The "Correct Religion"

[Anonymous]

Please answer these questions
"Why is your religion the "Correct Religion?"

Of all the thousands of religions and gods throughout time what make your religion and your god the right one?

Every culture and race from every part of the world has a creation story and a god or gods that they pray to, does it make sense that there is one correct one?

There is a little boy living on the Amazon river right now in south america with his tribe. They live in harmony with the earth and belive in spirts of nature rather than gods. This little boy may never see a person of another race nor will he ever be introduced to another religion. He has never even heard of "god" or "religion." Will this boy go to hell?

[Deborah]

he will be judged by his heart.

Romans 2:14-16 For when the nations, who do not have the Law, do by nature the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law unto themselves; who show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and the thoughts between one another accusing or even excusing one another, in a day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

As for the rest, explore that for yourself.

[Mastermind]

No, he won't.

To answer your question now. First, polytheistic religions have gods with limited powers. As such, I see no more need to worship them than I would see need to worship a great king because they are all unworthy. Second, some "religions" aren't even religions, but rather philosophies. I know Buddha sure as hell didn't want to be worshipped, yet you have buddhists that pray to him as if he can do anything. Buddhism had nothing to do with religion, it was simply another(good i'd say) eastern philosophy. Now we're really left with the only serious contender for Christianity, Islam. Islam can be easily countered. I believe that in their own book(or the torah, likely the latest) it says that a prophet cannot come of the tribe of Ahmed. Guess where Mohammed is from? In addition, Christianity is far different from anything else. Your destination in the afterlife doesn't depend on doing more good things than bad things. It depends on you ending your life good. Its conditions for salvation are so simple yet still brilliant. All it requires of you is to believe in Christ and repent of your sins. Even the worst criminal is given a chance all the way to his death, while in other religions hsi repentance would mean nothing.

[Kurieuo]

Please answer these questions "Why is your religion the "Correct Religion?"

What do you mean by correct "religion"? Most Christians would understand this to mean to true way to God. Yet, then not all "religions" view "God" as an intelligent higher being in the same way we do. And not all "religions" have a concept of "salvation," and if they do, such a word often implies something different.

Now I believe Christianity is correct with their beliefs surrounding God. And I believe Christianity is correct in its message of God being only reachable through Christ as mediator - "salvation."

There is a little boy living on the Amazon river right now in south america with his tribe. They live in harmony with the earth and belive in spirts of nature rather than gods. This little boy may never see a person of another race nor will he ever be introduced to another religion. He has never even heard of "god" or "religion." Will this boy go to hell?

Funnily enough, missionaries who have gone to such people (such as Frank and Marie Drown who tell their story in Mission To The Headhunters), usually discover the people have strong concepts of spirits, and often have a belief that "one" overarching God does infact exist. Thus, they are able to work with their existing beliefs when imparting the Gospel to them. Scripture is also clear that all are accountable because what God is clearly knowable to all through what has been made. This has also been dealt with elsewhere on this board (see http://discussions.godandscience.org/vi ... .php?t=264).

Now allow me to ask you, why do you think your own beliefs are correct?

Kurieuo.

[Mastermind]

I have a feeling you won't be so calm after you read his other posts k. :p

[Poetic_Soul]

I don't consider christianity a religion but a personnal relationship with God. No religion can give you that. Christianity shows first hand that God gets deeply involved with mankind. He actually rolls his sleeves up and gets to know His very own creation. No god in any religion expresses His LOVE towards mankind but Jesus the Christ.

[Preach]

Personally, I do not belong to any organized church. In my "quest" to solve the "Mystery of the Lost Correct Religion", I have arrived at the personal conclusion that early Christianity and Messianic Judaism are the best candidates. Because every christian denomination has something that I vehemently disagree with, I follow "Preach's Denomination"-- I think for myself and do not believe everything a preacher says unless I do my homework first. I have the Bible, a concordance, reference materials and a bunch of websites on my favorite places dedicated to Hebrew and Koine Greek translations, secular history, etc, etc. That is my "church." Debating with my friends who are churchgoers also helps give me things to look into and keeps my mind open to possibilities at least.

[j316]

Preach, I also have followed a path similar to yours but I eventually realized that you have to balance what you think against the traditional creeds and dogmas of the established churches. When you stop and think about where they came from and what it took to refine them you can't just dismiss them. In the past 1900 years there have been millions of people who have affirmed and confirmed the truth of the scriptures, where do you stand in that multitude?
I would also say that what I have actually learned about christianity has really come from the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I am not even certain when that really became the dominant factor but it certainly is now.

[AttentionKMartShoppers]

All the ways and religions to get to God are bankrupt (poorly remembered from something G K Chesterton said....after reading through 12 books...you learn some things). You cannot lift yourself up to God. God has to stoop down to you. Only in Christianity is this true. Man doesn't have to lift himself up to God, all he has to do is submit and believe Jesus came down and died for him.

[voicingmaster]

All other religions are like painkillers to the disease of sin, Christianity is the only cure(analogy I heard from a friend). All the other religions are like painkillers in that they make you think you aren't sinning. Christianity however, states it how it is, you sin and there's only way out of it. And while painkillers may do for awhile, they won't suffice b/c they have no curing abilities and thus can't help you on judgement day.

[AttentionKMartShoppers]

If you have enough time on your hands, you can put bullet holes in every other religion. Mormonism-a man became God...so, who created everything before God was born? Dead

Islam-Christianity hijacked and tinkered with heavily...and somewhere on here Austin tore through it with all these problems with it.

TONS of religions with limited gods, who only dwell in certain areas (recall King Arthur, where one guy says to the Christian, "your God does not dwell here." A finite god is not a god.

The argument against Christianity could actually be used for it-if it's right, you'd expect pervisions of the basic ideas in other religions. I'm babbling now, wahoo.

[hamilrob]

All religion is irrational and manufactured by the human mind. There is no "correct religion". The only correct religion is NO religion. "Belief" implies doubt. Faith is the only way to overrule reason. Jesus is never coming back, nor did he rise bodily from the grave. The bible is clearly inconsistent and capable of error.

Mohammed might been a great leader, but I reject the possibility that he was visited by God or Gabriel. His "Q'uran" was written either by himself or by a group of people intent upon changing the socio-religious fabric of Persian-Arabian society, having been excluded by and large from the Judeo-Christian tradtion.

All religion seeks to control and oppress freedom of thought. It is spread through persuasion, fear tactics, guilt manipulation, and in extreme cases, torture and murder. There as many "Gods" as there are people who believe in God. Everyone seeks a God tailored to his own social-psychological needs.

Religion is the product of the earliest experiences of human consciousness and has progressed through several stages and dimensions as humans have continued to evolve and grow in literacy and scientific understanding of the world and the universe.

Religion will continue to plague humanity for years to come, but enlightenment will continue to illuminate truth and liberate the human mind from the tyranny of religion. It will be a great day when all religion ceases to exist and humans can finally take control of their lives and manage their destinies.

[Dan]

All religion is irrational and manufactured by the human mind. There is no "correct religion". The only correct religion is NO religion. "Belief" implies doubt. Faith is the only way to overrule reason. Jesus is never coming back, nor did he rise bodily from the grave. The bible is clearly inconsistent and capable of error.

Mohammed might been a great leader, but I reject the possibility that he was visited by God or Gabriel. His "Q'uran" was written either by himself or by a group of people intent upon changing the socio-religious fabric of Persian-Arabian society, having been excluded by and large from the Judeo-Christian tradtion.

All religion seeks to control and oppress freedom of thought. It is spread through persuasion, fear tactics, guilt manipulation, and in extreme cases, torture and murder. There as many "Gods" as there are people who believe in God. Everyone seeks a God tailored to his own social-psychological needs.

Religion is the product of the earliest experiences of human consciousness and has progressed through several stages and dimensions as humans have continued to evolve and grow in literacy and scientific understanding of the world and the universe.

Religion will continue to plague humanity for years to come, but enlightenment will continue to illuminate truth and liberate the human mind from the tyranny of religion. It will be a great day when all religion ceases to exist and humans can finally take control of their lives and manage their destinies.

No.

[jerickson314]

All religion is irrational and manufactured by the human mind.

This is simply not the case. There is plenty of rational evidence for Christianity.

There is no "correct religion". The only correct religion is NO religion.

Mere assertion.

"Belief" implies doubt.

You have "belief" in your own brain as we discussed elsewhere, don't you? The term "belief" simply does not imply doubt.

Faith is the only way to overrule reason.

You like that straw man, don't you?

Jesus is never coming back, nor did he rise bodily from the grave.

Mere assertions.

The bible is clearly inconsistent and capable of error.

Prove it. And I don't mean that page on ggod.info I told you to Google on. Half of that has been refuted over and over, and the other half is too obviously stupid to need refuting (although it probably has been refuted by some).

Mohammed might been a great leader, but I reject the possibility that he was visited by God or Gabriel. His "Q'uran" was written either by himself or by a group of people intent upon changing the socio-religious fabric of Persian-Arabian society, having been excluded by and large from the Judeo-Christian tradtion.

I would agree with you here. All religions besides Christianity are simply false and irrational, because they contradict Christianity and the evidence.

All religion seeks to control and oppress freedom of thought.

True Christianity actually doesn't. Some of us are strong enough in our reasoned faith to realize that good thinking is always consistent with truth, including the truth of Christianity.

It is spread through persuasion, fear tactics, guilt manipulation, and in extreme cases, torture and murder.

Appeal to emotion, genetic fallacy, hasty generalization, need I go on?

There as many "Gods" as there are people who believe in God.

If you use that logic, you may as well say that there are as many Alex Trebeks as there are people who watch Jeopardy. After all, even the same physical person can be perceived differently by different people.

Christians believe that all true Christians worship the same God, even though each and every Christian certainly has a few false beliefs regarding the details.

Everyone seeks a God tailored to his own social-psychological needs.

< sarcasm >Of course. That's why we believe in a God who says, "he who keeps his life for himself shall lose it", "take up your cross and follow me", and "you cannot serve both God and money."< / sarcasm >

I had to "mark up" my sarcasm this time, since you didn't catch it with the Google reference on the other post.

And I will say that if I believed what I wanted to believe, to believe in a God tailored to my own "needs", I would not believe in Christianity. I would believe in "universalism", the belief that everyone will go to heaven eventually no matter what. I don't like the idea of people being sent to hell. I believe in Christianity because that is where the evidence lies. I would rather believe in truth than comfortable lies.

Religion is the product of the earliest experiences of human consciousness and has progressed through several stages and dimensions as humans have continued to evolve and grow in literacy and scientific understanding of the world and the universe.

More of your unsupported assertions.

Religion will continue to plague humanity for years to come, but enlightenment will continue to illuminate truth and liberate the human mind from the tyranny of religion. It will be a great day when all religion ceases to exist and humans can finally take control of their lives and manage their destinies.

Pure philosophy, philosophy that assumes the unproven falsehood of religion. If religion is true, then it is good and the lack of religion is the tyranny.

[Felgar]

All religion is irrational and manufactured by the human mind. There is no "correct religion". The only correct religion is NO religion. "Belief" implies doubt. Faith is the only way to overrule reason. Jesus is never coming back, nor did he rise bodily from the grave. The bible is clearly inconsistent and capable of error.

Mohammed might been a great leader, but I reject the possibility that he was visited by God or Gabriel. His "Q'uran" was written either by himself or by a group of people intent upon changing the socio-religious fabric of Persian-Arabian society, having been excluded by and large from the Judeo-Christian tradtion.

All religion seeks to control and oppress freedom of thought. It is spread through persuasion, fear tactics, guilt manipulation, and in extreme cases, torture and murder. There as many "Gods" as there are people who believe in God. Everyone seeks a God tailored to his own social-psychological needs.

Religion is the product of the earliest experiences of human consciousness and has progressed through several stages and dimensions as humans have continued to evolve and grow in literacy and scientific understanding of the world and the universe.

Religion will continue to plague humanity for years to come, but enlightenment will continue to illuminate truth and liberate the human mind from the tyranny of religion. It will be a great day when all religion ceases to exist and humans can finally take control of their lives and manage their destinies.

Hamilrob... I have put up with your attacks on Christianity in some other discussions, but this is starting to get overboard. In this case someone asked why we believe that Christianity is true, and you interject that Christianity si not true. That is not only off-topic, but also provides absolutely no value to the discussion. Please understand that the purpose of the board (as you may have already seen) is not for Christians to debate with non-Christians. Some of that happens yes, but primarily the board serves a place for fellow Christians to discuss their faith, and as a place for anyone wanting to understand Christianity better to ask questions. Check out the Board Purpose link just below the banner at the top of the page and ask yourself if you might not be happier at a Christian vs. atheist debate board.

There are a number of other atheists on this board and we do have good discussions with them (Darwin Rocks, Alien, for instance) but understand that unfounded statements like "All religion is irrational and manufactured by the human mind" are nothing more than attacks on Christianity and that's not what the board is for... Esspecially when 10 of those statements have been thrown together in a single post.