>That's what I'm so interested in is how so many christians, jews, >hindus and muslims can have so much faith that their religion is the >one.
It's a good question...I was raised Catholic but felt like I was just told what to believe and never really had any good *reason* to believe it. I found the religion devoid of any real teachings that meant anything for me, and repetition of prayers to have little purpose. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of other people had similar experiences growing up. >What qualities do these have that have made them stick. Why are >there not any believers in Odin or Zeus or the pantheon of other dead >religions. For Christianity at least, the primary reason it sticks is that it revolves around what we believe is a real person that really lived. The gospel accounts of his life and mention of him by secular historians of the time all jive close enough to make it a strong possibility that he did exist. Zeus is basically equivalent to the old Spagetti Monster.... we certainly have no basis to believe either ever actually existed. >How many of the dead religions had "heavens" or an >afterlife that was better than the real life. That I don't know but certainly not all of them did. >Also, another cool experiment would be if you could >somehow take fundamentalist christians back in time but raise them as >muslims and see if they're just as fundamentalist about it. Not sure that's even necessary, we know they would be muslims in all likelihood. Not sure what meaning that would have, it certainly doesn't say anything about the truth of one religion against another, simply a reflection of how most people move towards a specific religious belief. Of course a belief that all religions are just equal (or equally false) is likewise a reflection of *your* own upbringing and social environment, so in that respect no much better a position that any other. Interestingly enough this very topic was in a book I read fairly recently, The Reason for God by Tim Keller. It's a nice intro to the basic questions and tenets of Christianity, and the very first chapter I believe was this very common question of "There Can't Be Just One True Religion" and addresses how religious exclusivity is evil and leads to so much of the violence we see. He covers a lot of things that came up in this thread in fact, not very in depth and not sure I agree with all his arguments (some of the logic is far too circular for my taste) but it's a decent enough intro to Christian apologetics. >Like I've said before.....I don't rule out a higher intelligence >existing and guiding us, but I feel the chances that any of the >current religions have got it right are infinitesimally small. Certainly true. Heck, even if I were to argue that Christianity is "right", Christians can't agree with each other on the details of how to practice the religion. Even within my own particular sect there are still people that don't think women should be pastors (since the apostles were all men), argue all the time about what things a Sunday service should include, and there is certainly great disagreement on whether it is okay to be gay or not (heck they can't really even agree on whether it's a sin or not). At least these days it is so much easier to find churches and faiths that are more of the welcoming, open-minded type than the "fire-and-brimstone" type. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:306432 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
