Religious people: You all tend to have the same reasons for believing...

...even if you're in different religions!

I'm going to break down some common reasons that I've found amongst people of various religions and various denominations within religions for why they follow their own religious belief. None of these are universal, they're just some of the reasons I've found that cross religious lines.

Tradition
It's what they grew up with, it's what their society and culture has been dominated by, and/or it's what separates them from another group of people with a different religion/denomination.

Miracles
Someone was healed of a disease miraculously, some item displayed blessed properties, some sign of the deity was found in nature, etc.

Scripture
The scripture: predicts future events, shows incredible knowledge of science prior to the secular discovery, it is a perfect guide for living, it has a history of scholarship behind it that supports your view, it is the word of a deity, those who doubt it just don't have the divine inspiration to interpret it, etc.

"Reason"
The argument from design, I've found it used by Muslims, Jews, and Christians to support their specific beliefs...even though 'designer' doesn't seem to imply Allah/Yahweh/Jesus specifically.

Threat
An appeal to the negative consequences found in the religious tradition for those who do not believe. Basically the fire and brimstone line. You'll go to hell if you don't believe.

Faith
(How could I have left this out!?)
Faith. Plain and simple. They have faith in their religion over all other religions and views.

Now, this is not to argue those points specifically, it's to argue one facet: If people from an entirely different religion use the exact same arguments which you use with equal weight to their arguments, how can either of you claim it as a strength for your mutually exclusive religions?

How is it that a believer in any religion can take more or less the same format of argument and be equally as effective as a believer from another religion?

I was really hoping to read either
"Blind"
Or
"Saved"

The saved one seems like a big one. I was "Saved" so now i follow them.

I'll pray for you.

Originally posted by STEADFast
I'll pray for you.

Pray for what? So he can be saved? What type of input is this?
Really i don't find this funny at all. Say what you want to say. Don't think that because you are obviously religious that we all know what's wrong with us because it doesn't follow your belief.

What about FAITH?

Would this be another category or subcategory to the ones listed?
I am agnostic but it was out of years of contemplation of the subject of religion. It had nothing to do with anything you listed.
But then maybe I should ask, are agnostics or atheists in a different discussion altogether?

reply to post by AnteBellum


Just edited the post to reflect my glaring omission! Thank you for catching that.

Most people of the world come by their religion via "tradition", and in many (if not most) cases it is forced tradition, IE they must either pretend to belong to that religion or they will be persecuted by their society and even family. The vast majority of people who subscribe to a particular religion have never even read the documents ascribed to that religion and know little to nothing of the pillars of their own faith. They are blind followers. As for me, not that it matters to you, but I investigated many religions with an open mind and came away with a 100% understanding that Christ is the only one deserving of worship and the Bible the only 100% reliable document of its type. I don't belong to any religion, but I am a follower of Christ.

reply to post by SavedOne


So you're a Scripture person? Flat Earth, geocentrism, plants before the Sun, etc...all of those count for 100% accuracy? I'm sorry, but the Bible is about as accurate as the Qu'ran...well, I wouldn't be surprised if the Qu'ran was a bit more accurate, seeing as it has 700 years of accumulated knowledge ahead of the Bible...granted, that 700 years doesn't account for much back then.

Dalai Lama said it best:

In a round table discussion about religion and freedom in which Dalai Lama and myself were participating at recess I maliciously, and also with interest, asked him: “ Your holiness, what is the best religion?”
Which surprised me because I knew of the malice contained in my question. He answered: “ The best religion is the one that gets you closest to God. It is the one that makes you a better person.” I thought he would say: “ The Tibetan Buddhism” or “The oriental religions, much older than Chritianity” Dalai Lama paused, smiled and looked me in the eyes ….
To get out of my embarassment with such a wise answer, I asked: “ What is it that makes me better?” He responded: “ Whatever makes you more compassionate, more sensible, more detached, more loving, more humanitarian, more responsible, more ethical.” “ The religion that will do that for you is the best religion”
I was silent for a moment, marvelling and even today thinking of his wise and irrefutable response: “ I am not interested, my friend, about your religión or if you are religious or not. “ What really is important to me is your behaviour in front of your peers, family, work, community, and in front of the world.” “ Remember, the universe is the echo of our actions and our thoughts.”
“ The law of action and reaction is not exclusively for physics. It is also of human relations. If I act with goodness, I will receive goodness. If I act with eviI, I will get evil.” “ What our grandparents told us is the pure truth. You will always have what you desire for others. Being happy is not a matter of destiny. It is a matter of options.”
Finally he said: “ Take care of your Thoughts because they become Words . Take care of your Words because they will become Actions . Take care of your Actions because they will become Habits . Take care of your Habits because they will form your Character . Take care of your Character because it will form your Destiny , and your Destiny will be your Life … and … “ There is no religion higher than the Truth.”

reply to post by AdamsMurmur


But some of believe the best religion to achieve this state of being is NO religion!

Why do we need to follow some religious dogma to be good, decent people. Shouldn't we be able to do this on our own without the help of some book, guru, priest, rabbi or GOD!

Originally posted by AnteBellum
reply to post by AdamsMurmur

 

But some of believe the best religion to achieve this state of being is NO religion!

Why do we need to follow some religious dogma to be good, decent people. Shouldn't we be able to do this on our own without the help of some book, guru, priest, rabbi or GOD!

The way I interpreted that, the Dalai Lama wasn't advocating religion in the literal word. If you think about it all religion is is a belief system. if you take it down to bare bones, what he was suggesting is to just live in harmony with others and be at peace with them and yourself, and whatever route or way you choose to attain that, take it. The man asked what religion was the best, so the Dalai Lama responded in terms of religion. He could just as easily spoken about a life philosophy and the answer would have been the same.

what if you did lsd, poyote, dmt and mushrooms for years and found Christ? like what if your religion is exactly that: YOUR religion. of course...i believe you're more referencing organized/recognized religions. in which...i will add my two cents: I LOVE CHRIST...I HATE CHRISTIANS. i bet that most religios people...if your maker or prophet were to bring you in for the day of judgement...they would probably back hand you for being such hypocrits.

if you're not a hypocrit...well then there's no need to take offense. so please refrain from acting as though i called you out...but a hit dog will hollar. Jesus was crucified for speaking out against the church and organized religion. His teachings said He is the way...not this religion in His name is the way.

the goal of a true teacher is to create teachers...not perpetual students. get out of the classroom. start your own "religion". inspire others through your story. never forget that (insert god/prophet of choice) was a great teacher and woke you up but stop giving all the glory to Him. give some to yourself. you are His children, no? i really really doubt that most true prophets would have wanted to see the masses try to act just like them. if i taught someone the way teach and they taught just like me...i would feel like a failure. i would feel like my followers really are sheep...dumb sheep.

think for yourselves. i believe the calling of a true christian is to be christlike...and Christ didn't constantly reference himself in the third person. you're a divine being just like He was...are you not? i believe all religions believe in souls and spirit worlds...meaning that all religions know these body and egos are only temperary.

be the spiritual being that your God created you to be...

You forgot to mention lifestyle.

Many people fail to understand that you can have morals without a god setting them, Maybe the "Threat" ties into this. It's too common, people who don't know how to tell themselves what's right or wrong ditch the concept for "sin or not" instead.

Also, opposite of Threat, Promise.
Living forever, Good reincarnation, The 70 virgins deal or whatever, many people believe they'll get something good out of these.

Personally I find both of these to be indicators of selfishness. I'll only be a good person if I get something out of it. Obviously not all Christians, but common enough to be worthy of the list.

I've always found after many rounds of debate an argument, sooner or later the "subjective experience" card is pulled out.

"I felt Jesus"
"God speaks to me"
"I saw Mary in my cheese pasty"
"It's within me"
"I was born with Allah wrapped around by soul"

Madness...

Theres nothing to be said about this man. All you do is question religion.

Sincerely ask Jesus into your heart, and you'll understand.

You have raised a very good question in the OP. One that is never going to be answered within a few sentences.

The Dalai Lama gave a very wise and true answer when he said the religion that makes you a better person is the one for you. Within Christianity and many other religions we are taught that our religion is the only one and the only way to get a reward in the afterlife.

What we all forget is that if you look back in the bible (Genesis Chap 11), there was an event surrounding the tower of babel. If you read this it explains that mankind built this huge tower and was so proud of it he thought he was now better than God. God however was rather unimpressed by this. Rather than smiting the world and killing everyone though, he came up with a new idea - he split the people, mixed their languages up and spread them to all corners of the globe. This is the basic Christian, Jewish and presumably Muslin explanation of how we ended up with so many different races and languages.

The bible then concerns itself with the story of the tribe of Israel from there on and has become our one accepted source of commentary on all things God and Jesus. What it doesn't allow for however is the possibility that this same God actually visited other tribes of men after the tower of babel incident.

I was reading another absolutely fascinating thread here on ATS about a recent discovery in China. There is a hill tribe there that has an oral tradition that recites the story of creation, the flood and the tower of babel pretty much identically to that in the bible. After the tower of babel story it parts way with the bible and goes on to recant the genealogy of the tribe and worship of other gods.

The whole point is that it is entirely possible that some of these religions started out from the same Judaism tradition and evolved through what we see today. There are elements of this to be seen everywhere like the great flood that was recorded in more than just the bible for instance. Other religions are very primitive and have to have been invented by man - I have seen the Barong dance for instance. Absolutely no offense is intended to any Hindu, but the whole thing reminded me of cavemen dancing around and worshipping fire.

It is only here in the West really that we get the luxury of pluralism and the choice to pick whatever religion we want. The ex Taleban government in Afghanistan is a great example of a totalitarian take on religion. They even took it upon themselves to desecrate ancient buddhist statues as they were considered to be idols and an insult to Allah. You could also find yourself in prison if your beard was not the width of a mans fist.

At the end of it all, we are in the religion we are in because of the culture we were born into and whatever personal revelation has led us to faith in the religion in the first place.

reply to post by graphuto

Originally posted by graphuto
Madness...

Theres nothing to be said about this man. All you do is question religion.

Religion? No, I question pretty much everything. I also eat, poop, love, laugh, live, learn...ran out of things beginning in L. I write, I make videos, I do all sorts of other things.

Sincerely ask Jesus into your heart, and you'll understand.

I try to make a habit of doing this every 10th or so time a person tells me that it's the only way I'll learn about Jesus...I've tried it a lot of times. I still don't seem to understand.

reply to post by AdamsMurmur


Man, the Lama is really overrated. Anyone can say all sorts of platitudes that sound really nice, but the man is saying things without foundation. We can find goodness outside of religion. I'm a better man for not having religion. I'm more responsible, more careful, kinder, more charitable, and a lot more patient now that I'm without religion.

I don't see the point of getting closer to a deity...when there's no proof of a deity.

Originally posted by SavedOne
Most people of the world come by their religion via "tradition", and in many (if not most) cases it is forced tradition, IE they must either pretend to belong to that religion or they will be persecuted by their society and even family. The vast majority of people who subscribe to a particular religion have never even read the documents ascribed to that religion and know little to nothing of the pillars of their own faith. They are blind followers. As for me, not that it matters to you, but I investigated many religions with an open mind and came away with a 100% understanding that Christ is the only one deserving of worship and the Bible the only 100% reliable document of its type. I don't belong to any religion, but I am a follower of Christ.

A star for you. You just gave a perfect description of myself.

Ante

Why do we need to follow some religious dogma to be good, decent people. Shouldn't we be able to do this on our own without the help of some book, guru, priest, rabbi or GOD!

The answer is NO we should not be able to, because apparently we can't. What do you think God has been doing? Do you not see God has for the most part let mankind have it his own way? Since the garden of Eden we have had just what you decribed. Do I need to point out all the
examples there are of us not doing so well in this separation from God ? Does nuclear meltdown ring a bell?
Most children do much better in life with the guidence of a Father.

reply to post by randyvs


Hey randy!

Havn't seen around in a while ^_^

Does nuclear meltdown ring a bell?

Funny you mention nuclear meltdown:-

"For all I know it is within the providence of God that the human race should destroy itself in this manner."[nuclear war]

Dr. Geoffrey Fisher, the Archbishop of Canterbury talking about a nuclear power.

So it's just the plan of God, let it be then?

Kind of like "the flood"; punishment for men for their sin, except man's doing the punishment on behalf of God this time.

Just shows you what a belief in God can cause you to say, and do.