What religion is right?

6/1 - How can anyone know the answer to that question? Is it the one we are born into? How about the one your parents told you to believe? Or the one that you "found" for yourself. Christians believe questioning is wrong, and that we are just supposed to have faith. But, if religion is so very important, how can we have faith in something that most of us really have no kind of knowledge about in the first place? I hope God (if there is one) is kind enough to forgive people who are born into the wrong religion. Most strict religions don't believe that to be true though, and basically, 3/4 of the world is going to lose. But also, accepting the fact that no one can know which religion is right sends out too bad things:

1. Some people will use this as an excuse to forget about religion all together.

2. Studying all the religions and really trying to find a true answer is hard work, especially when you go in knowing that you won't ever find that answer. This is tough and many can get lost on this path.

So what can anyone do? Do we allow ourselves to accept number 1?

There is so much text on this page that I thought I'd put a pic on here:


Cristo in Cochabamba, Bolivia

Let's look at religion from a practical point of view, since it is basically all a guessing game:

Religion makes a person happier, and creates an altruistic environment (except in cases of holy war, but I'm trying to promote religion here). People who are religious are more likely to recover from serious illness than non-religious people (someday I might research that stat).

Here's a situation to consider:

Person 1 believes in some religion. Person 2 doesn't believe in religion.

If there is no religion, then they both lose.
If there is religion, then Person 1 wins and Person 2 still loses.

So basically, you will be more content and you will have better odds for the afterlife if you have religion. But, in this state of mind, how can a person pray, and be sincere day after day with any religion? It almost seems that the only way to really be religious is to have blind faith. But, blind faith is scary. Maybe it's just as simple as this:

Here are some other ideas about which religion is right:

Keeke - Any and all that stand for good morals.

I have thought a lot about this point of view before. Maybe it is just that simple. Maybe God is forgiving enough to reward you as long as you believe in something good. But, less open-minded Christians would say that the only way to heaven is to accept Jesus as your saviour.

fadingdust - when you break it down, there are some basic questions that need to be answered if you are going to look at different religions:

1-Who started this religion?
2-Does some deity exist? What role does he play?
3-Is man responsible to that God? What (if anything) hinders man's relationship to God?
4-What makes this relationship what it ought to be?
5-What does it mean to me? What do I have to do?

As a Christian, I believe that I have the right to answer these effectively for my religion. So go ahead and look at the religions. I think I already know what you'll find. Why? because I believe that Christianity has the one true answer that is different than all other 'religions'.

I have to admit that I myself have not really looked into a lot of other religions besides Christianity. But, these are some good questions to ask when looking at religions and studying them. I would love to hear from someone who has studied many different religions and have come to some conclusion.

Also, you may be curious as to how I can justify what is said here. Good religions rely on sincerity and selflessness, and I am embracing a bit of both opposites here. As far as the sincerity, I could use some help with thinking through that one. But, as far as selfishness, I got it covered. Read about it in Selfishness vs. Selflessness