If any religion were actually 'true'...?

Question

Wouldn't it stand to reason that the followers of that religion would be better off than those of another?They would be consistently more happy, without troubles like disease and famine, and not fall prey to bad things in general. But this is not at all what we see. Instead, we find that all people, regardless of religion share the same troubles in roughly the same amounts. If a religion is to be believed, then shouldn't its deity help its followers? And wouldn't we be able to consistently see these effects by the 'correct' sect being better off on average? This is just more proof to me that God and religion are man made ideas. Any thoughts on this?

Answer 1

Even the bible tells us that just because we follow Jesus, that does not mean we will never have trials and tribulation. It's our faith that gets us through the bad times.

Answer 2

If the only reason a person wishes to have a religion is to have the "true" religion or to be happier, less troubled, or to somehow gain more than others because the deity somehow grants their wishes (like the deity is a genie or something) then this person probably has misunderstood the nature of religion.

All religions provide people with ability to learn more about the universal truths of the innate nature of the inner Self. Religion isn't some sort of "shield" against the world.

And of course religion is man made! We as human beings interpret the various spiritual and mystical experiences. These perspectives are then shared and collected and because each human being ultimately comes from a different culture, different time, different place, different linguistical background, and even touches a different part of the One from which everything manifested into existence...then that means lots and lots of different religions. "God" and how you define It are also "man made" because language is man made. Humans develop languages and speak languages, etc. The word "God" has a great variety of meaning. One religion may use the word "God" and the meaning of the word is completely different than another religion who uses the same word "God". It's all a matter of perspective of that One, that something that is nothing, that source of everything, of the spiritual and mystical experiences, etc, etc, etc. It's vast, so infinite that our finite minds can never fully grasp all of It. We has humans want to define in words what is very difficult to define with words.

Yet all religions are true. All religions are tools that people can use, if they choose to, to experience the universal truths of the innate nature of the inner Self and to have a spiritual and mystical experience. But one can't be forced to have such experiences, the individual must want that and strive for that and work for that on their own. The religion can make suggestions (or commandments, depending on the religion) to help guide the person, but it is up to the individual to really put the tools in place, etc, and attain enlightenment, to attain those spiritual and mystical experiences, to experience the universal truths of the innate nature of the inner Self. The religion can't force you and those who choose not to get involved with religion, well that's their perspective, too. Everyone has the different levels, the different spiritual goals. Some just want to live a life where they can face those troubles and have some comfort, some just want to have a different perspective on the world they live in, some just want to get to heaven and the afterlife, some just want to have those mystical and spiritual experiences, and some have no interest whatsoever in anything that religion offers. And nothing is wrong with any of them. They are all free to choose and not choose from the various religions in the world, to find the one that matches their own experiences and spiritual understanding from where they are now in their life and they are free to choose to let go of a religion and move to another, etc, etc, etc.

And because religion is just a tool then that of course means that there is always the possibility of the tool being abused (which is has been by various different groups of people over the centuries). As Ani DiFranco, a folksinger, says "Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right."

Answer 3

Not necessarily. To illustrate my point, I'll give you a good example from my life.

I have 3 brothers. My parents favored the youngest son on everything. I and my other brother would beat up the youngest brother every chance we get and the parents wouldn't do anything to stop us.

God is much the same way. Even if He did prefer one group over another, the other groups in the world would just bomb them out of existence. Besides, God has the entire universe to manage. Plus any alien civilization that may exist.

I agree that God could/should do more to make people believe in Him. A public appearance now and then wouldn't hurt his cause.

Answer 4

You are absolutely right. All religion is man - or more to the point, the ruling classes- made. We have conciounces to let us know right from wrong (which in a nutshell is the main gist of all religious literature) and as decent, moral and civilised people, if we all followed this, there would be absolutely no need for ANY religion, THEN there may be a chance of world peace. But as long as there is religion and "brainwashed "individuals there will always be questions such as yours because the whole concept of religion is non-sensicle

Answer 5

Pure logic would dictate that your statement is true; that the followers of the one true belief would be better off than anyone else. However, unfortunately for the most part, logic and the human mind don't mix. People will always believe their own perception of what they believe to be true. Some minds are not ready to accept life without the restrictions of theology and for those that aren't ready that ok there is nothing wrong with their relying on theology.

Some people reach that state of logic, some don't and those that don't will never see the logic in your statement.

Answer 6

I agree. I have noticed that through out history, when people get tired or disenchanted with their religion, a new one appears. ie Judaism ----> Christianity----> Islam. Thre are numorous others within these. ie Protestant, Episcapaleon, Mormons, etc. It seems very man made to me too.

I wonder (respectively) if whomever said people were supposed to accept their trials and tribulations as aceptance to faith, ever thought about people being raped or tortured. That seems to be a high price for a young person (child) to pay for an eternal reward. I don't , and will not buy that idea. When I think of it, it sickens me. This also leads me to the conclusion of the man made idea.

az I like that qoute.

Answer 7

You have it wrong, it's not just religion that causes the problems of the world, but man himself, take religion away, and man would find something else to blame.
Man made religion, to brainwash the world and has done a fair job, but what we need is faith, and believe in God, then you would understand there are more important things than the things you mention.
You are right about religion being man made, but man used to good of God for his own benefit, sometimes words changed because they did not understand them, and a lot so man can gain
I mean show me a poor church???.

have faith in God, not man made stuff.

Love & Peace

Answer 8

A very good point, but it's also possible, as Lucretius thought, that the Gods live in their beautiful realm and simply don't mess with us much at all ... He thought that we experienced the Gods as kind of shadow-entities, perhaps on the threshold of consciousness. Why should the Gods really be greatly concerned with what humans believe or think?

Of course it's is possible that *all* concepts of God/Gods are 100% human imagination, regardless of whether they may exist or not. The Greeks at least had a concept of "to agnostos theos"

Answer 9

It's a great question.
It is the most insecure, paranoid people who turn to religion rather than face the realisation that with death comes oblivion. That is really why religion was 'invented'.
Faith in any God has never meant that the believer's loved ones do not die or that they have good luck all their life.
Each to their own, but I'm a happy, contented atheist and scientist - and quite comfortable with that!

Answer 10

I agree with you. I am not an atheist. I think there is something else greater than humanity out there...at least I sure hope so.
I am very anti-dogma. Dogmas are all man made and are used to control people's actions.
I like this quote:
Are humans the greatest mistake of god, or is god the greatest mistake of humans?
If god made humans then we are really screwing up his planet.
If humans made god then we are killing each other over a fictional idea.
Crazy either way.
I also really like the book The Age of Reason. I think I am mostly a rationalist (tho an optimistic one)
Good Luck in your spiritual search.

Answer 11

You definitely have a point.
Your observation is a good one.
But it doesn't prove that "man made" means there is nothing spiritual involved in religion. Or that there isn't spiritual truth to be known or discovered that can be used to improve life.

At least religion is a belief in or hope for something better, a higher existence, spiritual freedom and awareness, even if we haven't totally figured out exactly how to get there, yet.