The one true religion

[Katzpur]

If he is all powerful why doesn't he stop suffering? If he is all knowing why did he let things become so messed up? If he is in all places at once, how is he also not within us and my gods?

I'm not even going there. First of all, it really has nothing to do with the topic of the OP. The even bigger reason is that I have lost track of the number of times I've had that debate. It goes nowhere but in circles.

My gods never claimed to be omnipotent or omniscient, so they have some excuse for not just being able to magically fix everything.

I'm curious as to what makes them gods in the first place. What distinguishes them from us?

Even if they could, they wouldn't. They'd want humans to put forth the effort. They see us as their children, but like any good parent, they don't just coddle their children.

Well, that's pretty much the way I see God. Your gods wouldn't just magically fix everything; neither would mine.

Also, they never demand worship. They let people come to them. Why does the Christian god demand things like worship, etc.?

I believe that He has the right to expect us to give Him the respect He deserves. If He gave me life, can take it away at any time He wishes and then give it back to me forever, I think He is justified in expecting me to acknowledge that.

 

[Godwilling]

Saying that there is "one true religion" is not necessarily the same as "denouncing all others as false." While it might appear that way on the surface, I think the reality is a little more complicated. Also, I believe your question assumes the existance of "absolute truth," so I will answer it as if the existance of "absolute truth" was a given.

Let's say a teacher gave a multiple choice test containing 100 questions. This test was administered to 200 students. Of the 200 students, only one answered all of the questions correctly. There were a handful of students who got fewer than 10% of the questions right and say 50 or so who scored somewhere between 90% and 99% correct. While only one student got a perfect score, that doesn't mean that the other 199 failed it. With respect to religion, I'm not saying there is or isn't any one religion that is 100% "true," but even if there was, that would not imply that all of the others were 100% false. They might be 90% true, 95% true, or 99% true. On the other hand, it would be mathematically impossible for there to be more than one that was 100% true because no two religions are teaching 100% identical doctrines. Of course, it is also possible that no existing religion is 100% true.

Then, if a person follows a religion that claims to be the one true religion that follows god's will, and that religion is only 90% correct, does that person get salvation or damnation. How about 95%, 50%, etc?

 

[Godwilling]

"Or is there a one true religion, and which is it?"
A church, a temple or a kaba stone,
Quran or Bible or a martyr's bone,
All these and more my heart can tolerate,
Since my religion now is love alone.-(Abul Ala)

I think this is the true religion.

Love alone may be lonelier than love in the company of others. Are you referring to the love of one self, otherwise known as self-esteem?

 

[Godwilling]

The Buddha taught that one should not demean or denounce another religion other than Buddhism simply because it's not Buddhism. I, for one, believe that all religions are valid, and will ultimately lead to transcendence. I think a good majority of Buddhists feel this way as well, but I'm not entirely sure on that. All religions are valid, and have value. All lead to transcendence. Each individual religion is simply a different interpretation of the transcendental, ultimate truth, which is inevitably incomprehensible to the human mind, so we do the best we can. Each religion is therefore a part of this ultimate truth, a different viewpoint on that truth. That's what I believe.

You appear tolerant and that is commendable. On the other hand you explain what the human mind cannot understand. Are you not human, and therefore know what us humans cannot understand?

 

[Godwilling]

I don't think that any 'religion' is true. Religions are social institutions that are constantly changing.

However, is there a true belief? An actual divinely inspired scripture?
I think you can find truth in all religions. Some more than others. I personally think that Hinduism holds the greatest volume of wisdom, also the deepest. All other religions hold but a tiny portion of that wisdom.

...And let me guess. You are Hindu.

 

[Godwilling]

Hey that's not true. Sure I think my religions are true for me, but other ones are true for other people. They're all "true".

I think you make a great point in terms of people's believes, but what about religions, since most teach that those who do not follow their specific prescribed believes will be destroyed in some horrible way?

 

[Godwilling]

Simply false!!


Arise and, armed with the power of faith, shatter to pieces the gods of your vain imaginings
—(The Proclamation of Baha'u'llah, p. 114;
also Gleanings, CXI, pp. 217-8)

So the vast majority are legitimate and of God!

Q. E. D..

Bruce

Please let me know who will decide the gods that should be shattered to pieces. Should it be decided by Wahabis, Davidian Mormons, the Opus Dei, or Jehova's Witnesses, or would it be better decided by Bahais?

 

[Katzpur]

Then, if a person follows a religion that claims to be the one true religion that follows god's will, and that religion is only 90% correct, does that person get salvation or damnation. How about 95%, 50%, etc?

Yeah, right. My God doesn't damn people for getting the answers wrong. He happens to love us.

 

[Katzpur]

Please let me know who will decide the gods that should be shattered to pieces. Should it be decided by Wahabis, Davidian Mormons, the Opus Dei, or Jehova's Witnesses, or would it be better decided by Bahais?

What the hell is a Davidian Mormon?

 

[Levite]

Even the most staunch believers have "one true religion" and denounce all other religions as false.
That amounts to everyone being atheist to all religions but their own. If we ask people their opinion on all religions and calculate a mean (in colloquial terms people call the mean, "average"), our calculations would reveal that the majority would find all religions as false.

Are there people that believe in all religions, or most religions, or are all religions, or most, mutually exclusive? Or is there a one true religion, and which is it?

I am a fairly staunch Jew. And I don't consider all other religions as false. I just consider them to be for the religious and spiritual needs of non-Jews.

I think that God is Infinite, and has infinite aspects. I think that God speaks to different peoples in different voices, and demands different things of them. Judaism is the way of the Jews, and we are bound to our covenant with God, and may not follow others. But there's no reason to think that God can't or doesn't have other covenants with other peoples, and that other religions aren't perfectly viable and acceptable relationships between God and other peoples.

 

[ellenjanuary]

Carbon.

The one true religion. See how simple that was? Nothing to argue... nothing to debate... if you're not carbon; you're not.

Which is a clear illustration. "One" + "true" + "religion" = debate.

 

[Godwilling]

Indeed! Context is key.

When a religion strays from it's original 'spirit' and morphs into something entirely foreign to that of its founder's intent, then a person can no longer say it is a 'true' religion.

That is the question, is there any religion absolutely true to its origin, and is there any of those whose origens reflect God's wishes?

 

[Godwilling]

Oh, I definitely agree, and I don't believe that when we stand before God to be judged it's going to be like the multiple-choice test I described. I don't think God is going to exact some punishment on people who were sincere in what they believed but were simply wrong.

No, we're not, but I disagree that truth is relative. If God exists at all, He is what He is. We can't simply say that He is what we believe Him to be. The reality of who He is is independent of who we conceive Him to be.

Since no religion in the world has as much as 50% of world's believers, your hypothesis implies that the majority of people will be saved although wrong on their believes. It also implies that the people who did not follow their religion because they thought their religion was false will fare worse than those who were never exposed to the "true" religion.
How do you know that there is a difference between what God is and what humans conceive God to be?

 

[Katzpur]

Since no religion in the world has as much as 50% of world's believers, your hypothesis implies that the majority of people will be saved although wrong on their believes.

It's not a "hypothesis." It's a religious belief. But just to clarify:

1. I don't believe salvation to be contingent upon "getting all of the answers on the test right."
2. I don't believe that our mortal lives mark "The End" of our opportunities to learn, grow, and make decisions.
3. I believe that living life in accordance we what one sincerely believes to be right is very important to God.
4. I don't believe that salvation is a "one-size-fits-all" kind of thing.

It also implies that the people who did not follow their religion because they thought their religion was false will fare worse than those who were never exposed to the "true" religion.

I don't see how it implies that at all. I never said anything to that affect.

How do you know that there is a difference between what God is and what humans conceive God to be?

Well, we can't all be right, can we? If I believe He is one thing and someone else believes Him to be quite the opposite, either one of us is right or neither of us is right, but we both can't be.

While we're on the subject of what humans conceive, how do you know I'm anything at all like you think I am? You seem to have made a number of assumptions about me, based solely upon the fact that I am a theist, and possibly upon the fact that I am a Christian and a Mormon. You're probably wrong about most of them.

 

[BruceDLimber]

What the world needs is for someone to weave everything together in a way that is convincing to those who sincerely hear it out and can put it together for themselves.

Absent this understanding, trying to implement this concept in ignorance simply will create a new whore of the earth.

Not a problem: we're strong advocates both of knowledge and of individual investigation!

Bruce

 

[BruceDLimber]

Please let me know who will decide the gods that should be shattered to pieces.

There IS only one God!

And as the passage said, the others are mere imagination, so the "shattering" is metaphorical, not literal.

Peace,

Bruce

 

[Looncall]

There IS only one God!

And as the passage said, the others are mere imagination, so the "shattering" is metaphorical, not literal.

Peace,

Bruce

How do you know this is true? How do you know there is EVEN one god?

 

[SilverSoul]

My father was Jewish. A few years back, he "found Jesus" and became a Pentacostal Christian. He says he has a personal relationship with God and talks to him. It has really made him a better person- all the anger issues he had have disappeared, and though I know his beliefs aren't for me, I'm happy for him.

My girlfriend was raised Christian, but felt it wasn't right for her. She had a strong experience with spiritual possession, and now is following a Druidic kind of path. She has become more confident and assertive as a result.

These might both be psychotic delusions, or hallucinations, or contact with the one God (Judeo-Christian), or the Goddess, or a transcendent power that shares all names, or an alien telepath. But what CAN'T be denied is this: those experiences had a profound life-changing impact on those two people. Can I say that one is wrong while the other is right?

We can discuss and debate what might have happened in the mental or spiritual realms. What can NOT be argued is that these events created a positive change in the physical world! Whatever the belief, "Believing is being." It's the changes created in the world that make a thing true. If you have a spiritual experience and you act on it, what matters more: where it came from, or how you act on it?

I think what's true are the things we make real based on what we believe. If we act positively on a belief, we have made things better, and I can't fault that belief just because it doesn't inspire me the same way.

 

[BruceDLimber]

How do you know this is true? How do you know there is EVEN one god?

The scriptures I endeavor to follow are quite explicit about this!

I refer you to these sites for the details:

· www.bahai-library.org (click "Writings" for our scriptures),
· www.reference.bahai.org (this site is multilingual), and
· www.bahaistudy.org (this site also has videos and talking books).

Peace,

Bruce

 

[harbi]

hi
do you beleive that guestion has answer before 1432 years in "holy quran" and you can check if you looking for true