With so many different religions, what makes people so sure that theirs is right?

Question

Is it just that they simply close their minds to alternatives? Or is there something more complex behind peoples' faith choices?

I'm not a religious person, but I come from a religious family who always likes to engage me in philosophical conversations. I've asked this question before, but all I got were dogmatic answers.

If you're religious, what is your faith and what keeps you tied to it despite all the alternatives out there?

Answer 1

The primary answer to this would seem to come from, of all places, Madison Avenue. Advertising researchers have studied what makes, keeps and changes peoples tastes and attitudes for a long time.

Rule #1

People accept most readily a message that tends to affirm something they already believe.

Rule #2

People tend to reject those messages that cause disonance with their current beliefs and attitudes.

This is true on almost every subject of human life. No matter how erroneous the inital information was we received, we resist change.

People will tell you they want the truth. What most people really want is reassurance. They want to be told that what they believe, not matter how outlandish, unsupportable, or even foolish it may be, is the truth. In the face of cool clear logic, many people will just simply disconnect rather that face changing their beliefs. Heck, my own brother will go as far as redefining words from the dictionary so he doesn't have to concede that he is wrong. Talk about pathetic.

If you want to have some fun, check out this website - Belief-O-Matic... It matches your beliefs against various religions and gives you a rated list showing your correlation to each.

http://beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html

This could be a real conversation starter next time you're in one of those philosophical discussions.

Answer 2

There is faith by imitation, this is quite weak.
There is faith by family tradition, this is weak too.
True faith is faith with conscious knowledge and with applied actions. When your mind, your heart, your soul are quite clear about it, then no events can make you wavering.
You may start your quest by reading a Holy Book with an independent and searching spirit.
My family tradition is Buddhist; now I am a Baha'i. My parents also independently accept the Baha'i Faith after me. Following is a brief introduction of this religion
:
The Bahá'í Faith is an independent world religion. With more than five million adherents residing in over 124,000 localities, the Bahá'í Faith is established in 204 countries across the planet. The spiritual principles of the Bahá'í Faith affirm its overall purpose--to bring about the oneness of humanity. In cooperation with these same principles, Bahá'ís also believe that there is only one Creator and that the spiritual truth of all religions is the same. From a Bahá'í perspective, The Bahá'í Faith is the most recent of the world's great religions. It forms the next link in a chain of important, divine teachings, a progressive revelation that places Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, as the Messenger of God for this age.

Answer 3

Great question. People love the opportunity to talk about their religion. It almost seems like a contest to me. How many people can I talk into becoming a member of my church? Does it make that person a winner? Does their God award gold stars or something? I'm amazed at the impact that religion has had on the shaping of the history of the world through tragedy and violence. I personally could not belong to any religion that uses force and violence to gain followers nor could I believe in a God that you have to fear. I do believe that we are part of something greater than this life but I'm also sure that no one has the true knowledge. People who push their religion in your face and have no tolerance for the beliefs of others just want power and control.

Answer 4

Well there are many things actually I'm a Muslim

1. The Quraan is the only authentic book that never changed for more than 1400 year.
2. The Quraan is kept in its original language "Arabic" while book like The Gospel lost its original language which was Aramaic
3. The Quraan is now memorized by its original language by more than 9,000,000 person in the far east only
4. The Quraan has so many scientific facts that were only revealed to western scientist in last 200 years only .

as for the scientific fact it is the most thing that lets people convert for example God says in the Quraan " And He it is Who has created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon, each in an orbit floating. "

if you are into physics and science you will know that the first one who discovered the rotation of the planets in orbits was Kepler and this was 400 years ago, which makes the quraan 1000 years older from what he says....things like that makes people convert what about you ? :)

If you want to talk more about it please feel free to msg me on [e-mail]

Answer 5

Some of us have researched our choices and decided that the religion that we are in now makes the most sense.

Christianity seems to me to be well supported by archeology.

And I've seen some of my specific prayer requests answered ever since I was a child.

Also, Christianity is the only religion whose leader is no longer in the grave. Since Jesus came back from the dead, and Muhammad, Buddha, and others did not, I suppose that Jesus knew something that no one else did.

------------------------------...
....Fourth, his resurrection is the most crucial factor in establishing the exceptionality of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Christ was the legitimate climax to his unique life and death. He foretold his resurrection to his disciples directly (Mt.16:21) and to others through parables (Mt. 12:40).

Frank Morrison, a British lawyer of the 1930s, undertook an expedition to collect circumstantial evidence to disprove the resurrection. Such evidence, of course, is admissible in all courts of law in civilised countries to prove or disprove events of which there are no living eyewitnesses. When he analysed the evidence, he reached a stunning conclusion: The resurrection had actually taken place! Morrison presented his case in his book, "Who Moved the Stone?"

Another factor worth considering is the character of the disciples. They were eleven cowardly men who shut themselves in a room after the crucifixion because they were afraid. Yet what galvanized them into action so that within their own lifetime, much of the thenknown world could hear the message of Christ? Some of them paid for this message with their lives. Would they have done so if the resurrection were a hoax?...

Answer 6

Isn't it ironic that most people who claim their religion is "the only way because of this or that.." grew up in (most but not all) an environment that preached and practiced the very religion that he or she has come to believe is "the only way." Think about it. Christians, (just an example, don't hunt me down and kill me, "Thou shall not kill" Remember?) if you grew up in a Muslim home and lived, ate, slept and worshiped Islam, wouldn't you too be facing Mecca 5 times a day to pray, reading the Koran, females wearing burkas etc..Not me you say? Of course you would. Just realize why you are the way you are. People are products of their environment.

Answer 7

We humans adopt belief systems (religious and non-religious) and treat these things as ends in and of themselves (as opposed to means to an end, where we use the concepts as tools to reduce the ego and see commonality and maybe even experience enlightenment). Belief systems become part of the concept of the self; it defines a world view and a 'virtual reality' that supports a growing concept of one's 'self' and, therefore, to question it becomes tantamount to 'rocking the foundation' for many. Many of these belief systems have their major figure verify that theirs is the ONLY true path (lots of religions say that). When Oprah -- a Christian -- made a very loving and non-attacking comment during a discussion with her audience that it doesn't make sense that there's only one path to god, audience members reacted in strong ego/self fashion and started to defend their thought system and attack Oprah (not realizing the irony that this very dynamic is the opposite of GOD but is in sync with the ego-projected images that are worshipped as god). It's all about the self -- once that gets reduces, the concepts associated with it soften and are open to question. The attachment to the self is all about fear -- this is what we think we are and if we move away from it, we're on shaky ground. So ... compassion is needed for those whom we perceive as fundamentalist and rigid. It's hard for me to practice this compassion but - once in a while - I succeed :).

Answer 8

If your raised in a religious family, then you should at least Know that there is only one god assuming your Christian, But once you acknowledge that you can eliminate so many religions down to 3. Judaism,Christianity, and Islam. Judaism and Christianity are basically the same, Christ mean messiah, we believe Jesus is the messiah that was spoke of in Isaiah. But these Pagan!!!! Muslims will try to trick you to hell with false elaborations on the story of Abram and Ishmael, that's what they do they take story's from the bible and twist it. Muslims worship a stone in Mecca in a temple called the Kaaba, and I cal forth a Crusade to rid the earth of the Blasphemous Pagans. Praise be to our lord God

Answer 9

It starts with the fear of death. In order to overcome it in the here and now, some folks turn to religion. Once they choose a belief system, they feel they must be true to it in order to reap it's rewards (eternal life).

Of course you can't be true unless you truly believe. In order to be a true believer you must have faith that your brand of dogma is the only brand approved by "God".

It's a self perpetuating mentality that can eventually lead "believers" into a sea of confusion, and hatred for their fellow man (the "non-believers").

It's sad, but logic, reason, and accountability aren't integral aspects of human nature. Fear and intolerance are. Religion often feeds the most basal, and the ugliest part of our collective Id.

Answer 10

There are many religions to choose from. I always say that there are six major ones, so basically you have a one in six chance of picking the "right" one. My thought is that if you truly try to be the best person that you can possibly be, you stand a very good chance to get into what ever heaven may be.