Hypothetical situation

[RRWick]

Let's say that you were raised without any religion at all, and now you're an adult and want to become religious. Let's also assume that (unlike ever happens in real life) you are equally exposed to all religions. Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, Protestantism, Mormonism, Judaism, Sunni Islam, Shi'a Islam, Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, Smartism, Theravada, East Asian Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Sikhism, Shinto and a bunch of other religions that I don't know the name of.

Faced with all of that in front of you, how would you go about deciding which religion was the truest, which religion you would follow?

[th1bill]

Let's say that you were raised without any religion at all, and now you're an adult and want to become religious. Let's also assume that (unlike ever happens in real life) you are equally exposed to all religions. Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, Protestantism, Mormonism, Judaism, Sunni Islam, Shi'a Islam, Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, Smartism, Theravada, East Asian Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Sikhism, Shinto and a bunch of other religions that I don't know the name of.

Faced with all of that in front of you, how would you go about deciding which religion was the truest, which religion you would follow?

Your question is not as hypothetical as you might believe. I was raised to be an atheist and was faced with that exact dilemma. To solve the riddle and I certainly could not, I sought after elder men and presented the question to them. I received a number of various answers, all of them directing me to this or to that religion. Then one day an Army Chaplin advised me to ignore all such advise and asked me if I had decided that there must be a God?

I answered yes and he told me, no scripture, that I needed to test God then. He said that all, who truly seek after God will receive Him and that all I should do is to pray for God to reveal Himself to me.

I did, He did and He led me to Christianity, by His own direction.

[Frances]

asked me if I had decided that there must be a God?

I answered yes and he told me, no scripture, that I needed to test God then. He said that all, who truly seek after God will receive Him and that all I should do is to pray for God to reveal Himself to me.

Exactly. If you really want to know the answer to your question, He will reveal Himself to you - in a way you will recoginse. . . but not if your interest is just hypothetical.

[Sold Out]

Your question is not as hypothetical as you might believe. I was raised to be an atheist and was faced with that exact dilemma. To solve the riddle and I certainly could not, I sought after elder men and presented the question to them. I received a number of various answers, all of them directing me to this or to that religion. Then one day an Army Chaplin advised me to ignore all such advise and asked me if I had decided that there must be a God?

I answered yes and he told me, no scripture, that I needed to test God then. He said that all, who truly seek after God will receive Him and that all I should do is to pray for God to reveal Himself to me.

I did, He did and He led me to Christianity, by His own direction.

Awesome testimony, and completely relevant to this post!

"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Heb 11:6

[TEITZY]

Let's say that you were raised without any religion at all, and now you're an adult and want to become religious. Let's also assume that (unlike ever happens in real life) you are equally exposed to all religions. Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, Protestantism, Mormonism, Judaism, Sunni Islam, Shi'a Islam, Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, Smartism, Theravada, East Asian Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Sikhism, Shinto and a bunch of other religions that I don't know the name of.

Faced with all of that in front of you, how would you go about deciding which religion was the truest, which religion you would follow?

What religion you would choose would all depend on what your motivation was for becoming religious. If you just want to feel better about yourself then there are many religions which can give you that feeling (not that they will save you from hell). If you feel the need to earn your way to heaven through good deeds, ritual etc., there are plenty of religions that teach that too. Religion is ultimately about self - what I can do or what makes me feel good. Christianity is for those who have come to the end of themselves and who realize there is nothing they can do and nothing in themselves that can please or appease God.

Another factor when choosing a religion would be what priority you put on faith and reason. Of all 'religions' Biblical Christianity is certainly the most logical and reasonable faith and best explains the world we live in (eg. why there is suffering & death).

Another factor would be the validity of the life and claims of the religion's founder. If Jesus was God as He often claimed, then the founder of Christianity is superior to all other religious leaders.

Religion gives sinners what they want, whereas Christianity provides sinners with what they need. At the end of the day the "truest' religion will be the one that best fits with what WE define as truth. Of course this doesn't mean it will be the right one since being fallible, our own perception of what is true could be wrong, and this is particularly the case with spirituality or morality since it cannot be physically or scientifically verified. Christianity makes exclusive claims about truth because it's founder was God and is therefore infallible since He has perfect knowledge of all things and created all things.

Cheers
Leigh

[RRWick]

What religion you would choose would all depend on what your motivation was for becoming religious.

I suppose I meant that you were searching for truth. And I mean objective truth, not that nonsensical "whatever I believe in becomes true to me" kind of truth. You if you wanted to distinguish the one true religion from everything else, how would you do it?

[Nendail]

I suppose I meant that you were searching for truth. And I mean objective truth, not that nonsensical "whatever I believe in becomes true to me" kind of truth. You if you wanted to distinguish the one true religion from everything else, how would you do it?

Ask God to reveal it to you.

[RRWick]

Ask God to reveal it to you.

But keep in mind that we are starting will all religions on equal grounds. You've already made the assumption that there is one god, and it is a god that answers questions asked to it. But that isn't true of all religions; there may be many gods, and the god or gods that exist may or may not answer questions.

[dljc]

RRWick,

Let me ask you a question.

If you learned the absolute Truth today, would you accept it, knowing, that now you have to submit to it?

[RRWick]

RRWick,

Let me ask you a question.

If you learned the absolute Truth today, would you accept it, knowing, that now you have to submit to it?

I certainly would, but only if I was very convinced that I had really learned the absolute truth. But there are a whole lot of opinions out there on what constitutes the "absolute truth", and that's sort of the point of this post.

[dljc]

I certainly would, but only if I was very convinced that I had really learned the absolute truth. But there are a whole lot of opinions out there on what constitutes the "absolute truth", and that's sort of the point of this post.

Actually RR, it's really a simple question to answer, and only requires a yes or no answer. But what it is intended to do, is get you to think, and examine yourself.

Let me break it down for you. Here's the question again.

"If you learned the absolute Truth today, would you accept it, knowing, that now you have to submit to it?"

When we learn something we either accept it as the truth or not. If we accept it then we have to consider our actions from then on, based on the Truth that we now know and accept to be the Truth.

Honestly if you answer the question with anything other than yes or no, you are putting conditions on the the truth are you not? So in essence, the Truth must be on your terms, or you won't accept it as the Truth. If it never meets your conditions it doesn't change the fact it is indeed the Truth, it's just that it doesn't meet your requirements. Because you know that once you accept something as the Truth you will have to submit to it.

A problem comes in, because we have been told that anyone who claims to know the Truth must be one of two things, either they are a fool or they are arrogant. Nobody wants to be called a fool do they? And nobody really likes being called arrogant. So what does this leave you with? It relieves you of ever having to search for the Truth.

When you put conditions on the Truth, you are the one who loses. The Truth is the Truth, no matter how you slice it, it's still the Truth. It's just that it doesn't meet up with your conditions, because deep down, you aren't willing to submit to it. Therefore if you are never really searching for it, you can rest assured you'll never find it.

Now, look at what Jesus said:

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 10:29-30
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

30 I and my Father are one.

John 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

John 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

I don't have to remind you of what happened to Him for making such claims.

Matthew 26
63 But Jesus held his peace, And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.

64 Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.



The pharisees claimed it as blasphemy.
65 Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.

Here's what Jesus told Pilate.
John 18

32 That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die.

33 Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?

34 Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?

35 Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?

36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence.

John 19
9 And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.

10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?

11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.


Now do you see why, if someone claims to know the Truth they are seen as either a fool or arrogant? The pharisees considered Jesus to be arrogant because He was making claims they didn't want to accept. But the fact remains that the Truth is still the Truth, no matter what conditions you put on it.

[dan]

...Know about all religions, but Fulfilled Prophecy is present in Judeo- Christianity. I would contend that only a Supreme Being could make Prophecy come true. There is more that is supposed to come true. Watch.

[TEITZY]

I suppose I meant that you were searching for truth. And I mean objective truth, not that nonsensical "whatever I believe in becomes true to me" kind of truth. You if you wanted to distinguish the one true religion from everything else, how would you do it?

As I said, Biblical Christianity is a rational faith and has as its authority the Word of God. If you compare what the Bible says about the universe, the natural world and man it is logical, accurate and truthful unlike most other 'holy books'. Of course the Bible also speaks about the supernatural, which is itself logical and possible if the God of the Bible is who He says He is. Add to this its historical reliability which has been verified over and again as well as 1000's of accurately fulfilled prophecies and the Christian has much substance upon which to rest his faith.

At the end of the day, the only way anyone can be assured of what truth is, is to have a relationship with the One who said "I am the...truth"! When it comes to knowing what is right and wrong in the spiritual realm there's only one totally reliable source of information - God. Let's face it, without an ominiscient Creator God who sets the standard, there cannot be absolute truth. If the buck stops with men then there is no such thing as right or wrong or good & bad since all truth is relative and what is accepted as true today could be deemed untrue tomorrow (ie. generations later).

As I've often said, the value of any religion needs to be based on the authority, life and teachings of its founder, not its adherents. This is why I believe Christianity is superior to all other religions because no other religious leader even comes close to Christ in these matters.

Cheers
Leigh

[Nendail]

Let's say that you were raised without any religion at all, and now you're an adult and want to become religious. Let's also assume that (unlike ever happens in real life) you are equally exposed to all religions. Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, Protestantism, Mormonism, Judaism, Sunni Islam, Shi'a Islam, Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, Smartism, Theravada, East Asian Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Sikhism, Shinto and a bunch of other religions that I don't know the name of.

Faced with all of that in front of you, how would you go about deciding which religion was the truest, which religion you would follow?

I posted this without reading others posts first. So I hope I don't repeat them. If you were equally versed in all religions, I think you would clearly see that all the other religions of the world are works based.

They all require you to do something (obey laws/rules). All of which have rules and laws we fail to be able to keep. So you have to do whatever it is that religion requires in order to get forgivness in for your sins. Then you "HOPE" that you have done enough that when you get to heavan this False God will let you in.

Christianity says "this is the list of commands. The cost of disobeying them is death." Lieing, adultry, blasphamy, etc the price is death. If you break the least of these commands, you have broke them all. However God came as himself to earth and took the punishment for these sins. When God died on the cross he FULLFILLED the law. He didn't remove it. He fullfilled it. Someone in fact died for your sins.. They are paid for. Therefor you give your life to christ and you are saved. (summing it up here)

You see, in any religion you can't live good enough to get into heaven. It's just not possable. But God gives salvation as a free gift to those who accept it.

once you look at this, logic dictates which is real in my opinion.