how many of you are willing to admit that you just might be wrong?

Question

how many of you can say that? whether your tastes run from christian to buddhism to evolution, or even aliens. i'm not questioning anyone's beliefs. i consider myself pagan, but i can also admit that i might not be right in what i believe. we might all be way off. i'm curious to see who is open-minded(please list your religion as well). or are you so rigid in your choices that you'd rather fight?

do you think as a society we are becoming more open to different religions?
and
how many of you believe religion will contribute to the downfall of humanity?

ps-no screeching and no preaching.

thanks sportsmovie guy for answering all of the questions.

i see now we have some people slightly freaking out. keep em comin.

spicy topic..

Answer 1

I consider myself open-minded and respectful to all religions. I currently follow the druid's path of wisdom and love for the Mother Earth. The difficult nature of this question comes from the fact that most (not all) religions do not allow you to consider another God as a possibility, so I think many are unwilling and afraid to admit to possibly being wrong in their choice. That being said, faith does bring people together and allows people to find solace in things that go wrong in their lifes. Organized religion can and may eventually be the downfall of humanity, but in it's current state seems to be a needed part of most lives.

Answer 2

I´m willing to admit that I´m wrong if ever.
I can say so
I´m catholic, by the way what do you mean by pagan (because I´m one too in the eyes of many non catholics or non christian)
I believe truth comes in times is it needs to come out so there´s no other reason to fight than to guarantee your own rights and personals stands and a respectful to others way of living.
I believe there are more "closed up to other" little groups, no more "big acceptance" people
I believe god an thus religion was there when the first civilization raised and so will be when the last earthly city falls down (just like air "religion" it may have high quality or be polluted but is always there all around us).

Answer 3

Former Catholic, now a questioning Episcopalian. I think that organized religion is becoming more of a club than a religious collective. The more serious a person is about their religion, the less tolerant he or she is of one another. My club is better than yours! Nonsense!
While we all choose to believe or not believe in God, anyone who firmly thinks he or she has the real handle on what it is all about is misguided or a manipulative liar like these televangelists. That is where faith comes in. Believing what we cannot prove and have no way to prove. God did not sit up on a mountain and tell Moses the ten things we should not do! Only ten? Nor did he pick out his favorite humans and tell them what he wants us to hear through the Bible. The Bible is a book written by man for man. A great book and source on how we should live our lives through examples and stories but not written by a divine God. I can deal with the new testament a lot better than the old testament. It just seems to be more realistic as far as the lessons go. We can believe in what we want but we should not try to say that you have the answers or the proof. We do not. And God will prove that to us if we ever get to see him or if he exists at all.

Answer 4

When we start to doubt, then we lose our full, unquestioning faith in our beliefs. In a sense, we would no longer believe with full passion and would thereby no longer believe in that belief. So if we doubt our religion, we would lose our faith, and then we wouldn't really be members of that religion. I discuss this sort of in one of my papers.
Still, some claim that relgious pluralism is possible (all religions can co-exist). People like Hick claim that all religions approximate the Divine Truth, and they have different ways of trying the explain the same thing. He makes an analogy that the different religions are all like blind men feeling different parts of an elephant (the Divine Truth); one might say the tail is a rope, others might say the feet are tree trunks, others might say the nose is a hose. So, instead of contradicting each other, Hick says that religions have the same goal. Some people even claim that we should abandon the dogmatic, religious nature of religion that tries to explain reality (metaphysically) and instead focus on the lessons it teaches us in order to make the world a better place for everyone (morally and aesthetically).
I don't think religion will contribute to the downfall of humanity. You can see that from the view mentioned above. Also, each religion gives groups of people a certain "fuel" that keeps them going in life. They have more of a purpose, a lakshya, and they will strive to achieve it.

Answer 5

Sometimes I am wrong more often than right, but I believe that organized dogma (the churches) often mislead, rather than guide the spiritual lives of people. Virtually ALL of the religions and churches say the OTHERS are wrong, which is impossible. SOMEONE has to be right at SOME point.

I try to be tolerant and Christian but am not always successful since life and temptation is everywhere and nobody that is human is PERFECT.

Being Christian is NOT what most people practice, they merely use the name. Practicing ANY 'organized dogma' in a blind fashion almost guarantees abuse of faith and spirituality.
I think spirituality and FAITH are much more important than 'church' as such.

Religion in any extreme can be equated to brainwashing or collective human insanity and WILL contribute to the downfall of humanity.

Answer 6

I am a Christian. I could admit that "maybe" I could be wrong in my faith in the Lord. But the problem is that the "maybe" part of that is so small that it isn't even worth saying. I also admit that monkeys could fly out of my nose. And just because I admit it could happen doesn't actually mean it's possible. That's how I feel about my faith in God. i could admit all day that I could be wrong, but the chance is so small it isn't even worth the words coming out of my mouth.

In other words, I am open minded to the fact that I could be wrong, but not the point that it matters in my faith. My faith in God is worth fighting and dying for. If it wasn't, then why call it faith?

To answer the second part of your question, I think we are a very open minded society and have been very tolerant of all religions. If anything, it seems like our society gets taken advantage of by different religions. I think people get tolerance mixed up with approval. As a Christian, I know I can tolerate anybody's religion because it belongs to them, not me. But that doesn't mean I have to approve of it! Just like people don't have to approve of my faith, but they should allow me to have it!

And to answer the last part of your question, I do think religion will contribute to the downfall of humanity. The Bible even describes how this will happen. But in the end, the "downfall" of humanity will actually be a victory for those who have faith in Christ so it isn't a bad thing. Those who are in Christ have total peace about the whole thing!

Answer 7

OK. I discovered Christianity in the 1987-88 school year. In the summer of 1989, I took a Comparative Worlds Religions class at the local community college.

Here's what I learned:

All other religions talk about doing. Christianity is about what Jesus did for us. It's more of a relationship than a religion.

No other religion tells you that you're going to be eternally punished if you don't believe in it. They either reincarate you, put you in a "lesser" heaven environment, or you cease to exist. On the off chance that I'm wrong, I'm not going to burn.

Answer 8

If i thought I was wrong, i would be without faith, as a Christian I cannot admit that I might be wrong, without completely showing that I have no faith, plus I would be lying because Jesus was real, our God is real, heaven is real, hell is real. Yes religion will be the central force in the downfall of humanity, because God will pour his wrath out upon the Earth, and Satan will take control temporarilly.

Answer 9

I'm willing to admit there are many things I don't know yet. But I'm not willing to conclude that because I'm ignorant, I'm therefore likely to be wrong -- no. I'm still convinced that there is no god (the evidence is simply not there) and that a natural explanation can be and will be found for all the unknowns.

("Since you and I agree we can't be wrong" -- Preykill, is this your standard of belief? If you and I agree -- for example -- that Santa Claus exists, how does that make us anything but equally deluded?)

Answer 10

Here's my thing. I know I am not right, because I haven't been there yet. And until I die and I find out what the truth is, the crap coming from my mouth is just that, crap. Yes, it's what I'd like to think is true, but I don't KNOW it's true. And at least ONE part of it, I'm sure, is wrong. I'm hoping it's not the whole thing but you never know, we could all be blue monkies on a icecream cone star for all I know after we die. My point is, I don't know, and because of that I am sure that some of it is wrong.