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What Do All Religions Have In Common?

Morse

To Extinguish
I don't think I ever implied that Atheist should be snobby A-holes. I do understand why both sides of the coin get vehemently disenchanted with the other side.

All that I have asserted is that it is not a crime to ask someone to defend their beliefs. For example, you have a set of beliefs that are for arguments sake unique to you. Now if I as a casual observer wish to better understand how you arrived at the conclusions you came to, I am goign to have to ask you some questions. These questions may be deemed hard to answer by you and thus may take a lot more time than you had planned to think before you give an answer. Answers you may give could possibly open doors to the conversation that were not at first available to open leading us to frontiers that you had not pondered yourself. This could, but might not, make you feel uncomfortable. The reason you could be uncomfortable is because I would be questioning the very essence of YOUR beliefs. This has a tendency in many cases to absolutely **** people off. Again....all I have done is ask you questions. All you ever had to do was answer the questions. IF was never an attack though it might have felt like an interrogation!

I never said you said they should be Bible burners, I was asking why they were. And I agree with the second paragraph, but it is not what I am referring to.
I am referring to threads like this.

"Faith doesn't need Proof"


"Ask an Atheist, Get a Snide, Sarcastic Reponse"
"What Do All Religions Have In Common" (Read some of the Replies. :thud:)
"100% Scientific Proof God Doesn't Exist"

"New Religious Rap Group - G.O.D."

"No Facts = No God"

Or similarly
"Question for the Atheist"

Among several others.
 

Colabomb

Member
Belief in something greater than ourselves. Even naturalistic Religious recognize that we are but a small part of a much greater universe.
 

Rogue Cardinal

Devil's Advocate
I never said you said they should be Bible burners, I was asking why they were. And I agree with the second paragraph, but it is not what I am referring to.
I am referring to threads like this.

"Faith doesn't need Proof"


"Ask an Atheist, Get a Snide, Sarcastic Reponse"
"What Do All Religions Have In Common" (Read some of the Replies. :thud:)
"100% Scientific Proof God Doesn't Exist"

"New Religious Rap Group - G.O.D."

"No Facts = No God"

Or similarly
"Question for the Atheist"

Among several others.
My simple canned answer for that......I believe people to be too feeble minded and straight laced to 1) be able to laugh at each other 2) be able to laugh with each other. As teh Joker so eloquently points out...."Why so serious?"
 

Morse

To Extinguish
My simple canned answer for that......I believe people to be too feeble minded and straight laced to 1) be able to laugh at each other 2) be able to laugh with each other. As teh Joker so eloquently points out...."Why so serious?"

My answer for that, notice that I posted comments in each one that were in the spirit of the thread? Individually, I agree these are funny and I participated without hesitation. But as a pattern, not so much. There is a certain point where people need to drop the ridicule and put their serious masks on.

And furthermore, these were in the debate and comparative religion forums, not the correct places for either.
 

Rogue Cardinal

Devil's Advocate
My answer for that, notice that I posted comments in each one that were in the spirit of the thread? Individually, I agree these are funny and I participated without hesitation. But as a pattern, not so much. There is a certain point where people need to drop the ridicule and put their serious masks on.

And furthermore, these were in the debate and comparative religion forums, not the correct places for either.
I have it on good authority (creator of one of those threads) that the sole purpose of the creation of the thread was to lighten the mood. Which I think over all was a huge success especially as the thread makes him make fun of his own personal beliefs. How can that be snarky when an individual is the one poking fun at themselves?
 

Morse

To Extinguish
I have it on good authority (creator of one of those threads) that the sole purpose of the creation of the thread was to lighten the mood. Which I think over all was a huge success especially as the thread makes him make fun of his own personal beliefs. How can that be snarky when an individual is the one poking fun at themselves?

I'm not saying that every one is snarky and aggressive. I said the pattern was beginning to become snarky and aggressive. The mean of 1 + 20 + 19 + 28 + 32 is still 20, (the 1 being a light hearted or non-snarky thread, the others having a greater magnitude of snarkiness). It affects the pattern moderately even as the pattern emerges, but as the pattern continues to grow (Assuming it won't be inhibited by other factors) the light hearted threads will have less of an impact.

In any case, I'm growing tired of this particular subject as speculation on an emerging trend like this has already been made and I don't see any benefit in pursuing this topic any further.
 

rojse

RF Addict
Yes i read the tittle , you want to know what all religions have in common.

and by posting this ayat (verse) i want to point out that all religion says that there is only and only one GOD , and we all have to follow the commandments of him

There are many polytheistic religions, and religions without god at all.
 

linwood

Well-Known Member
As the title of the thread states, what do all religions have in common? What aspects of a religion make it a religion?

The only thing I can think of would be ritual.

All religions seem to have consistent repetitive rituals.
 

Metalic Wings

Active Member
I don't know if there is a God or not.....but given the evidence I have.....I can say I'm 99.99% sure there isn't one. That leaves the gate open a tiny bit for some evidence to pop up. With out going off the reservation the evidence is highly in my favor for there not to be one....so statistically speaking....God is almost a moot point.

Wow... and I thought this was under the COMPARATIVE Topics...

So much for that idea.

Anyway, you say "evidence in my favor" as if your evidence is any more compelling to a religous person than their "faith" is compelling evidence to you. From the way I understand it, God has never been about statistics, so God being a statistically moot point is in itself a moot point. I say "if being illogical makes people happy, why not let them just be happy?" I mean, it's not like you're going to change their mind anyway. If they want to believe something else, it will be them to decide, not your evidence.
 

Rogue Cardinal

Devil's Advocate
Wow... and I thought this was under the COMPARATIVE Topics...

So much for that idea.

Anyway, you say "evidence in my favor" as if your evidence is any more compelling to a religous person than their "faith" is compelling evidence to you. From the way I understand it, God has never been about statistics, so God being a statistically moot point is in itself a moot point. I say "if being illogical makes people happy, why not let them just be happy?" I mean, it's not like you're going to change their mind anyway. If they want to believe something else, it will be them to decide, not your evidence.
Smoking cigarettes isn't about statistics but we use them to talk about it all the time.

Who said I'm trying to compel a religious person? Insert words much? I was asked about MY beliefs and thus MY beliefs popped up. But in any argument, if we go with the cold hard facts and leave emotion out of it....lack of evidence leading to disbelief trumps faith and belief.

I agree....if being illogical makes you happy....go be illogical. Just don't knock on my door with the insanity and I won't knock on yours.:eek:
 

rojse

RF Addict
I don't know if there is a God or not.....but given the evidence I have.....I can say I'm 99.99% sure there isn't one. That leaves the gate open a tiny bit for some evidence to pop up. With out going off the reservation the evidence is highly in my favor for there not to be one....so statistically speaking....God is almost a moot point.

Regardless of whether this is true or not, it is irrelevant to this thread.
 

Arkholt

Non-vessel
The only thing I can think of would be ritual.

All religions seem to have consistent repetitive rituals.

I was having a discussion with my sculpture professor about ritual. He began by talking about ritual in art, and ended up talking about ritual in religion. It's definitely a big part.

Another thing is some type of dogma or philosophy on good and proper living, and possibly a written text laying it all out. This doesn't seem to have been the case in all periods, as many religions had an oral tradition, but most religions these days have some kind of book or "set of instructions" for the religion.
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
"what do all religions have in common"?

they all attract all kinds of people.
 

Humanistheart

Well-Known Member
As the title of the thread states, what do all religions have in common? What aspects of a religion make it a religion?

We spent three days on this topic in a psychology of religion class I took years ago. There seems to be quite a variance in opinion on this topic.

I would say that it's a religion if there are a notable amount of followers who attend regular services for said religion, or meet with other members/followers from time to time to discuss it. The religion must address an afterlife, even if the only belief towards it is, We don't know untill we're dead, or even there is no after life. It must offer some guidlines or guidance for living one's life. Also, it must not be demonstratably false. (For example if the mexican jesus, I can never remmember his name, was recorded behind closed doors admitting he's not really the 2nd comming of jesus, and was doing it for the money, I'd call it a debunked religion). I'm sure there are plenty of flaws with this definition, but that's how I'd begin to define it.

As for what they have in common, I'd be willing to say they were all born of the imaginations and cultures of people. Short of that, it's quite varied.
 
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Buttons*

Glass half Panda'd
As the title of the thread states, what do all religions have in common? What aspects of a religion make it a religion?
good question... not even the Religious Studies department has an all encompassing definition yet ;)
 

rojse

RF Addict
It should be worshiping of One God, find out urself which religion practicaly do that

Please note that this thread is not "What do all groups that Syberpriend considers religions have in common" but "What Do All Religions Have In Common".

Please note that the two are quite different, and this does exclude monotheism, and, indeed, theism.
 
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