How did you come to realize that there is no true religion?

[Pedro de San Patricio]

Pretty self explanatory heading. How did you come to discover this, what affect did the discovery have on you, and do you ever find yourself wishing there were one anyway? If you do, then which would you prefer were true?

 

[Dogmaphobe]

I don't recall any sudden realization, as I was always pretty much predisposed towards rationality instead of superstition. The fact that others believed in something really never affected whether I believed in it. If I were to put an age on my "realization" that here was no one true religion, I would say less than 10.

That being said, I do not reject all religious tenets, nor do I view all religion as necessarily harmful. We could do a lot worse than following Jesus' actual teachings, I do believe. Similarly, if a billion and a half people in the world would stop following the instructions of a murderous warlord, we could do a lot better.

It is the notion that we are required to view religion with an automatic sense of respect that mystifies me. Religion is simply a subset of ideology in general, and we are free to critique any other ideology, but as soon as it is called "religion" it's kid gloves time. Not all religions are the same, yet we treat them as if they should all be respected to an equal degree. there are harmful as well as beneficial tenets in all, yet we treat them as if we have to choose all or nothing.

My belief is that there is no "true" religion and the true believer syndrome provides the fuel for untold human misery. Instead, I believe that if you were to somehow make a ven diagram out of all religions and place them atop one another, the good stuff would be found at those areas of intersection.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Pretty self explanatory heading. How did you come to discover this, what affect did the discovery have on you, and do you ever find yourself wishing there were one anyway? If you do, then which would you prefer were true?

When I was young (very very young hehe) I thought everybody but my family was Christian. All my friends were Christians, and though we were Jewish, it didn't really occur to me it was significantly different. I thought everybody in the world was Christian in fact since to me at the time it was the truth. "Of course everybody'd be Christian because it's true."

As I got older (and wiser) I realized there were in fact quite a few "absolutely true religions." But didn't take me very long to realize if a given reliigon is absolutely, irrefutably true, than logicly all the other have to wrong. But then, why would any of them be true? Wouldn't the first ever religion be the true one, and everything thereafter be false? That seemed logical. Why would a real god not reveal it's will and reliigon until after false claims of godly contact had been made causing other religions to pop up?

Since we haven't the foggiest idea what the first religion was, the logical conclusion is nothing extant is the true religion of any god. Indeed, we know lots about everyone who began the religions still practiced today and none of them are named 'Mr. God.'

As I'd now point out of course, it could be there really is in fact a being we'd call a god, but that none of our earthly religions are about it. Big universe afterall, pleanty of room for lots and lots of 'gods.'

 

[Luddly Neddite]

I don't recall any sudden realization, as I was always pretty much predisposed towards rationality instead of superstition. The fact that others believed in something really never affected whether I believed in it. If I were to put an age on my "realization" that here was no one true religion, I would say less than 10.

That being said, I do not reject all religious tenets, nor do I view all religion as necessarily harmful. We could do a lot worse than following Jesus' actual teachings, I do believe. Similarly, if a billion and a half people in the world would stop following the instructions of a murderous warlord, we could do a lot better.

It is the notion that we are required to view religion with an automatic sense of respect that mystifies me. Religion is simply a subset of ideology in general, and we are free to critique any other ideology, but as soon as it is called "religion" it's kid gloves time. Not all religions are the same, yet we treat them as if they should all be respected to an equal degree. there are harmful as well as beneficial tenets in all, yet we treat them as if we have to choose all or nothing.

My belief is that there is no "true" religion and the true believer syndrome provides the fuel for untold human misery. Instead, I believe that if you were to somehow make a ven diagram out of all religions and place them atop one another, the good stuff would be found at those areas of intersection.

Dogmaphobe

I agree with your post ^^

I've said it before, that I believe religions were formed and still exist to rationalize utterly insane belief in invisible and magical super beings who fly around the sky, live on clouds, play harps and look down at the little ants on earth who are behaving well in order to join them when they die. Even more amazing is that the ants willingly give those religions their hard-earned cash to insure they get to spend eternity sitting on a cloud.

Religion is not necessary to the belief in a super being but why would I want to worship a "god" who, in a temper fit, drowned every baby in the world?

I do believe that every person has the right to believe whatever they want or need to believe. That includes atheists as well as all religions/gods. Just keep it out of my face, off my front porch, out of our schools and no where near our government.

 

[September]

I discovered there was no single true religion when I came to realize the value and beauty of all religions. I at last understood that there is truth and Power in every religion. I came to appreciate the power of the Sun as well as the Moon, and found the means to embrace the Sun at Night and the Moon by Day...
​

 

[Dajjal]

I think most religions have a thread of truth running through them, and I try to pick out those truths and throw the rest away.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

I think most religions have a thread of truth running through them, and I try to pick out those truths and throw the rest away.

"There are few reasons for telling the truth, but for lying the number is infinite." - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind)

Humanism is true and good and beneficial to those who practice 'being good is good' philosophies absent supernatural gibberish. Of these there are very few.

Tens of thousands of "absolutely positively irrefutably true" religions though.

 

[BluePhantom]

Hmmmm....interesting question. For me I am not sure there was ever a light bulb moment where I said "whoa! There is no one true religion! How about that!" But I can briefly describe my timeline of religious seeking. I was raised as an Episcopal but attended Catholic school. In sixth grade (at about 10 - I skipped a couple grades) I rejected Catholicism because it demanded too much blind faith and rejected Anglicanism because it seemed too formal and structured with little room for personal spiritual development. Messed around with other denominations and found similar issues. Read the Book of Mormon - tossed it over my shoulder after a lengthy and hearty laugh. Attended some Evangelical churches until I concluded that the favorite topic of conversation at an Evangelical church is the other members of the church that didn't show up that day and how they were not true Christians like the ones who did show up.

College was an exploration of languages, cultures, and history as I had determined that modern Christianity was misinterpreting things and I wanted to read the Bible in the original languages and be able to put it into the proper historical and cultural contexts. During this time I also explored Hindu, Buddhism / Taoism. Found I loved Taoism and some limited aspects of Hindu. It was probably there that I determined that no religion was 100% correct or 100% incorrect.

It affected me in a very positive way (at least for me). It gave me the freedom to believe what I truly believed through study, meditation, and allowing God to reveal Himself to me through faith. I no longer had to play the game of pretending to believe something or trying to force myself to believe something just so I could fit within a specific definition. I simply allowed myself to remain undefined and embrace the model that God and I developed together. Let me tell you...you take a lot of pressure off yourself that way and it gives you the freedom to allow your faith to grow because it is not restrained by anything rigid (thank you Taoism).

Do I ever wish there was one true way? Well I guess it depends on how you look at it. I think everyone has their one true way. The trick is finding it. What has worked very well for me may not work at all for other people. Some people really need that rigid structure for a variety of reasons. But as I think you intend the question: in my opinion life would be a heck of a lot easier if there was one true way but it would lack individual growth, individual opportunity, and it would come at the cost of developing a personal relationship with God. So no.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

I think most religions have a thread of truth running through them, and I try to pick out those truths and throw the rest away.

"There are few reasons for telling the truth, but for lying the number is infinite." - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind)

Humanism is true and good and beneficial to those who practice 'being good is good' philosophies absent supernatural gibberish. Of these there are very few.

Tens of thousands of "absolutely positively irrefutably true" religions though.

And every single one of them believes theirs is the one true god.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

I think most religions have a thread of truth running through them, and I try to pick out those truths and throw the rest away.

"There are few reasons for telling the truth, but for lying the number is infinite." - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind)

Humanism is true and good and beneficial to those who practice 'being good is good' philosophies absent supernatural gibberish. Of these there are very few.

Tens of thousands of "absolutely positively irrefutably true" religions though.

And every single one of them believes theirs is the one true god.

If all religions are false but your own, and everybody in the other religions says that as well isn't it kinda like the "we always assume bad things only happen to other people. Unfortunately, we're all 'other people' to other people."

 

[koshergrl]

The OP is ridiculous, the thread title doesn't even make sense. What does *true religion* even mean? Is the OP trying to make the statement that there is no God, or that there is no religion? Because if that's the assertion he's made, he's nuts. There are quite a few *true* religion in the sense that they exist and have been operating apace for millennia.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

The OP is ridiculous, the thread title doesn't even make sense. What does *true religion* even mean? Is the OP trying to make the statement that there is no God, or that there is no religion? Because if that's the assertion he's made, he's nuts. There are quite a few *true* religion in the sense that they exist and have been operating apace for millennia.

Rest of us understood it just fine.

 

[BluePhantom]

I think most religions have a thread of truth running through them, and I try to pick out those truths and throw the rest away.

"There are few reasons for telling the truth, but for lying the number is infinite." - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind)

Humanism is true and good and beneficial to those who practice 'being good is good' philosophies absent supernatural gibberish. Of these there are very few.

Tens of thousands of "absolutely positively irrefutably true" religions though.

And every single one of them believes theirs is the one true god.

If all religions are false but your own, and everybody in the other religions says that as well isn't it kinda like the "we always assume bad things only happen to other people. Unfortunately, we're all 'other people' to other people."

Oh I would disagree. The so-called wisdom literature in the Old Testament can sometimes go to great lengths to attempt to explain why bad shit happens to good people. That is the central question in the book of Job, for example. There are some texts from as far back as ancient Sumer and Babylon that tackle the question. I would say that it's actually the opposite. I would say that a central question is not the assumption that bad things happen to other people, it is 'hey we are good people. Why does bad shit continue to happen to us?'

 

[Delta4Embassy]

I think most religions have a thread of truth running through them, and I try to pick out those truths and throw the rest away.

"There are few reasons for telling the truth, but for lying the number is infinite." - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind)

Humanism is true and good and beneficial to those who practice 'being good is good' philosophies absent supernatural gibberish. Of these there are very few.

Tens of thousands of "absolutely positively irrefutably true" religions though.

And every single one of them believes theirs is the one true god.

If all religions are false but your own, and everybody in the other religions says that as well isn't it kinda like the "we always assume bad things only happen to other people. Unfortunately, we're all 'other people' to other people."

Oh I would disagree. The so-called wisdom literature in the Old Testament can sometimes go to great lengths to attempt to explain why bad shit happens to good people. That is the central question in the book of Job, for example. There are some texts from as far back as ancient Sumer and Babylon that tackle the question. I would say that it's actually the opposite. I would say that a central question is not the assumption that bad things happen to other people, it is 'hey we are good people. Why does bad shit continue to happen to us?'

PBS presents God on Trial in Auschwitz Television Jewish Journal

"The prosecutor reads the charges against God: murder, collaboration with the enemy, breach of contract with His chosen people.

Setting: A barrack in Auschwitz, with some 20 Jewish prisoners, half of whom will be gassed in the morning.

Time: evening, sometime during the Holocaust.

So opens "God on Trial," an intellectual and emotional masterpiece, airing on PBS stations on Sunday evening, Nov. 9, the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

A half-Jew, once a respected judge in Germany, presides over the trial. A young prisoner is the prosecutor, while his father speaks for the defense. A rabbi, who has committed the entire Torah to memory, cites chapter and verse. Other inmates break in occasionally, drawing on their own experiences to accuse or defend the Almighty.

In his opening statement, the prosecutor recites the history of Jewish persecution, from Babylon to the Romans to Czarist Russia, to show that God has habitually broken his covenant with the children of Israel.

No, counters the defense, it is the Jews who are the contract breakers, because they forgot the Torah. "

good reading

 

[TheOldSchool]

All of you are crazy. Of course there's only one true religion!!! And you all better watch your mouths about this lest the mighty Zeus strike you down!

 

[Luddly Neddite]

All of you are crazy. Of course there's only one true religion!!! And you all better watch your mouths about this lest the mighty Zeus strike you down!

Or you're hit by a gargoyle falling off Notre Dame cathedral.

 

[BluePhantom]

In his opening statement, the prosecutor recites the history of Jewish persecution, from Babylon to the Romans to Czarist Russia, to show that God has habitually broken his covenant with the children of Israel.

No, counters the defense, it is the Jews who are the contract breakers, because they forgot the Torah. "

Well that's always been the problem ever since the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests, huh? 'Who is not keeping up their end of the bargain between God and the Jews?' There is some very rich history on how the Jews answered that question over time according to what was happening at various points throughout history. I think one of the most fascinating is how the tone of Isaiah changes from the first author (prior to the Babylonian conquest), to the second author (during the exile), and the third author (after their return). The covenant was seriously in question after their return from exile. If not for the Aaronites (arguably) doing what they did, the entire religion could have ended right there.