Religion is just a matter of geography.?

Question

An American is likely to be some sort of Christian whereas an Egyptian is likely to practice Islam.

This is undeniable, so how can people take their beliefs as true and somehow better than others?

I am discussing probabilities you slugheads.

Answer 1

In the majority of the cases Yes.

Who is correct and who is "wrong"? Nobody.
The truth is always relative.

Answer 2

It's an influence, to be sure, but it's by no means the only factor. Just look at all of the people in America who are raised in one religion, but adopt a different one later on (or abandon religion entirely, for that matter). Once you reach adulthood, you become responsible for your own beliefs and ideas. Your parents and/or culture no longer dictate what you believe unless you choose to let them.

As for the question of how people can consider their beliefs to be true, well, they wouldn't believe certain things if they didn't think those things were true, now would they? And as I've just said, once they grow out of childhood, they're free to believe whatever they want (though their society may oppress them for their choice). Besides, what people think is the truth has absolutely no influence over what is true in reality, so even if people's beliefs were determined entirely by circumstance, that wouldn't mean that none of them could be right.

For example, let's say you have two cultures. One believes that the Sun is a giant ball of gas radiating energy from thermonuclear reactions in its center, while the other believes that it's a really big, shiny gold coin. Now, it could be that the populations of these two cultures had no choice of what to believe and were simply forced to believe whatever the culture as a whole believed, but even then, the first culture is correct, while the second is not. Hope that makes sense.

Answer 3

Same reason cultures are different. Children are influenced by surroundings: culture and religion among those. People make thier own choices, but are heavily influenced by thier parents and the culture around them.

Why be so dogmatic about it? It's not comforting to think about some of your beliefs not being "right". I personally know that I do not know all the answers and neither does any other human, and figure I'll get all the info I need when I kick the bucket. In the meantime I figure being a nice guy and not hurting other people is a good enough path.

Answer 4

I think you may be on to something. it seems religion is geographic for the most part. Example...Asia is more Buddhist or Hindu in India, etc.

Of course there are exceptions for all over the world, including here.

In order to see if a particular religion would be correct, they would need to look at the history of the religion they belong to. I feel Christianity is correct because it traces back to the creation account with the same God today. If my religion's god couldn't be traced back farther than another religion, I would have to consider the reason I guess.

Answer 5

Some countries only allow certain religions or persecute those of any other religion. Islam countries do this a lot. They hate Christians, that's why they attacked the US. A country with freedom of religion, and they chose Christianity.

Answer 6

Religion is closely related to race. Look at the pictures of god that each religion has. God did not create us in his image , we created god in our image. Most people are groomed into a religion by their parents and so grow up with the faith that is common to their culture.
So-called christianity is actually Paulene. Christ was a Jew until the day he died. It was a Roman soldier named Saul (who later changed his name to Paul) that had the revelation on the road to Damascus and started espousing the christian way.
Christ's version of Judaism did differ from the accepted practises of the time and even now but he was still a Jew. Each faith tends to promote their own livelihood at the expense of other faiths and even their own flock, so long as the leaders get to continue in power. Do I sound cynical?

Answer 7

because there are existential truths that transcend culture and geography per se... in a lot of different cultures the same beliefs vary only in their manifestation but ultimatelly parallel whatever other people who are far away think and its very interesting to learn about it in the anthropological sense... we ultimately all have a similar thought process about what we are and where we come the rest is semantics and interpretations. its a very interesting question to think if i was born only geographically different from where i was born, would i still be me? just because you are conscious there and not here.... well thats a whole other question but i thought yours was quite interesting by the way

Answer 8

That is not a true statement. Even though as an American woman I am a Christian, however, my fiancee who is Middle Eastern is also a Christian and was when we met. His whole family are Christian and his father lost his life because of his faith

Answer 9

people often take on the religious beliefs of their families or tribes or whatnot. having many people around you thinking the same thing reinforces your beliefs. it's kind oflike a bad rumor (like the richard gere hamster rumor). it's the feeling that "if everyone says it's true, it must betrue" (the richard gere hamster thing is not true).

Answer 10

But Christianity began in the Middle East.

Answer 11

Then why the diversity of religions in the west. The USA and Canada have all major religions..and they are all growing..Wicca may be the fastest growing religion.