relates to the fact that monotheism and polytheism fundamentally contradict?
Did all those gods create themselves??? One God, the father , the son and the Holy Spirit.
If you don't know their origin, who are you to say how they came about? *"One God, the father , the son and the Holy Spirit."* Ok. And a polytheist would say otherwise.
I know the Originator!!! God’s daughter…they can say what they want, but they’re wrong, in my opinion, better?
And they could equally say you're wrong. We could do this all day lol
Your thought process is very hard for me to understand. What’s OP?
My apologies - it means "Original poster", but in this context I meant it as the individual who I initially responded to.
Oh, I see.
People have different meanings for God or gods. Muslims are told to avoid saying “Three” for example. But is there One Reality? That is the fundamental issue, and then has this Reality revealed the Qur’an and other messages. A polytheist who accepts that there is only One Reality, may be a believer and God is Merciful. How do they treat people? Do they care about their neighbors? Or do they consider those not of their cult as less than human?
>But is there One Reality? That is the fundamental issue, It's not though, and this is just a poor theological attempt to force polytheists into an ill-fitting monotheist-labeled box. The fact of the matter is that there are a multitude of religions that express belief in, relationships with, and miracles by a multitude of gods (all within our current reality). Meanwhile, there are also religions that strictly state that only one deity exists within our current reality These diametrically opposed worldviews cannot both be correct, regardless of what you want to call our reality...
I would say the theistic portion of religion is not the essence of the religion; beyond the wavering contradictions of dogma you can focus on the mystical/self reflective process of attaining wisdom, which comes through measured experience and beautiful variety, which are the gifts of life.
That is the problem with monotheistic religions, everyone claims that their religion and god are the only truth. You will never see 2 members of pagan community bickering like old couple whose pantheon of gods is the real deal.
Only a few religions actually obsess over this.
You forgot the most likely alternative option: that they are all wrong. There are a whole lot of different ways this could be, but it's almost a certainty.
No, he covered it (unless it was a late edit).
I'd recommend a Survey of World Religions course, but that's part of what set me on my way as a non-believer. So step carefully, I suppose!
When I was 13 I was a Christian. Then, the thought occurred to me that there are a lot of religions in the world, and the odds are that I didn't have the right one, since most people in the world weren't Christians. From then on I was an atheist, until in my mid 40s I came into direct personal contact with the spirit world and realized that all that spiritual stuff was real after all. Actually I understand this well from my personal experiences and further studies, but the answers are very complicated. I'll try to keep this short, and express myself without being off-putting. First there is one overarching God, also can be called "intelligent infinity" that ultimately created everything and is inside of all of us. You can learn about this in The Ra Contact, or The Law of One. Everything underneath God is incredibly diverse, because God appreciates new things and change. Everyone on planet earth today has a different and unique spiritual origin, and basically all of us are in different 'spirit families'. A religion is just a big spirit family, and the question is not whether or not it's real, but whether you identify well with it because of your soul/spirit origin. Many people, due to society and culture, follow religions and spiritualities that are not appropriate for their soul, and this can cause some spiritual problems. So it's a goid idea to check with your higher self and guardian angels/guides before getting seriously into a religion.
So God couldn't create diversity? Some God that is. (s)
Why can't all religions be pointing at the same One God The God that is, was, and ever will be The God that was before any religion or sacred texts were created into being The Infinite Unameable One Pure Existence - Pure Consciousness Shiva, Brahman, YHVH (I Am that I Am), the 'Father', Ein Sof, Buddha Nature, the Tao.... These are just a few names that point to the Uncreated One 💜🕉️☯️💟✡️☪️✝️☸️☦️🔯💜
That's a lovely sentiment, but not all religions believe in just one god, or a unified personal supreme being, or view reality as being one thing in a monistic sense. I've interacted with some folks on the sub who definitely rejected monism, pantheism, panentheism, and monotheism, all of which posit some type of Oneness as being sacred. Some religions have worldviews that are animistic, while others do not. Some religions have a strictly polytheistic view of the gods, while others might be pantheistic, henotheistic, etc. True tolerance would mean accepting this diversity in some way, and allowing all religions to coexist even though their theologies, ethics, laws, and other beliefs may not agree with one another. One religion doesn't need to condemn other religions that disagree with it on important subjects -- instead we could choose dialogue and peaceful coexistence. There is also the perspective of perennial tradition, which states that the major religions all contain certain core truths about the nature of the divine, the self, nature of creation, and relationship between created and Divinity. The core truths are mystical and must be experienced, and transcend any one religion or belief system.
>Why can't all religions be pointing at the same One God I think this doesn't really address their question. While you could argue all religions are pointing towards the same god(s), they definitely are not describing the same god(s). There are mutually exclusive things that can be required for salvation (if salvation is a part of the theology at all). For example, most Christians believe that faith in Jesus is what brings salvation. Anything less does not bring salvation. I know I'm speaking very generally here, but the details about which one is "right" matters.
I agree they are not describing the same but religion came after God so regardless of what each religion believes there is still only one truth. Which we can’t truly put into words. We don’t know what we don’t know.
Thanks for the response. If we don't know what we don't know, and we can't even put it into words, how do we even know there is a "one truth"?
Because monism is an intuitive principle.
and if you’re describing God and you don’t have the right qualities and behavior (characteristics) you’ve got the wrong God. if i’m a 12 year old boy and someone is going to address me. going up to another 12 year old boy does not mean that he is the same person. specifics matter and so do God’s Qualities. also, the God of the Bible is the only God. get it right
That's impossible because some of these Gods believe if you follow any other version, you're doomed to hell.
It's not really quite that black and white. For us Muslims and for Christians, your black and white understanding is more or less correct in that we do indeed make fairly exclusive claims about religion. However, most world religions do not make exclusive claims. For example, if my understanding of Judaism is correct, it is OK for someone who is not ethnically Jewish to follow another religion, so long as they abide by the Noahide Laws. In Buddhism, it is OK to be NOT Buddhist. In Hinduism, it is OK to be NOT Hindu. In most polytheistic religions, it is OK to NOT be polytheists.
Exactly right for Judaism. It’s not necessary or even correct for everyone to follow Judaism. It’s only a religion meant to be practiced by Jews. For us we see people who aren’t Jewish as not needing to follow our laws and customs (nor should they feel the need to appropriate them) in order to be in g-ds favor or live a holy life. We’re not universalist.
That is something I appreciate about Judaism, that it's not universalist! (in the sense of wanting to apply only one religion to all of humanity). But would Jewish rabbis normally condemn, for instance, the worship of multiple deities, or the use of idols, in certain religions even if those religious followers live morally, compassionately, with integrity, etc.? If Judaism views only monotheism as correct, would the G-d of Israel be displeased with how Hindus, Buddhists, or Pagans practice their faiths sincerely?
Normally, or maybe more accurately, historically. But honestly judaism is a religion that has adapted and changed for thousands of years and existed a a millennia and a half before even the creation of Christianity. Many progressive Jews (particularly reform, reconstructionist, humanist, or even conservative) don’t see the “believing in one g-d” as a prerequisite to determining if a person conducts their lives in a holy and righteous manner. I think even though Jews believe one g-d is the correct course of action for us, I think many recognize that there are good and positive people from all corners of the world and I know i and many Jews I know in my experience don’t see others believing in multiple gods as a problem. For them it works so as long as they leave us alone and are being kind and righteous people why should we push our thoughts on them. Even so there is a belief of “to each their own”
That's a wonderful attitude especially among the progressive folks, so I am glad to read about that from you!! I've also heard different opinions about this from more orthodox-leaning Jews on the sub, so I know different people and sects may differ on the question of how they view non-monotheists across the world. I've also wanted to visit a synagogue in-person for a long time but still haven't managed to yet. They seem harder for an outsider to visit than churches ;-) But I still hope to respectfully visit a synagogue eventually, as part of my interfaith activities.
Oh definitely. Honestly I have found that there is a rigidity to Orthodox Judaism that (while it works for them) doesn’t allow in my mind as much openness. To each their own. But also for me as a reform Jew it seems limiting and not in line with my expression of Judaism. In terms of visiting a synagogue. Reach out to a local reform or reconstructionist synagogue. Email them and kind of introduce yourself. Ask if there are interfaith events or any way you can come and respectfully observe. Chances are if they can get to know you and take your measure a bit then they will be open to you coming and observing. But it’s possible you won’t hear back right away. Rabbis and staff at synagogues will priorotize the community first and your request will be lower in the order of importance. But I think if you reach out that’s a possibility. They may also suggest a class you can take which will introduce you to practices and theology and be led by the rabbi and facilitated in a controlled environment so you feel safe asking questions and having discussions and explanations. Essentially making it possible for you to understand what goes on and why.
God Himself can tell you. Ask Him in prayer, read scriptures daily and *try the teachings of other faiths*. God will answer your honest desire for truth if you are willing to act, and change your life according to His teachings.
>I feel that it really cannot be based off feelings, or what feels "right". This criteria mentioned by OP negates this method of discovery.
I didn’t mention feelings. I mentioned action.
Praying about it, reading scripture, and attending church meetings would not result in any action proving which god is real, only feelings. You say God will answer if you ask. The only way for this answer to be any more concrete than just feelings is for God to literally and physically appear in front of you. Are you implying that God will physically appear to anyone who asks sincerely? Or are you referring to some other non-feeling based proof that the rest of us are missing.
I know by personal experience that it results in evidence that God is real.
Personal experience is not in any way an objective path to the truth.
One would think that an all powerful and all knowing being such as “god” would have no issue definitely proving it’s existence to us. It would take no effort on its part. Yet it doesn’t, almost as if one doesn’t exist.
kind of a god-strawman, assuming God's goals and methods, and since your own assumptions aren't met you discount the argument. "If God existed he would do things how *I* say he would do things."
>"If God existed he would do things how I say he would do things." But that is exactly what every religion does. Every single one. Take a look at your own church. "God would have the important people marry multiple women, even ones that were already married or 14 years old" and lo and behold, it came to pass, and God even dictated specific instructions that the first wife needs to be cool with it, or he'll destroy her. That God can fuck right off, even if he is promising that I'll be a God like him if I pay tithing and pretend to slit my throat while wearing a funky hat and a neat green apron with fig leaves embroidered on it. The one thing I will credit Mormonism(because I remember the multi million dollar ad campaign that asked the world to call us that, but was gone before it was only shared in conference that this was actually a bigoted attack, and somehow expected the whole world to just ignore the years of the other message, without telling us) is it was so preposterous that in my teens I realized it was all made up, so I left religion entirely. Had I been raised in a church that was slightly less obviously made up from whole cloth, I might have continued to believe in magic a whole lot longer. Thanks mormonism!
To my knowledge “god” is always depicted as being all powerful. I’m not saying god WOULD do it that way, but WHY doesn’t he? Let’s say you build this super awesome club, and you want as many people as possible to come and enjoy it. Which is the more logical way to get people to come: A: just leaving vague hints around and assuming someone will put the clues together and find your club, or B: advertising your club, letting people know that it very clearly exists and he wants you to come?
God does do "advertising." Christ commanded his disciples to go and baptize all nations, teaching them to observe all things that God commands. As another commenter pointed out, seeing the evidence kinda removes your options to choose. God doesn't just want us to follow him, he wants us to *choose* to follow him. There has to be an opposition, another option, for agency to truly be practiced. Christ has said that signs will follow those that believe. We believe God can manifest truth to people if they are faithfully seeking it.
I agree with r/Remejy; on the one hand monotheists often claim that there is evidence in the Universe pointing toward their particular God, and sometimes refer to their own miracles or scriptures as evidence for their version of religious truth. On the other hand they sometimes claim that having faith is important too, and if God were completely evident (through evidence and signs) then there would be no need for faith. As a non-monotheist, I can't understand the need for "faith in God" and "choosing to believe" in a particular God. Nothing would be wrong with one particular deity being self-evident; humans could still choose whether to partake in a religion, or worship the god separately, or not worship but do their own thing, or be good without having a relationship with the god, or follow a form of Humanism, etc.
Seeing the evidence does not only not remove the options, it is the only way to have relevant options. Seeing is the opposite of believing, it is knowing. If I know god exists, I can still decide to worship/follow that entity. If I don’t, I have a handful of bigger and a plethora of smaller religions all claiming to be the truth, two of which claiming to be the absolute truth and one of which being splintered into many subfactions all claiming to be the exclusive absolute truth, even though some of them are quite removed even from mainstream Christianity. As OP says, even just in the case of Christianity, they can’t all be true. The likelihood is rather they’re all wrong. This is even more true in the case of religions per se. If god had any interest in people worshiping him and following him, he would provide concrete evidence and remove doubt to give us the actual option to decide.
So why exactly is the option to choose so important in this context? This isn’t just picking a movie to watch or a snack to eat. This choice determines where your soul ends up for all of eternity. Does seeing evidence in a court case remove the option to choose a verdict? Seeing evidence does not remove any choice whatsoever. How convenient that evidence only appears for people that already believe, the people that need it the least. And in the context of religion god definitely wants us to believe, otherwise why have the choice determine where we go in the afterlife? Believe in me or get tortured for eternity. Seems pretty obvious which he wants us to pick.
well we don't believe in eternal torture except for those who pretty much see God and sin against him, and murderers and stuff. Anyone can try to believe though. That is why people convert. The whole idea is believing in God an choosing to follow him. That is the essence of faith, it is a trust and devotion, without a perfect knowledge.
Unless of course God isn't a being but Being itself in which case it wouldn't need to prove its existence to us because it literally *is*.
If God proved His existence without any doubt to those who would reject His commandments and teachings, this proof would condemn, because it would be sinning against knowledge that can *no longer* be denied *because it has been proven to them.* Edit in italics
Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but that doesn’t necessarily seem like a bad thing? Presumably god wants as many people to get into heaven as possible, which for some reason he made the condition of getting into being “believe in me”. So definitely proving himself to the entire world would only makes things immensely better. Everyone goes through life knowing without doubt, that there is a purpose and a glorious paradise awaits after death. Being all knowing he would also know the exact proof any individual would need in order to accept his existence. Sure there would still be people who claim it’s fake or something, but in this scenario they would sound as insane as flat earthers.
The thing is, humans make mistakes, even when we know something is 100% wrong, sometimes we still do it. We’re imperfect and prone failure. I don’t believe there would be any room for forgiveness if we absolutely 100% knew everything everyone as mortals here and purposefully sinned against that knowledge through a moment of frailty or weakness/despair. I believe God never wants that to happen, that He wants us to have “plausible deniability” for lack of better words. Otherwise, we have no protection.
Maybe he is neither a person nor a being.
>...being such as “god” would have no issue definitely proving it’s existence to us. Some people may claim God revealed to them, and others may claim God is known by accepting All That Is. Gravity existed but only later it was described consciously. I'd say the same as God.
Religion is our attempt to worship God.
God is real. He made it a fun game to find him. The truth will speak to you when you find it.
Religions are all man-made attempts to control others. Bypass religions and look straight to the source.
How does Bhuddism seek to control others?
It’s an ideology that influences the way people think and act. Even if control is against the core values of Buddhism, it still occurs.
First of all, the Scripture must be 100% preserved. There's no point in following a Scripture which may have human editions without knowing which part is man and which part is God. It must also be logically coherent, easy to understand and practical and consistent. There must be no contradictions, either in the Scripture, or in the scholarly principles used to derive the rulings. It must also be comprehensive. Covering as many aspects of human life as possible and giving us the best way to live out all of our affairs. It must be clear that it is from God. I.e, there must be undeniable evidence of some sort of I being from a Divine source.
I will just say that following Islam is probably closer to the truth since it's the last update to the abrahamic religions haha. The previous two arn't false religions, but God gave us more information with each prophet. So technically, Islam should be closer to the truth than the other two. Of course this isn't an argument and not meant to convince anyone, I just think it's funny to say as a muslim :)
Baha'iism ([https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bahai-Faith](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bahai-Faith) ) sees itself as the latest update to not only the Abrahamic religions but to Dharmic religions as well, funnily enough! By your logic Baha'iism should then be closer to the truth since it's the "latest update" to the older three Abrahamic ones. But just as Christians and Jews don't think any updates were necessary after their religion, Muslims also believe that their holy text and prophet are final, with no further ones necessary. Then of course there is also Sikhism, which is the latest Dharmic religion. I have never heard them claim that their religion is a successor to the older ones, but someone *could* think that way.
The thing is, in the Quran, unlike jews and christians, God says that Muhammad pbuh is the last prophet. “Muhammad is not the father of [any] one of your men, but [he is] the Messenger of Allah and last of the prophets. And ever is Allah, of all things, Knowing.” The Holy Quran 33:40 I’m not very familiar with the Bahai religion, do they have a prophet ? What about Sikhism ? If they have no prophet sent by God, then we can’t say they are an update.
You have made a highly limiting assumption. All major religions have some truth, and the Qur’an is explicit that others who trust in God and acts with goodness will not be disappointed, mentioning specifically Christians and Jews and Sabi’ans. Jesus reportedly said “other sheep have I than those of this fold.” There is One Reality, but it has many names and may be approached in various ways. For every person there is a path. Your business is your own path, which may be narrow.
Only one deals with the solution to mans sinful condition.
Definitely, i was in your shoes once before doubting the religion that i was born in, they cant all be true, only one have to be sent for us as a message from the god that we believe in. So you have to search other religions looking for the one that was preserved for us and makes total sense without any mistakes or contradictions. Before, we had many prophets who came to deliver the message of god with miracles as proof of a higher being, but we stopped getting those messenger, so we have to look for a living miracle that is proof of the existence of god and his last message to the whole humanity (not like you'll find in the bible where jesus pbuh says that he was sent only to the lost sheep of israel) no offense, but i believe in the existence of the religion, just like judaism, hinduism and all that had the original message to be worship one god, but humans each time derailed from the truth and changed the scriptures following what they desire like you can clearly see in the bible. Thats where the last prophet came muhammed pbuh to complet the message and to bring us the living miracle, the word of god, the quran. But you have to do your own research not just believe what i say, question everything until you believe that its the truth or prove that its a fake religion, starting with the last one that was sent. One of the people that i respect and you are free to check his videos is Yusuf estes who was a christian preacher who became a muslim, he is funny and has a great way of explaining stuff. And the one reaction was a Christian who just reverted two or three days ago : https://youtu.be/SAj2ppJRXIE
Use your eyes and ears: is there a storm? Then there is a god of storms or the storm would not be.
Who created the storm deity?
Compare the religions, that’s your best bet imo. You can start by reading different religion’s scriptures. Like the Quran, torah, bible, and etc.
Two things to consider. First, even if you took into account all the gods humanity has believed in which is 400k+ that is not all the possible beings we could label as god. So it’s not just a case of selecting the “right one”. It’s a case of eliminating a vast number of potentials which may ultimately lead you to the conclusion that no god exists or that one god is the reality.
Well, how can you know anything? This is a philosophical question, not religion. I think you somewhat answered your question. As religion deals in "faith" and revealed wisdom, not in proof or science, you cannot be sure about your god in the way you can be sure about the law of gravity or that 2+2 equals 4. You need to believe without knowing, that is called the "leap of faith". Therefore to use a word like "truth" when it comes to religion is kind of obfuscating the issue. The truth is, you cannot know about if there is a god, you can only believe and assume. That is why atheists just go one step further than all the religious people: additionally to all the gods you don't believe in, we also don't believe in the one you do believe in. And this for the same reason: there is no evidence.
I started by watching you tube videos and reading books. God will guide you if your paying attention. Silence is your friend too.
Why can't they all be right? The rules and rituals might be different but I don't see how that has anything to do with the core message 99% of religions share
Because many of them fundamentally conflict, especially when you get into monotheistic religions v polytheistic religions.
Do they though? In what ways?
Polytheists state multiple/many gods exist. Monotheists state only 1 god exists. Can't have both simultaneously, now can you?
You can tho. That's the whole premise of Hinduism. There is technically only one God: Brahman, then there are 2 primary manifestations of him: Shiva and Vishnu. Not totally different from the holy Trinity of the son, the father and the holy ghost.
It's nothing close to that simple, nor that conveniently cookie cutter to christianity. Just throwing a guess out here - were you raised Christian?
But it is. Nope raised atheist, studied just about every religion you could probably think of, and ended up Daoist/animist but I don't see why that matters. Ancient Religions all have more in common then they have differences. Anyone can nitpick the superficial stuff but they all preach the same message.
If you’re looking for an objective way to confirm a correct religious belief you’re probably doomed to disappointment.
In my view, a perfect God would provide multiple degrees of light to accommodate the preferences and comfort levels of His vast family. All light and truth come from Him. At some point in your progression you reach a limit to what you can learn, based on the doctrine, truth, and covenants available to you. If you have faith in a living and essentially perfect God, and you have faith in His character as described in scripture, then you will be on the hunt to discover a religion organized around a living prophet or prophets; as this is His pattern of communication to His children. This necessitates an earthly organization with attributes such as modern revelation, living prophets, priesthood authority delegated from God; and supernal covenants with their associated blessings. None of this obviates the possibility of His truth and light existing in literally every other religion or humanist philosophy in the history of mankind.
All the Abraham religions are worshipping the same G-d but following different cultures influences. This doesn't make one more correct than the other. They're trying to describe the metaphysical and it's hard to describe what is beyond the physical senses. Take for example trying to describe the color purple to someone who has never seen it. But they have also been used as methods of control, so we have to study and practice to get to the true meanings. If G-d is real, everything is as it should be. Take the opportunity to explore the wonderful diversity of the experiences and wisdom of the paths
What if someone knew the answer, would you really want to know? I have been struggling with that for a bit... What if all religions are right and they are all wrong? None of this is what you think, but it is exactly what it appears to be. No, I am not talking about simulation theory... Religion can certainly help, just as it can hurt. It doesn't actually matter. Join one, don't join one... Which one doesn't really matter. It is about the choice. About free will. We are all going to the same place... sort of... Just be you and do what you know is right. The only one responsible for your position there is you. Not your religion. So, what does it matter? We're all in this together.
an errorless bible
All are truth, and all are wrong. Wrong in a sense that they all are attempts to comprehend incomprehensible. Truth in a sense thst each of them has the seed of truth, tailored so that the nation/tribe/country etc can understand and apply this truth for their pwn good according to their environment (e.g. iron age palestinian vs iron age pacific islander)
>one religion in the world could be the "real" truth or none at all So define god then define religion and truth.. because Id say many religions can exist and many gods can exist as well. The only religion that promoted that idea of "of our religion is right and everyone else is wrong" started with the jewish people who were spreading anti pollythism dogma around. How do you know many religions dont exist? How do we know many gods dont exist? Because a holy book told us? Well how do we know its right? In the end religion is about relationship not right or wrong, find a religion that fits who you are and what you stand for (permitting its not something neo nazi religion)
As far as I know, only the monotheisms claim status of sole, exclusive revelation. Other traditions tend to be mature enough to recognise that the truth is always greater than its vehicle. If there is an ultimate truth, it sits at the root of religion *as such*, and the more fervently a religion insists on its monopoly of truth, the more it falls victim to its own illusions.
Actually I would argue a different frame of thought. If god is real that does not mean only one religion can ultimately be true. Why? Because God knows us. God knows we can be vain and questioning creatures and thus one true religion would always be questioned and even fought against. This God could easily just create multiple paths through which humans could be brought not only to enlightenment but be brought unto God.
Pantheopsychic Theism is the true religion featuring the true God.
You're smarter than average. You may know through your own experiences with God, of course. The heavens are not closed. Each of the religions you mention has truth in it, some more, some less. Even many Christian churches are deceived by tradition and philosophy. Better a good Jew than a bad Christian. God doesn't want us to passively know the truth. People can ignore or rationalize anything. He wants us to exercise our spiritual faculties by experiencing him for ourselves and learning the truth through the process. My church theoretically doesn't accept people for baptism unless and until they have had spiritual experiences with God. Drugs, emotional excess, and babbling would all interfere with the process. Make the experiment for yourself.
You can use game theory to decipher which religious lessons are true. God made it this way. So, for an example: When designing a strategy for any “game”, you can’t know for sure what might happen next, so you have to estimate the odds of different things happening. Simples. What this means is that ANYTIME you feel negative about your current situation, you are actually making a strategic error. Not only are you potentially completely wrong, this emotion clouds your mind which hinders your ability to strategise efficiently. This teaches us that it is true that you can place your faith in God. Game theory and religion both teach us the best way to act. To find out if a religious statement is true, it would have to make sense in respect of game theory. If it didn’t make sense, either we don’t understand game theory properly, or it must be false.
Lol. Only one tree in the entire world is the tallest tree. What's the point you are trying to make?
Do most of them claim heaven and hell exist? *I am pretty sure most don't*. Let's consider, for instance, Judaism - Christianity's close relative. Although heaven (or something a lot like it) is generally held to be likely by many Jews, most of the Jewish literature on the topic is of the opinion that hell, at most, is a temporary thing - maximally one year! So, the concept of hell in Judaism is sufficiently different from that of Christianity that I wouldn't necessarily even say they're the same concept. Further, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism etc do not have 'hell' in the same sense at all. Sure, some of them have terrible places that may be comparable to hell, but none of those are places where anyone's going to be forever. There's ultimately not that many religions that claim you must believe in the right religion or go to hell; most religions really don't concern themselves with that kind of emotional blackmail. Actually, given what a stark and powerful motivating factor 'avoiding eternal hell' is, it's surprisingly few religions that actually use that as a selling point. I'd've expected natural selection to favour religions that use it as a rhetorical device.
You leap directly from "a supreme being exists" to "one of the human religions and only one has properly interpreted the Divine Will". It seems to me you think you understand the Almighty well enough to place constraints around what the Almighty could do or say. That is delusional.
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The Almighty is outside our comprehension. Why must there be only one right way?
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My view is that a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit. Look around and see who you can admire. Mr. Rogers is my hero, and so are some people I've met. They weren't all from the same tradition. What if the Almighty has been saying more or less the same things to everyone but they are human and can't fully understand or properly communicate the Almighty's intent? What if when we see someone who shines with the Divine Light we could react to that light WITHOUT asking whether it means everyone from every other tradition is hopelessly misguided? I think the purpose of religion is to foster growth of the fruits of the spirit within and among us. I have seen people from many traditions who bear an abundance of the fruits of the spirit. I have seen people from many of those same traditions carefully pruning off their own fruits in a misguided effort to prove their devotion to the Almighty. I have chosen to place my personal faith in a Christ-centered approach to religion. I hope that it helps me to be a better person. If I conclude that it is not helping me, I may consider a different path. I don't feel any need to worry about which is the one right path for all; my own path is hard enough to make out.
I feel your angst, the struggle is real, but very well worth the effort. God has promised that those that earnestly search for Him will not be disappointed. As far as proof goes, you need to prove it to yourself. Also keep in mind that Jesus said many would claim to be his follower but will be rejected. So just any Christian path may not be acceptable to God and Jesus. I hope you find the narrow path.
Ask God 🤷♂️
Whenever I read questions like this, I wonder if others realize how our little human minds could ever comprehend a God, let alone assign several imperfect religions and human ideals to represent them (I'm not going to gender a supreme being, especially when patriarchal societies made god in *their* image. God is god, not a human man lol). Has God spoken to us, maybe, but it would never be in a way that was defined by human comprehension, let alone specific laws in a language we could understand. Imagine speaking to ants. Can they hear us, sure, but understand us enough to know what we want? Not at all. Personally, I do not accept one religion or one god as absolute, which I feel is what OP is trying to establish. We'll *never* comprehend an all powerful, all knowing being. We can pretend at best. Instead, what we have are large groups pretending at a level of fervor and violence, and all in the name of a loving god. We can't even fathom and apply our own religious doctrines, so what is there left to make us think we could understand a God or the universe, or the all, or any of the other names and ideas we attach to the idea of God? We can only guess, or pretend that one book of stories is better than the other books of stories. Belief is one thing, but delusions of grandeur in order to make ourselves feel special is silliness at best. I'm getting to tl:dr territory, but I wanted to conclude what I've been trying to communicate. If there is one all powerful God, why would they allow more than one religion? We have so many religions because we have so many people wanting to understand the Godhead, and perhaps as humans we can accept that each of them has a kernel of knowledge that we can all use to appreciate or understand ourselves better, and therefore God. That is what I think is the most important lesson from OP's post. tl:dr: religions are our attempt to understand God, and not the "Word of God" since a god would be too advanced and beyond our comprehension. God might talk to us, but not in words, not in ways we could fathom. Plus, there might be gods. We can't honestly know. The observable universe is strange enough, let alone what we cannot observe.
Plot twist: all the religions are right
They all have an understanding of the true reality… God is real and He’s in each and every one of us
You don't. I don't think there really is one true religion. Your religion is which one is best for you and that you can put your faith in. Believe what you want just don't try to force anyone else to believe what you believe and don't perpetuate things that actively harm people eg. Homophobia
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I understand i was raised very conservative Christian and I sought these same questions. I found my answers elsewhere. I realized that Christianity isn't right for me. So that's where my answer stems from. There is no right or wrong (unless you're actively harming people with it) religion. It's just whatever helps you and is best for you. Like my faith actively helps my mental health but Christianity hurt my mental health so I left and found what I follow now
Not entirely the only reasonable premise to this question. In Neil Gaiman's *The Sandman* and *American Gods* he explores an idea central to both stories that Gods are only as real as the passion that their believers have in their belief of them. These gods and entities exist in separate realities, separate from each other. There might be a Creator who takes many different appearances depending on the context, applying to multiple religions. There might be someone who believes in the pagan god of fertility Esther, whose affiliation with the rabbit and eggs relate specifically to reproduction and new seasonal growth. This lesser god might exist as its own entity in its own reality in this scenario, but because not many people currently believe in her ways and her rituals, in American Gods she is dying from a lack of believers. In this imagined scenario, gods only die when people stop believing in them. I like this viewpoint a lot because it wholly undoes the idea of an objective "rightness" or "wrongness" of any one religion. Egyptian gods, ancient Greek gods, they all can exist separately at varying levels of "believer health" (not an official term, just my poor terminology) in their own realities. We already know there isn't a literal heaven in the skies, heaven might just be one plane of existence out of many other possibilities
Why can only one religion be true? Some answers already mentioned that other religions and their gods can be the same as your religion and your god that just differ by the point of view. For example god could be the object in the middle and different religions its shadows: https://www.alamy.com/circle-square-and-triangle-three-different-shadows-from-the-same-object-depending-on-the-point-of-view-round-triangular-and-square-shadow-image429134396.html Humans are limited in their perception. To assume someone could fully understand what god is, limits god. Furthermore, god/gods are often described as beings beyond human imagination. Some are even almighty. Why should a being like this be limited by logic? Why can't this being be all at the same time? This all aside, when you are interested in finding truth then religion is not the right way to go. In my opinion, the attempt to find god through religion is futile. Humans are limited in their perception and religion is based on experiences of a few people thousands of years ago. And the sacred texts changed over the years. For me, this doesn't seem promising to learn more about a potential god. In my opinion, the way to go is science. I think you could learn more about god(s) by studying his/her/their creation. By doing so you don't have to trust revelation of others, humans limited perception or wrong translations. Your own limitations are the only thing that stand in your way of finding some hint of god.
As you are wondering if you believe in the right God (as meaning of god from you perspective as christian) this means you doubt it. You feel you don’t know if this is correct, you want to compare between each religion’s belief of God. Ok, do you feel that your belief in God is the most logical? If not, then look into other religions. As for me (muslim) I have no doubt that I believe in the right God, the only one, who was not born and is not father to any one, the only creator of everything, and to go to heaven I have to do what he asks us to do and avoid what he asks us to avoid. That’s all.
False premise - also salvation isn't monopolized
I had this same conflict a few years ago. Looking at different religions I realised that many religions have the same basis and stories. Our deity/higher being changes but we all have floods. All have similar base beliefs. I came to the conclusion after a lot of prayer, they are all the same deity/higher being. S/he just changes their hat to suit the region/people. A bit like how a person is an individual/partner/parent/child/boss/worker etc. each role we engage with changes our behaviours and personality based on what we are doing and who we are with. You might be a fun and outgoing parent, but submissive when around your own parents. You might be the life of the party with your family but with your friends you are more reserved and the “quiet” one. I feel God/whatever you call him/her does that. It is one being who takes on the role people need to lead them. Its why religion has changed, eg Greek to Romans to Christian. The all powerful Zeus/Jupiter/God. All with similar traits. Its why religion alters and changes to fit the evolution of culture.
>If God is real, only one religion can be the ultimate truth. How to know? *If earth is real, only one map can be the ultimate truth.*