Why Are There So Many Religions?

Question

I would like your opinion of the reason, as given by Catechism Of The Catholic Church:

"In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behavior: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a religious being..."

"The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for..."

Link:
http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect1.htm#chpt1

What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

I agree with the Catechism Of The Catholic Church:

I would like to add, because of this desire to
find God, are serve God,people can be impacient
and not wait on are fully understand the Holly Sprite. This is were given time through tradition,
one can understand the truth, only if God
open the eyes of the individual.And a Lot more.

Answer 2

To preface this, I grew up being trained in strict Catholicism. My thoughts on the variations of faiths has often to do with minor differences in the philosopy or the rituals involved.

Unfortunately, this causes a divergence among religions, which in turn (at least when it comes to Western -based religions) causes dissention. There are also some significant ideological differences between even Christian-based religions. When you have several different versions of the Bible, then you're in trouble. There are power plays going on, which ideally should have nothing to do with spiritual activity.

Answer 3

The reason there are so many religious "factions" is the same as the reason so many people on here rant on about the actual existence of God. The human condition is defiance. Just as Christ himself commmanded us to love one another so many people use religion as a tool of hate. The division of mankind into every kind of group illustrates this point. Shame on us all for being so rotten and petty.

Answer 4

I think God loves us so much that despite the truths he has given to us in His Church, there are some who cannot find a way to believe Her message in it's entirity. So his gifts go out to as many people as possible in the form of seperate church's. Perhaps it is a little like what Jesus said of divorce, it was allowed by Moses due to stubborness.

Answer 5

It is certainly understandable that even a very earnest and sincere seeker after truth would be confused over the religious situation today, with hundreds of denominations, sects, and cults in Christendom alone, as well as hundreds more in other countries and cultures, and with new religious movements arising almost every day. Nevertheless, God has provided adequate instruction for us to enable us to “know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (I John 4:6) if we really want to do so.

There are three criteria which are especially helpful in evaluating a particular cult or movement: the teachings of its leaders concerning the Bible, concerning Christ, and concerning the way of salvation, respectively.

Answer 6

..."religious ignorance"... Jesus never ever started a "new" religion...(read the Scriptures)... He clearly said "He" is the Way the Truth and the Life..."no one" comes to the Father but by the Son...no-one... but the "religions" of the World think "they" know better then God and have skewed His Words in order to create their "religious bondage" and spiritual gymnastics that serve "their" purpose...not Gods.
Follow the Scripture not the "rants" of the old men of Rome or any other "cult" or religious hokus-pokus that rival the magic of David Copperfield...

Answer 7

There are no two humans who see it the same all the way. When the schizms get too intolerant people break away and seek their own level of schizm. Now we have lots of different schizms calling themselves religion. Each human is an individual schizm and therefor a potential religion if not already a full blown one. Thus so many religions.

Answer 8

There are basic things man wants:

-A purpose for life on earth
- A way to deal with life and death
- A way to live and deal with the challenges of life
-A way to understand the world and universe and things that cannot be explained purely with science.

The reason there are so many religions is because NO one religion has been able to satisfactorily answer ALL of those things in a way that speaks to ALL people.

So for some, Christianity completely answers their questions and points them in a direction that offers them hope for now and the future. For others, Christianity leaves them lacking and still unsatisfied and Hinduism does it better for them.

It's as simple as that.

Answer 9

Every one can't agree to the same doctrine so there are spin offs of the basic religions, that is one reason for so many religions.A couple thousand years ago people who followed Christ was simply called Christians.

Answer 10

Now what about those who don't believe in God?

that could get ugly, friends.

seriously, the reason that there are so many religions is that everybody has their own beliefs. we as human beings believe that we must believe in something, even if it's in the idea that there is no god.

it's a firetrap, but it keeps some sane.

Blessed Be,
Tweekus

wow... i've noticed that bad ratings gravitate towards me, even when i'm being fair. what in the hecks?