a question from someone who is trying to understand religion?

Question

what makes the god that christians worship the only god? what about the greeks and romans who lived in a polytheistic religious society? what makes their gods any less important? and further more, since they believed so strongly that their gods were real, how can we be sure that they were wrong? will people look back on us in a few thousand years and laugh at the god we believed to be in existence just as we do today in regard to ancient romans and greeks? please don't give one-liners like "well you just have to have faith". i would appreciate if you could put some thought into your answers. thanks for your time.

Answer 1

The Christian god is not the only god IMO.

However Christians believe that their god is the one true god and all others are idols or satanic. It is rather convenient for them.

Answer 2

Man from day 1 has known that there was something greater than they.

To many the creation was just too much for one being, and made some kind of sense that there were more than one god, some greater and some lesser. They had to be given names, and they some how had to enter act with man. So they were given names and stories of what they did. Now because bad things happen to good people the gods were fickle, jealous and arbitrary.
Now there are some real bad things that happen so an EVIL one was made, and he was disliked by the greater gods but was able through cunning, and flattery trick the greater and lesser god to get what he wanted. and Wa La we have a religion that works fairly well!
and you just keep adding to the stories!
It will break down eventual but for a while there is money to be made in it!

The bible is the only "stories" that have been around for about 5000 years and still growing followers.
A false religion always dies out!
so why has Judaism, and Christianity (2000+ years) been around so long?
The truth!

Answer 3

Here's the catch, when you're talking about religion, a lot of it comes down to faith. The way a person believes isn't always a matter of evidences that work for non-believers.
Ironically, from what I understand, and I'm making this statement without anything solid to back me up, sociologists actually have a system of societal development wherein societies are judged for development based on their religion. A polytheistic society is considered to be less developed than a monotheistic society. so, according to that argument, it's just a natural thing for a society to work toward a God like ours.
Without an appeal to the Bible, there isn't really a whole lot that delineates the Christian God as the one you should believe in.
Sorry.

Answer 4

This is a valid viewpoint.
The truth is that we are all spiritual beings and therefore have an inate "godliness" or "godlike" qualities and abilities or potential .
We are and have been subject to deterioration.This has been going on for a very long "time". Some of us have deteriorated faster than others.
There is also a spectrum of oders of magnitude of beings.Some beings "bigger" than others .
The "gods" that were around in Greek and Roman times are probably still around today , but are now working behind the counter at K Mart, instead of playing and having fun creating big effects with lesser beings from Mt Olympus.

Answer 5

In the ancient Greek and Rome people were just discovering the world, specially Greeks had a particularly curiosity to explain the world, every single thing was related to a magic power, a "god", but if you read some philosophy some of them were not sure about that. The difference between their faith and our is that we are not using it to try to explain scientific stuffs because we already know that.
There is only one really God for us because we are (alive beings) one essence, came from the same power to be alive.
Now we believe in our souls and an eternity, ad we know there is evil and we believe in salvation, even when we can't explain every way of our faith Greeks believed so strongly in their gods relating them with nature, we believe in God as our spirit.

Answer 6

Actually, we'll be laughing in about 100 years, I would estimate...


Religion is ancient science. Unfortunately for those people that are still wrapped up in it, our understanding of the world has increased exponentially in the last 200 years. And religion has become laughably outdated.

There are still holdouts, like good ole Don below me, who turn a deaf ear to any and all knowledge that would show that his religion is false. And that's understandable. Many people today can't comprehend a life without the religion that has sustained them since birth.

But, give it a couple of generations. The children born today won't be born into ignorance, like the rest of us. They'll be offered a better opportunity to educate themselves, and make rational judgements about their lives, etc.

That's why I say religion has 100 years, at best. 2-3 generations from now, people will wonder how it was possible for faith and reason to coexist at all, the way it does today.

Answer 7

Another good question.

I think this goes back to 'How do we know anything is true?' Unfortunately, there is no good, solid, empirical, scientific answer for that question, because everything comes through our senses and is then interpreted by our humanity.

The only way I know of is to reflect on the understanding of other learned people throughout history. In the past 4 millinia there have been thousands of books written by thousands of people (much smarter and dedicated to the spiritual life than you and I) who have delved deeply into these difficult questions. And remember, Jews, Muslims, and Christians are connected to a faith tradition over 4000 years old that continues to thrive to this day.

Now, I'm not saying that this is conclusive proof of the "rightness" of this theistic God, but I am saying that millions upon millions of people through the ages found meaning and inspiration in this God.
What hubris I would have to possess to discard the totality of their faithful living.

This alone is a good enough reason for me to lean heavily in favor of this God.

Answer 8

Practically all religion (outside the religion of the Bible) stems from ancient Babylon.
The book 'The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria' says:
“Egypt, Persia, and Greece felt the influence of the Babylonian religion . . . The strong mixture of Semitic elements both in early Greek mythology and in Grecian cults is now so generally admitted by scholars as to require no further comment. These Semitic elements are to a large extent more specifically Babylonian.”
So there are really only 2 religions.
The one of the Bible and Babylonian-originated.
The God of the Bible makes his wishes clear.
Have a peak at 2 Corinthians 6:14 - 18
The choice is ours.

Answer 9

don't get mixed up in religion and start asking these things if you don't understand them. ask a professional. ok, the ONLY AND TRUE GOD, the one that "all us christians worship" has been here FOREVER and will always be here. he was here when there was nothing. he will be here when there is everything. the greek gods were created by the Greeks because they weren't sure of the only true GOD. their gods might be real, we aren't all for sure, but we, well, I am positive that the real and only GOD has been there and will be there and is as important as anything that has ever or ever will exist.

Answer 10

Well first off a person can worship who they want.

Christians choose to worship God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son.

Christians believe that we are Spirit children of a Heavenly Father. Therefore we are related.

It is like if you were to listen to someone else's father, maybe you would, but most children are supposed to obey their own father.

We are all brothers and sisters, thus we all have the same father.

There are many other gods, as listed numerously in the bible, but we as Christians are commanded to only worship one. Our Father.

We have to develop relationships of faith that will increase our trust in God so we can understand the goodness of God.
Thousands of years from now, Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is the Christ. By then men will understand the nature of God and his Plan of Salvation.

Choose ye this day who you will serve, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

Answer 11

I think that in order to understand religion, you need to look at it as poetry.

If you can read the holy texts of ANY faith as a metaphor for different stages of growth in a life, as ideals and possible pathways -- all these questions cease to be.

It's when you take these stories, myths, tales as literal fact that you run into all the hatred and intolerance.

When/If you choose a faith to follow, it is simply because their tales make it easier for you to understand and feel complete and you also agree with the sanctioned morality. Of course, organized religion is not the only path.

I recommend patience. Faith will come if you want it to.