Why does each one of us believe that only our religion is true & all others are false?

Answer 1

Mostly dumb christians believe that.

Answer 2

You have the wrong idea. It doesn't really matter what religion it is; what the strong feeling is towards is the existance of God,
not exactly how you choose to go about worshipping Him.
Just because I am Christian, doesn't mean I think a Muslim person's belief system is false. I am alot happier with that guy than someone who has no belief system at all. God sees whats going on - He knows about all the different religions out there.
There are places where you cannot get a Bible - and other places where you would be jailed if you practice worship as a Buddist. These are all problems created by man. God knows only one religion - the belief in the Father, the Creator of the Universe. Call Him whatever name you like - God, Allah, etc.
When Christ returns, there will be a 1000 yr period of teaching and disipline. All will learn the truth. Nobody is thrown into hell before they understand and see the truth. This does not mean that everybody gets a second chance. Its just that God knows with what man is doing down here, and with whats being taught (or not taught, better said) that many people don't have a chance in hell of learning truth.
So I wouldn't get too worked up over this. Everyone will have an equal opportunity at eternal life. Then if ya blow it, its bye bye.

Answer 3

It's called job security for the priests, ministers and mullahs.

It doesn't matter which one WE think is the right one, it only matters which one God thinks is the right one. And of course, all you have to do is ask him.

By the way, you can determine the truth of a religion by the way the people act in general. If there were actually no god anywhere, then we would all know it and would react according to self-preservation. When someone comes to town with a big sword and says "join my religion or I'll hack your head off", you'll probably convert. If there's no God, what do you lose?

But if the religion survives without having to convert like this, and if the religion can even survive among people threatened with death, then there must be a substantial belief in an afterlife, otherwise the threat of death would eventually be reasoned as overwhelming.

Judaism and Christianity have both been in this position many times throughout history, and they observe the same deity. (In fact, Judaism has beat the odds almost continually since the Roman period, and several times before that.)

Answer 4

Well, technically if we didn't believe our own personal spiritual truths to be true - then we wouldn't believe. Personally, I don't think all religions are false. I think there's something of value in all religions, and I don't believe religion is a one-size-fits-all thing. Different people take different paths. It was a Buddhist who once said, "All religions are just different roads to the same place."

Answer 5

I don't, personally, think that my religion is "true" and all others "false".

I have a relationship with the divine Source through my religious practices and through the Gods and Goddess of my religion. Others have a relationship with the God or Gods of their religion and their understanding of the sacred.

I don't think that my religion is the only valid one.

I do think it is A valid one, for me and for others who find their way to it and stay.

The Divine Source is, IMO, too big to be contained in only one religion.

Answer 6

For one thing, not all religions believe that.

Wiccans, on the whole, believe that all religions are on the path to the Divine and that the Divine has too many aspects to be incorporated within one faith. We also believe that atheism and agnosticism are valid paths when they arise from intellectual honesty on the part of those pursuing them (as opposed to simply the desire to rebel against religion for the sake of rebelling).

The only quarrel most Wiccans have with members of other religions is when those members spread lies about us or seek to prevent us from following our faith. We don't prosyletize and on the whole are content to be left alone.

Answer 7

Why am I an atheist, in other words? Proof.

See, there's this little problem -- you can't prove a universal negative. However, you *CAN* prove a lack of a consequence. And with this little chink in the armor of every deity out there, the proof is trivially easy:

For knowledge to exist, three facts must be accepted as true:

- Math & Logic are valid
- Direct observations or aided observations supported by Math & Logic are valid
- Supernatural existence, if real, does not involve itself in the natural realm (otherwise, any 'fact' could be changed by the interference -- say by the God of Gravity changing his mind on how strong it will be tomorrow).

Free will can thus be shown to be false:

- The mind is a consequence of the physical nature of the brain (Nonsupernatural causation axiom).
- Quantum physics contains a truly random component (Mathematical axiom)
- All observations can be expressed mathematically (Mathematical axiom).
- All principles causal to observations can be expressed mathematically (Mathematical Axiom).
- All mathematical expressions can be evaluated (Mathematical Axiom).
- An evaluation need not be deterministic, it can be stochaistic, that is, describing 'probabilities'. (Statistical mathematics).
- Since quantum physics can affect the human brain, and thus mind, the human state is mathematically stochaistic (consequential)
- If the quantum randomness is rescoped to be viewed as an input, the human brain ceases to be stoichasitic and is deterministic. (statement of rescope)
- A deterministically computable system is incapable of escaping its previous states, and produces outputs based on a computable result of the previous state and current inputs.(Turing-Church Thesis)
- Determinism counters free will. (By definition)
- Free will is not possible. (consequential)
- If a deity exists, free will is a natural consequence. (axiomic, potentially debatable. However, a deity that creates intelligence without free will cannot hold its creation responsible)
- Free will does not exist, therefore, deity does not exist. (modus tollens).

The idea of a god existing is disproven logically.

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Wayne T: To deny any of the first three is to deny the ability to aquire knowledge.

Congratulations. You would sacrifice knowledge for your deity. Get off your computer, get out of your clothes, grab a few rocks, and go learn to hunt.

Oh, but spears and flint-knives take knowledge too. You're sc**wed, dude.

As for the mind being a consequence of the physical structure of the brain -- energy in this universe is transmitted by force carriers ( electromagnetism - photon, gravity - graviton, Strong nuclear force - gluons, Weak nuclear force - W/Z bosons). These force carriers are themselves particles and thus physical.

Perhaps I should clarify a bit and preference the use of QM terminology and reference the quantum wavestate. Thank you for pointing this out.

However, with that understanding, the supernatural axiom still applies -- the mind is a consequence of the cumulative quantum collapse of the quantum wavestates of the brain's components.

Answer 8

Actually I don't care what anyone else believes religion or no religion, as long as their beliefs do not include suppressing the rights of others

Answer 9

I don't believe that, I do believe there is one God, but there can be many different names for him. I think that people believe only their religion is true is because if they don't then they have no true reason for life.

Answer 10

Because religions claim to know the fundamental nature of the universe, and by definition there cannot be two or more fundamental natures of the universe.

However not every single religion out there feels this way.

Answer 11

I don't. My religion doesn't teach that it's the only "one true religion". Nor do I think other's religions are false. I'm not a monotheist.