• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Many different religious opinions

AlexanderG

Active Member
No, they can't. Many if not most religious opinions are logical contradictions with each other. And so are many if not most fictional stories. It's almost as if religion and imagination have a lot in common.

If you look at brain scans of people while they describe their own opinion, someone else's opinion, and their god's opinion, theirs and their god's opinions show identical patterns of activity, while their description of other people lights up a distinctly different set of neurons. It's almost as if god's voice and self-reflection have a lot in common.

If you look at the many different interpretations that people favor, which each person insists is the result of "proper interpretation" of whatever scripture they revere, it always seems to match their prior tastes and values, and their personality type. It's almost as if religion and subjective preference have a lot in common.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
Can they all be true?
No, but truth has never been a priority for the religious. Scientists collect data and think up experiments to get to the truth and (sometimes after decades) they find a consensus. Believers don't like their believes to be tested and pretend that the differing opinions don't exist.
 

Truthseeker

Non-debating member when I can help myself
Can they all be true?
I don't know what you mean by religious opinions. If you're talking about opinions by followers of religions, the answer is obvious.

On the level of religious founders, not all religious founders are legitimate Messengers of God. Some of those are lying about their claim, some are sincere and there is always some truth in the writings of those who are sincere, perhaps a lot of truth. Not someone who has a wide-ranging knowledge of the writings of various claiments, I can't say much else. There's only so much time in my life to look at all of that.

The answer is no in either case. What else can anyone conclude but no.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Y'know, very few religions actually set out to be "right". For the majority of us, it's not a race or contest. So the only question to ask is: Is it right for us? That is all that matters.
But wouldn't that render religion no different from a psychotherapeutic modality?
Isn't religion a claim of ontological truth?
 

Mock Turtle

Oh my, did I say that!
Premium Member
Can they all be true?
It is rather comical to even ask such a question, given that it seems to be almost impossible to have coherence within any one religious faith let alone the many that span the spectrum of such beliefs. But I'd like to see inside the mind of any who managed this feat. :oops:
 

TransmutingSoul

One Planet, One People, Please!
Premium Member
It is rather comical to even ask such a question, given that it seems to be almost impossible to have coherence within any one religious faith let alone the many that span the spectrum of such beliefs. But I'd like to see inside the mind of any who managed this feat. :oops:

It's called the Baha'i mind. :D;)

Regards Tony
 

Brian2

Veteran Member
Y'know, very few religions actually set out to be "right". For the majority of us, it's not a race or contest. So the only question to ask is: Is it right for us? That is all that matters.

Then you should not want to show that the religion of another person is wrong.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DNB

PureX

Veteran Member
Then you should not want to show that the religion of another person is wrong.
Very few religious people do that. They may believe their religion is right, because they believe it's right for them. But they don't go around trying to prove everyone else's religious beliefs are wrong.

It seems to be the atheists that are constantly trying to do that.
 

Mock Turtle

Oh my, did I say that!
Premium Member
Very few religious people do that. They may believe their religion is right, because they believe it's right for them. But they don't go around trying to prove everyone else's religious beliefs are wrong.

It seems to be the atheists that are constantly trying to do that.
But the religious also, for so many, do try to change the beliefs of others - as much as atheists might. :oops:
 

PureX

Veteran Member
But the religious also, for so many, do try to change the beliefs of others - as much as atheists might. :oops:
I see them constantly trying to justify their own beliefs. But everyone does that. Yet most religions are not evangelical, and even of those that are supposed to be, the adherents don't seem to be too keen on it.

A HUGE deal is made about a very small number of religious people, from a smaller faction of one major religion, that go around proselytizing their beliefs. While the billions of other theists and many other religions that do not, go completely ignored.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of atheists that are also strongly anti-religious are constantly denigrating and attacking all religion and all religious people. it's quite an ironic accusation for atheists to be complaining about evangelism.
 
Top