There are 4,200 religions in the world. Why do Christians believe theirs is the right one?

[Anonymous]

If there is one God, then why are there so many religions?

[abc3643]

I am not asserting the existence of any deities, but I wanted to address this:

"If there is one God, then why are there so many religions?"

In mathematics, we have something called "projection". A projection is, in a sense, a shadow onto something.

For instance, this is the famous cover of the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1979 book Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid.

You see those shadow letters on the walls and floor? E, G, B. They are made by two carved wooden blocks.

If you were looking directly at the wall with E G shadow (right), the top block would appear to you as an E and the bottom block would appear as a G.

Now, if you were looking directly at the wall with G E shadow (left), the top block would appear to you as an G and the bottom block would appear as a E.

Now, if you were looking directly down from above, you'd only see one block that appears as a B.

So, what are these blocks?

E?

G?

B?

None of those... and all of those...

The truth is more complex than what we just see and, looking at the blocks themselves as you look at the cover, you can see that.

Well, a lot of things in life are just like that... We see only part of the truth and think it is the whole truth and we believe that what others are seeing is false. In reality, they may both be true. That's not a contradiction or a logically fallacy. It has to do with making global assumptions with (unknowingly) limited information.

Religions can be like that too.

Who's to say that two religions can't be "different shadows" of the "true religion"?

Think about that above picture...

Suppose a religion, we'll call them The Leftwallists, believe with all their heart "The top block is G and the bottom block is E!"

Meanwhile, another religion, The Rightwallists, believe with all their heart that The Leftwallists are wrong and that "The top block is E and the bottom block is G!"

And then there's another religion, The B-leivers, who espouse "There is only one block, the B! You Leftwallists and Rightwallists are insane!"

Who's right? Do any of these religions espouse the truth - the WHOLE truth?
No.
But, are they wrong? Not exactly. When the truth - the true nature of the blocks is projected onto the left wall, you get what The Leftwallists see. Same with The Rightwallists when the blocks are projected onto the right wall. And The B-lievers see the projection of the blocks onto the floor...

Now, if the Leftwallists, Rightwallists, and B-leivers could all get together and instead of calling each other heretics but instead try to find an answer in which they could all be correct, then maybe they would discover the true "truth".

OK, that said, we all know it's Mormons... Yes, the Mormons were the correct answer...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/jbNnsiP4Rhg

[strateguy632]

because those blocks were carefully carved and planned engineered for the premeditated illusion. that is why it differs.
also religions usualy exclude each other so if jew true, no statue, hindu and budha not true. christian claims only jesus, islam book allows christian faith but islam action show, you know.

[abc3643]

The blocks and shadows example serves as an analogy to many things in life in which "the truth" is only a partial truth. So, when different persons hold these partial truths to be complete truths, they believe they are mutually exclusive because there's a contradiction because they are not believing the same exact thing. The reality is that there isn't mutual exclusivity because the truths were never whole.

This is not a hard concept to grasp. I can give another example if you wish...

[Miristheiss]

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

All can be wrong but all cannot be right.

Only one truth can be truth. Truth is truth.

Choose for yourself. All are invited into eternal life and no one can be forced to enter against their will. If you say no then that is up to you. Go trust in atheism, that there is no God and you do not have to give an account for your life go trust any of the multiple faiths. Broad is the road to destruction and many that find it. You are free to believe whatever you choose. We all have a conscience and if someone is humble and trully seeking truth they usually will find it. Most just believe whatever is convenient for themselves. The multiple faiths that espouse that you will not face God one day and you won't have a judgement, and they don't have to repent is usually what people like to hear. You are free.

[Siri137]

Why do Muslims believe that their religion is the only true one? Why do Jews believe Judaism is true and the others are not? You could present this question to anyone at all who was in any sense of the term "religious", not just Christians.

[strateguy632]

correct but mockers prefer to mock christian. if they wrote a caricature of muhamed you know.

[Kelly6]

hmmmm

maybe I should create my own religion, (Whorism) lol

in my religion anyone can fuck anyone, no need for marriage or so lol.

and everyone need to fuck their priestess Kelly every Sunday.

[HiveBee]

It's all about morality and Christians supposedly have the most rigid system at least.

Also christianity got a TON of help from philosophy because so many philosophers were Christians.

Kant' categorical imperative is basically the same as Jesus's golden rule (not literally his golden rule but people call what Jesus said "the golden rule" do unto others as you would have done unto yourself.

Religion is all about morality and people will back the moral system that satisfies their intuition about morality.

Even to this day, modern day politics is based on an intuitionist morality. That is explicit if anyone wants to see the proof I can provide.

So yea it's a world full of people who are concerned for their own well being and obviously, the best way to ensure your own well being is to make sure others are following a moral code.

[lightbulb27]

Beliefs are just that...

Of what I've seen... it makes sense to me emotionally and resonates with the heart. It's what we really wanted as children (love and connection) and addresses the key human issues that are screwing up so much.

Jesus said... not all are "mine"... meaning, there's other people here that aren't going to resonate to Him. So be it.

It falls apart fast in the face of human reality and government... security, fear, selfishness take over fast. It's very hard to manage humans.

[OlderAndWiser]

1. " Why do Christians believe theirs is the right one?" Why would a Christian be a Christian if he or she thought it was the WRONG religion?

2. You should not trust memes for the statistics which they "quote." If you classify every denomination of Christianity as one religio4n, can you name the other 4,199?

3. Your critical thinking should be more than a simple regurgitation of memes.

4. Your meme omits a simple truth. Some people believe that all "4,200" are right.

5. My Christian faiths teach that there is only one true church, and that is the church composed of everyone who accepts Jesus as the Son of God, Savior of man. I believe that most Christian churches embrace that same idea.

[sage2021]

@OlderAndWiser
I have the same beliefs as you do.

[strateguy632]

1, christian believes we right one, because we have best proofs that sway others to join. 2, those thousands fail to convince masses to join for example people don't join caste system. very few join jew with millions of rules. 3, the meme hints the difference is small, but saying all wrong is being extremist. atheism is opposite of theism ergo not a small difference. 4, if one god, why many? has several good answers, a, because people sin and god allow choice. b, because most faiths are man made foolishness to which god responded by sending prophets. some accepted prophecy and others rejected guidance, ergo many.

[bededazzle]

probably most people who practice a religion think it’s the best, naturally, though many people also respect other faiths. for things like christianity and islam, i think it has to do with some of the specificity/rigidity of the source material. it is also largely cultural. on one hand, if you say that all religions are true/lead to god, that sounds cool, but wait, are you ok with castration of the clitoris? how about trans substantiation? no? ok well let’s just stick with this then. otherwise, we mostly go with “spiritual”.

i don’t believe there is any theological explanation for this

[strateguy632]

i think you mean excision.

[NamerOfStars]

There are more than 45 THOUSAND denominations of Christianity alone. Nor is Christianity somehow exceptional in believing its faith to be true; every member of every religion does so, which is why they're a part of that religion.

Man, I miss the days when atheist trolls at least TRIED to be intelligent.

[jshm2]

That's a fucking banal question.

There are actually only really 12 legally recognised religions, but over 7138 known languages. Why do you believe "English" is the right one? Especially when the average language is Chinese, and some can't speak at all?

Stay in school kiddo, you're not ready for this discussion yet.

[strateguy632]

for example bahai isn't recognized in russia. only 12.

[slatyb]

What? There is no "right language,". Who ever claimed that there was?

[AviatorTom]

Just about every religion teaches its members that theirs is the one true religion.

[Anonymous]

A lot of the Christian religions started from one faith of Catholicism. It started with reformation. But they never taught teachings true teachings of Christ. Each person in the reformation. Said that do not have all the true teachings of Christ. That is why there are so many different religions.

[rigmarole]

Clearly Christian nations have been the most successful in human history... Christians seem to know something you don't understand.

[slatyb]

Everyone believes theirs is the right one. Except those of who realized that the right answer is zero.

[strateguy632]

you just self contradicted. "those who realized that the right answer is zero" ALSO "believes theirs is the right one" not except.

[slatyb]

@strateguy632 That's what happens when I reply from my phone. The intended sentence was: "Except those of us who realized that the right answer is that none are true".

[strateguy632]

that is faith not "realizing' based on analyzing data, it is pretending to be a skeptic when not a real skeptic... about other stuff, for example nobody is a skeptic the world is a ball despite never flew around it to see.
they do not wait for tangible proof [which may or may not exist but simply not skeptic] they call christians hypocrites but actualy such skeptics who are not really skeptics are the ones doing hypocrisy

[slatyb]

@strateguy632 What? There is no evidence supporting any religion, no way to tell them apart. I concluded that bone are true.

[dreamstar72]

Which makes our creator God a little unfair by making us choose. Sure it’s our choice but if we choose the wrong door (religion) we fall off the cliff.

[strateguy632]

only if god didn't send prophets to guide, but did, and warned ergo fair. people able to study and choose wisely. or trust any large group not created by physical threat.

[Lara_Croft]

I am the way, the truth and the life John 14 vs 6 that's why

[exitseven]

Christianity is the real religion. The USA is always the good guy. The metric system is garbage. Everyone should learn English.

[miahulsey]

Nice joke🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[exitseven]

@miahulsey who says I'm joking?

[miahulsey]

“Christianity is the real religion.”
“The USA is always the good guy.”
Like a joke. Lol.

[abc3643]

You use the metric system every day and I am not just talking about drinking 1 or 2 liter bottles of soda.

Everything in electromagnetism is in metric. Those Watts, Volts, Amps, Ohms, etc... all metric.
https://www.nist.gov/pml/special-publication-811

[exitseven]

@abc3643 there are equivalence in standard units. Its about time the restvofcthe world got with the program.

[abc3643]

I don't understand what you said.

The standard units in electromagnetism are all metric units. It's always been that way likely since the metric system pre-dates the theory of the electromagnetic field.

[sage2021]

@exitseven
Man, I don't know where they're going to put your ass when you die. And you will die. We all die. But I hear from you that you think being a Christian is just a joke. That's your belief. But God knows what you are writing on here and he knows what's not in your heart. Good luck Buddy.

[exitseven]

@sage2021 did ii say that?

[pickles77]

Don’t all the other religions believe that there’s is the right one? Why are you only bothered by Christianity?

[strateguy632]

because it is mocking and mockers target christians. they think muslim is an atheism's ally against common enemy.

[LiamJHayden]

Why would anyone choose to believe something that he or she thinks is false?

[Staximus]

Because Christians are brainwashed idiots just like every other religious person

[rigmarole]

Yep, idiots tend to become world super powers with the strongest economies, strongest militaries, and most technological innovation. You have to be pretty dumb to be the best at everything.

[rigmarole]

Only smart people like you fall behind and are inferior.

[Staximus]

@rigmarole you're a moron if you're so naive that you believe a book written by a man and rewritten who knows how many times is the word of god, just because your mommy and daddy told you it was

[Staximus]

@rigmarole do you still believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, too?

[Staximus]

@rigmarole Jesus wasn't any more the son of god than a moron like yourself, he was just another cult leader that you suck off

[rigmarole]

Nice projection. My parents didn't teach religion in our household. They did however provide access to the local public library which had shelves filled with all sorts of philosophies. I unlike you have an IQ of 158. Maybe if you had an IQ above say 80, you would have actually comprehended the statement I made about Christian nations being successful in the world. Thanks for proving my point that you are inferior.

[strateguy632]

in churches the "brainwashing methods" are not used. so not really brainwashed. you may refer to those religions that use fear and angry shouting but not idiots just faking membership.

[Anonymous]

it's not that hard when most of those religions don't even take themselves seriously. I'm looking at you, Flying Spaghetti Monster. 🤣

[rachel776b]

where does it say there are 4,200

[jahaims]

Wiki lol

[rachel776b]

@jahaims that's not a primary source

[jahaims]

Never said it was. You asked a question and I answered it.

[rachel776b]

@jahaims then you might as well say i saw it in TV Guide for all the credibility it has

[rachel776b]

@jahaims an intelligent person would know when asked to cite your sources it means primary sources, not pop culture fluff

[strateguy632]

after aztec bal greek gods and roman gods extinct, that leaves around 4200. yup.

[Gabriel-Chicanito]

Bc, it's following Jesus'.