The One True Religion

[Aron-Ra]

African Methodist Episcopal
African Methodist Episcopal Zion
African Orthodox Church (1)
American Baptist Churches USA
Amish
Anabaptist
Anglican Catholic Church
Antiochian Orthodox
Armenian Evangelical Church
Armenian Orthodox
Assemblies of God
Associated Gospel Churches of Canada
Association of Vineyard Churches
Baptist
Baptist Bible Fellowship
Branch Davidian
Brethren in Christ
Bruderhof Communities
Byzantine Catholic Church
Calvary Chapel
Calvinist
Catholic
Cell Church
Celtic Orthodox
Charismatic Episcopal Church
Children of God
Christadelphian
Christian and Missionary Alliance
Christian Churches of God
Christian Identity
Christian Reformed Church
Christian Science
Church of God (Anderson)
Church of God (Cleveland)
Church of God (Seventh Day)
Church of God in Christ
Church of God of Prophecy
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons)
Church of Scotland@
Church of South India
Church of the Brethren
Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America
Church of the Nazarene
Church of the New Jerusalem
Church of the United Brethren in Christ
Church Universal and Triumphant
Churches of Christ
Churches of God General Conference
Congregational Christian Churches
Coptic Orthodox
Cumberland Presbyterian Church
Disciples of Christ
Episcopal
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
Evangelical Congregational Church
Evangelical Covenant Church
Evangelical Formosan Church
Evangelical Free Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church
Evangelical Methodist Church
Evangelical Presbyterian
Fellowship of Christian Assemblies
Fellowship of Grace Brethren
Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches
Free Church of Scotland
Free Methodist
Free Presbyterian
Free Will Baptist
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Gnostic
Great Commission Association of Churches
Greek Orthodox
House of Yahweh
Hutterian Brethren
Independent Fundamental Churches of America
Indian Orthodox
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel
International Churches of Christ
Jehovah's Witnesses
Living Church of God
Local Church
Lutheran
Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
Mar Thoma Syrian Church
Mennonite
Messianic Judaism
Methodist
Moravian Church
Nation of Yahweh
New Frontiers International
Old Catholic Church
Oriental Orthodox
Orthodox
Orthodox Church in America
Orthodox Presbyterian
Pentecostal
Plymouth Brethren
Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Presbyterian Church in America
Primitive Baptist
Protestant Reformed Church
Quaker
Reformed
Reformed Baptist
Reformed Church in America
Reformed Church in the United States
Reformed Churches of Australia
Reformed Episcopal
Reformed Presbyterian Church
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Revival Centres International
Romanian Orthodox
Rosicrucian
Russian Orthodox
Serbian Orthodox
Seventh Day Baptist
Seventh-Day Adventist
Shaker
Society of Friends
Southern Baptist Convention
Spiritist
Syrian Orthodox
True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days
Two-by-Twos
Unification Church
Unitarian-Universalism
United Church of Canada
United Church of Christ
United Church of God
United Free Church of Scotland
United Methodist Church
United Reformed Church
Uniting Church in Australia
Unity Church
Unity Fellowship Church
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches
Virtual Churches
Waldensian Church
The Way International
Web Directories
Wesleyan
Wesleyan Methodist
Worldwide Church of God

These are all the denominations I can find just within Christianity, currently the world’s most popular religion. But each of these hold different beliefs, and some of them conflict quite harshly with all the others. Only when combined can they be considered the world’s largest religion. And even then, they only account for a third of the global population at most.

Islam is the world’s second-largest religion; But it is also the fastest-growing religion, and is expected to soon eclipse the deeply-divided denominations of collective Christianity everywhere in the world, including the United States. Muslims are also divided into denominations of their own, such as the Sunni, Sufi, Shia, and Wahabe.

The next largest religion, (and the oldest religion still in practice) is Hindu. Their 800 million some-odd believers are also divided into sub-categories of their own, Shivites, Jains, Shaktas, Viasnavas, Brahmin, etc., -based largely on their interpratation of Karma, or which aspect of their triunal god-head they feel the deepest personal relationship with. One of those factions, the Bhakti, have beliefs that parallel Christian faith in many ways, except of course that neither their gods nor any part of their religious traditions ever had anything to do with Moses or Abraham.

The fourth largest religion is Buddhism, which, (along with Taoism) account for the majority of religious adherents in the Orient. Being spread across cultures from India to Indonesia, and through the Himalayas into the China and the islands of the far east, they have also diverged into several denominations of their own; Mahayana, Non-sectarian, Nyingma, Pure Land, Rinzai, Shambala, Shin, Soto, Tendai, Theravada, Tibetan, Vajrayana, Vietnamese, Vipassana, Won, and Zen. Some Buddhist groups have lots of little gods, and sometimes they have no gods at all, and rever the bodhisatva instead, which may or may not include a supernatural aspect -depending on who you ask.

Then of course, there are the Jews, who are also divided into several different denominations. And there are also many tens of millions of Sikhs, Zoroastrians, and followers of Baha'u'llah, to say nothing of the pagan polytheists including Helenists, Odinists, Druids, Egyptian and Celtic witches, in addition to a few remaining millions of Shaman and Shinto.

Each religion claims to be unique, and each one pretends to superior in some way. But it is a logical fallacy that all of these groups disagree to some degree with all the others, and conflict violently with most of them, yet the vast majority of them claim that their religions are the one "true" ones, the "one" among them all who "knows" the "absolute truth". And they all believe what they do for the same reasons; some mere human wrote a book while pretending to speak for his god, and told them to believe what they do -for no reason at all. All of them believe contradictory things asserted as fact, but assumed on faith alone, so that none of them really knows anything they pretend to.

 

[Aron-Ra]

"The Persian shows the Zend-Avesta of Zoroaster, the lawgiver of Persia, and calls it the divine law; the Bramin shows the Shaster, revealed, he says, by God to Brama, and given to him out of a cloud; the Jew shows what he calls the law of Moses, given, he says, by God, on the Mount Sinai; the Christian shows a collection of books and epistles, written by nobody knows who, and called the New Testament; and the Mahometan shows the Koran, given, he says, by God to Mahomet: each of these calls itself revealed religion, and the only true Word of God, and this the followers of each profess to believe from the habit of education, and each believes the others are imposed upon."
--Thomas Paine; The Age of Reason, 1795

"The Torah, the [20] Gospels, the Qur'an, the Kitab-i-Aqdas, the Avestas, the Vedas, the Adi-Granth, the Bhagavad-Gita, and the Book of Mormon are all declared the "absolute truth" and the "revealed word" of the "one true" god, and believers say everyone else is deceived. But the only logical probability is that they all are."
--L. Aron Nelson; Age of Bewildering Inanity, early 21st Century

 

[truth above all else]

African Methodist Episcopal
African Methodist Episcopal Zion
African Orthodox Church (1)
American Baptist Churches USA
Amish
Anabaptist
Anglican Catholic Church
Antiochian Orthodox
Armenian Evangelical Church
Armenian Orthodox
Assemblies of God
Associated Gospel Churches of Canada
Association of Vineyard Churches
Baptist
Baptist Bible Fellowship
Branch Davidian
Brethren in Christ
Bruderhof Communities
Byzantine Catholic Church
Calvary Chapel
Calvinist
Catholic
Cell Church
Celtic Orthodox
Charismatic Episcopal Church
Children of God
Christadelphian
Christian and Missionary Alliance
Christian Churches of God
Christian Identity
Christian Reformed Church
Christian Science
Church of God (Anderson)
Church of God (Cleveland)
Church of God (Seventh Day)
Church of God in Christ
Church of God of Prophecy
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons)
Church of Scotland@
Church of South India
Church of the Brethren
Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America
Church of the Nazarene
Church of the New Jerusalem
Church of the United Brethren in Christ
Church Universal and Triumphant
Churches of Christ
Churches of God General Conference
Congregational Christian Churches
Coptic Orthodox
Cumberland Presbyterian Church
Disciples of Christ
Episcopal
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
Evangelical Congregational Church
Evangelical Covenant Church
Evangelical Formosan Church
Evangelical Free Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church
Evangelical Methodist Church
Evangelical Presbyterian
Fellowship of Christian Assemblies
Fellowship of Grace Brethren
Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches
Free Church of Scotland
Free Methodist
Free Presbyterian
Free Will Baptist
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Gnostic
Great Commission Association of Churches
Greek Orthodox
House of Yahweh
Hutterian Brethren
Independent Fundamental Churches of America
Indian Orthodox
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel
International Churches of Christ
Jehovah's Witnesses
Living Church of God
Local Church
Lutheran
Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
Mar Thoma Syrian Church
Mennonite
Messianic Judaism
Methodist
Moravian Church
Nation of Yahweh
New Frontiers International
Old Catholic Church
Oriental Orthodox
Orthodox
Orthodox Church in America
Orthodox Presbyterian
Pentecostal
Plymouth Brethren
Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Presbyterian Church in America
Primitive Baptist
Protestant Reformed Church
Quaker
Reformed
Reformed Baptist
Reformed Church in America
Reformed Church in the United States
Reformed Churches of Australia
Reformed Episcopal
Reformed Presbyterian Church
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Revival Centres International
Romanian Orthodox
Rosicrucian
Russian Orthodox
Serbian Orthodox
Seventh Day Baptist
Seventh-Day Adventist
Shaker
Society of Friends
Southern Baptist Convention
Spiritist
Syrian Orthodox
True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days
Two-by-Twos
Unification Church
Unitarian-Universalism
United Church of Canada
United Church of Christ
United Church of God
United Free Church of Scotland
United Methodist Church
United Reformed Church
Uniting Church in Australia
Unity Church
Unity Fellowship Church
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches
Virtual Churches
Waldensian Church
The Way International
Web Directories
Wesleyan
Wesleyan Methodist
Worldwide Church of God

These are all the denominations I can find just within Christianity, currently the world’s most popular religion. But each of these hold different beliefs, and some of them conflict quite harshly with all the others. Only when combined can they be considered the world’s largest religion. And even then, they only account for a third of the global population at most.

Islam is the world’s second-largest religion; But it is also the fastest-growing religion, and is expected to soon eclipse the deeply-divided denominations of collective Christianity everywhere in the world, including the United States. Muslims are also divided into denominations of their own, such as the Sunni, Sufi, Shia, and Wahabe.

The next largest religion, (and the oldest religion still in practice) is Hindu. Their 800 million some-odd believers are also divided into sub-categories of their own, Shivites, Jains, Shaktas, Viasnavas, Brahmin, etc., -based largely on their interpratation of Karma, or which aspect of their triunal god-head they feel the deepest personal relationship with. One of those factions, the Bhakti, have beliefs that parallel Christian faith in many ways, except of course that neither their gods nor any part of their religious traditions ever had anything to do with Moses or Abraham.

The fourth largest religion is Buddhism, which, (along with Taoism) account for the majority of religious adherents in the Orient. Being spread across cultures from India to Indonesia, and through the Himalayas into the China and the islands of the far east, they have also diverged into several denominations of their own; Mahayana, Non-sectarian, Nyingma, Pure Land, Rinzai, Shambala, Shin, Soto, Tendai, Theravada, Tibetan, Vajrayana, Vietnamese, Vipassana, Won, and Zen. Some Buddhist groups have lots of little gods, and sometimes they have no gods at all, and rever the bodhisatva instead, which may or may not include a supernatural aspect -depending on who you ask.

Then of course, there are the Jews, who are also divided into several different denominations. And there are also many tens of millions of Sikhs, Zoroastrians, and followers of Baha'u'llah, to say nothing of the pagan polytheists including Helenists, Odinists, Druids, Egyptian and Celtic witches, in addition to a few remaining millions of Shaman and Shinto.

Each religion claims to be unique, and each one pretends to superior in some way. But it is a logical fallacy that all of these groups disagree to some degree with all the others, and conflict violently with most of them, yet the vast majority of them claim that their religions are the one "true" ones, the "one" among them all who "knows" the "absolute truth". And they all believe what they do for the same reasons; some mere human wrote a book while pretending to speak for his god, and told them to believe what they do -for no reason at all. All of them believe contradictory things asserted as fact, but assumed on faith alone, so that none of them really knows anything they pretend to.

very informative yet still not exhaustive listing
but sadly accurate
it requires spiritual discernment to understand that the Church founded by Jesus Christ has not changed since its establishment and is the same yesterday today and eternally, those who seek Christ belong to the church even amidst the shipwreck of humanity

 

[Aron-Ra]

very informative yet still not exhaustive listing
but sadly accurate
it requires spiritual discernment to understand that the Church founded by Jesus Christ has not changed since its establishment and is the same yesterday today and eternally, those who seek Christ belong to the church even amidst the shipwreck of humanity

It is important to those of us who studied the history of comparative religions in college to understand that Jesus never founded any church. He considered himself a Jew. And the religion of Christianity began as four different, wildly-conflicting beliefs for at least 100 years or so. There was some compromise after that, when three of the four factions were forceably combined into Orthodoxy, a religion many modern Christians consider remarkably pagan, as the early Catholics were said to be also. The disassociated jumble of man-made and human-edited works which now make up the remaining 66 books of the Bible were sorted out of numerous other similar stories, and finally compiled -not according to any sholarly study of data, but by a series of committee decisions based on the popularity of some of these stories in different communities! The interpretations even of the humanity of Jesus were approved only by a popular vote taken hundreds of years after the man they were all arguing about had died. The formal debate lasted for centuries, and couldn't be settled. So they voted on it! As if that's any way to deduce events of the past! The winning opinion was a comprimize between the three main beliefs of the area, one which would declare Jesus to be a triunal god, like the Hindu gods. Proponants of the losing opinion held that Jesus was a prophet only. They were banished into the Arabian city of Medina, where they apparently sowed the seeds for the emergence of Islam 200 years later. Every Biblical scholar already knows all this. So the whole of creationism is built upon a premise that is known by all to be false, -the bogus claim that the Bible wasn’t really written by the men who really wrote it.

 

[70judge]

you forgot one that is big in minnesota, free lutheran. its kind of a cross between lutheran and baptist. they believe in 6000 year old earth and that every word in the king james bible is the inspired word of god right down to the punctuation.
http://www.aflc.org/

 

[Aron-Ra]

you forgot one that is big in minnesota, free lutheran. its kind of a cross between lutheran and baptist. they believe in 6000 year old earth and that every word in the king james bible is the inspired word of god right down to the punctuation.
http://www.aflc.org/

Wow!

"If the King's English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!"
--Ma Ferguson, Governor of Texas, 1920

"If God had wanted another "i" dotted or another "t" crossed, He would have had it done. The writers did not use one word unless God wanted that word used. They put in every word which God wanted them to put into the Bible."
--Dr. George DeHoff

What a buncha loonies!

 

[TooCurious]

Not that I'm disagreeing (because I'm not), but I am kind of curious as to how this point relates to Creationism vs. Evolution. I think it's a great OP and makes your point very well; I just wouldn't be surprised if the thread ended up getting moved over to GA.

 

[Aron-Ra]

Not that I'm disagreeing (because I'm not), but I am kind of curious as to how this point relates to Creationism vs. Evolution. I think it's a great OP and makes your point very well; I just wouldn't be surprised if the thread ended up getting moved over to GA.

The relevant point here is that the creationist claim is of their assumption of "absolute authority" of their sacred dogma.

 

[TooCurious]

The relevant point here is that the creationist claim is of their assumption of "absolute authority" of their sacred dogma.

Okay, gotcha.

 

[GoSeminoles!]

you forgot one that is big in minnesota, free lutheran. its kind of a cross between lutheran and baptist. they believe in 6000 year old earth and that every word in the king james bible is the inspired word of god right down to the punctuation.
http://www.aflc.org/

How would Jesus punctuate?

 

[NamesAreHardToPick]

They all seem to claim to have something unique that the other doesn't. For an example, I was a Mormon for a while and Mormons claimed that only through Mormonism could one know the will of God because of their prophet; Jews claimed that they had the true word of God that hadn't been corrupted; Christians claimed that they were special because their God died for us all; Muslims ... well ... they're just Mormons with diapers on their heads.

 

[caravelair]

i'd be curious to hear what some of our local christians think about the OP.

 

[Silent Bob]

i'd be curious to hear what some of our local christians think about the OP.

I've always thought there is one God but a few billion ways to get to Him (Her/It).

I believe that when Jesus said: [SIZE=-1]No one comes to the Father except through me. He was talking about His teachings of love. Any religion that preaches love above all else is the One True religion to me.[/SIZE] Names and labels don't matter. If a person's heart is in the right place He is with God (even if they think otherwise e.g. atheists), if his heart is not then it doesn't matter if he goes to any church and prays 12 hours a day to any Deity (including Jesus, Jehovah or Krishna).

 

[Lilandra]

because Christians are not a monolithic group with one interpretation. Like he has posted elsewhere, modern Christianity evolved along different lines of descent(making it relevant to CE) Do I have to get the not a ladder but a bush illustation out?

Why anyone would expect a consensus among humans rather than a diversity of opinions is beyond me. Really it is quite logical that there are different sorts of Christians. There are different sorts of what in linguistics would be termed isoglosses that naturally cause divisions.

If you were to extend the term to religion-geography, language, ideologies, and culture, etc. select for different things in religions.

Now stop being interesting so I can get something done.

i'd be curious to hear what some of our local christians think about the OP.

 

[Hydra009]

I think Aron's argument here is that said divisions and the evolution of orthodoxy along lines of popularity and power point to the conclusion that said beliefs are purely the product of human beings.

People of course aren't going to always agree, but from this perspective, it seems like there are just as many different one true paths as there are people. Shouldn't one expect less chaos and dispute regarding something that is so objectively true?

 

[outlaw]

They all seem to claim to have something unique that the other doesn't. For an example, I was a Mormon for a while and Mormons claimed that only through Mormonism could one know the will of God because of their prophet; Jews claimed that they had the true word of God that hadn't been corrupted; Christians claimed that they were special because their God died for us all; Muslims ... well ... they're just Mormons with diapers on their heads.

so…Mormons are Muslims going commando?

 

[Lilandra]

which parts are purely the product of human beings, God lost in translation, spiritually inspired, etc.

Only religions that claim to be the one true path emphatically (fundamentalists) make people suspect it is about power.

I don't have to remind you that any human enterprise is subject to chaos and dispute. Even ones based on natural methodology like science

Something less tangible like spirituality is going to get garbled.
.

I think Aron's argument here is that said divisions and the evolution of orthodoxy along lines of popularity and power point to the conclusion that said beliefs are purely the product of human beings.

People of course aren't going to always agree, but from this perspective, it seems like there are just as many different one true paths as there are people. Shouldn't one expect less chaos and dispute regarding something that is so objectively true?

 

[Aron-Ra]

IMO there are going to be different denominations because Christians are not a monolithic group with one interpretation. Like he has posted elsewhere, modern Christianity evolved along different lines of descent(making it relevant to CE) Do I have to get the not a ladder but a bush illustation out?

Why anyone would expect a consensus among humans rather than a diversity of opinions is beyond me.

Because they're all trying to answer the same question, and there's only one answer, not 250 different ones just within Christianity alone, to say nothing of the other two-thirds of the planet.

If multiple persons each claim to "know" the "truth", and especially if they call it "absolute truth", but their perspectives vary even a little, then their "truth" ain't really all that absolute, and its not even truth. Many Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Mormons, Catholics and "non-denominational" Christians insist that each of their perspectives were revealed to them directly by God himself, yet each believes something contradictory and mutually-exclusive. So the voice in their heads ain't really God, no matter what each of them asserts.

I know a man right now who worships Bast, the Egyptian cat-goddess because she revealed herself manifest in the flesh before him. He could physically feel her touch and heard her speak with an audible voice. Bhakti Hindus and various Christian cultists often make the same claim. But then, some people insist they've met Elvis in the 1980s too. So I guess all these apparitions are real, right? Is it reasonable at all to pretend that all of them are absolutely false, except one? Or that the reality of the one should never be question lest ye suffer a fate worse than death? What being would require some so shallow as that? Even a slightly superior one wouldn't want or tolerate that.

Really it is quite logical that there are different sorts of Christians.

Imagine having a thousand conflicting factions of "evolutionists"; with some saying we evolved from monkeys, while others say we evolved from merfolk, sasquatch, dinosaurs, rats, angels, toadstools, or anything else you can think of, -while some other group says we emerged from the primordial soup fully-formed from nothing, -with millions of people in each group -all claiming that all the rest are 100% wrong.... If all that inconsistency, conflict, and contradiction made evolution look like a jumbled mess of blind and baseless guesswork made up on the spot and asserted without reason by folks who hadn't any clue, then imagine how religion looks to me.

There are different sorts of what in linguistics would be termed isoglosses that naturally cause divisions.

But we're talking about people coming up with more and more ideas each increasinlgy different than all the rest, all to describe the same thing. What should be happening in that case is that what might have started out as myriad wild guesses should have whittled themselves down to one final answer -on "absolute truth". But we see is exactly the opposite, implying that everyone's "truth" is straying further and further from the mark, if there was any truth to any of it to start with.

If you were to extend the term to religion-geography, language, ideologies, and culture, etc. select for different things in religions.

Now stop being interesting so I can get something done.

One more thing. If any of these myriad sects can dare claim absolute truth, then why have we still never yet come to a consensus to prove which is the right religion?

 

[Hydra009]

which parts are purely the product of human beings, God lost in translation, spiritually inspired, etc.

Only religions that claim to be the one true path emphatically (fundamentalists) make suspect it is about power.

I don't have to remind you that any human enterprise is subject to chaos and dispute. Even ones based on natural methodology like science

Something less tangible like spirituality is going to get garbled.

Yeah, I kinda feel the same way, it's difficult to tell what's what. Personally, I not sure of the value of taking the apologetics route in crevo, because it shifts the topic from science to biblical accuracy, which is exactly the conversation creationists live for.

Let's say that the argument is correct and the Bible doesn't actually have the authority Christians claim. By definition, no Christian will ever be convinced that this argument is correct. And it's really irrelevant anyway, because disproving the Bible doesn't make the case for evolution, it just makes the case against creationism. For me, it's a lot simplier and easier just to go over the scientific data without getting all up in people's personal beliefs.

And of course, this argument is really bad if the Bible does in fact have divine authority.

Either way, not especially productive.

 

[Lilandra]

One more thing. If any of these myriad sects can dare claim absolute truth, then why have we still never yet come to a consensus to prove which is the right religion?

when it comes to spirituality. It's like asking why isn't there one true form of music?

I don't think that you can apply a one size fits all to it. But now I am sounding polytheistic. It is very hard to wrap your head around.

If multiple persons each claim to "know" the "truth", and especially if they call it "absolute truth", but their perspectives vary even a little, then their "truth" ain't really all that absolute, and its not even truth. Many Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Mormons, Catholics and "non-denominational" Christians insist that each of their perspectives were revealed to them directly by God himself, yet each believes something contradictory and mutually-exclusive. So the voice in their heads ain't really God, no matter what each of them asserts.

But in the case of Creationism in general and YEC specifically, I do acknowledge that many claim that they are revealing the word of God in a 6 day Creation.

So what you are saying is true in alot of cases. I suppose that is why freedom of religion is a personal liberty in a lot of countries now. Because of the harm that has been done using the authority of the church before. Still, you can't really falsify that God has never appeared to anyone.

Or that the reality of the one should never be question lest ye suffer a fate worse than death? What being would require some so shallow as that? Even a slightly superior one wouldn't want or tolerate that.

It is quite possible that the flaw is human nature and not God waiting to torment dissenters as is often claimed.

Imagine having a thousand conflicting factions of "evolutionists"; with some saying we evolved from monkeys, while others say we evolved from merfolk, sasquatch, dinosaurs, rats, angels, toadstools, or anything else you can think of, -while some other group says we emerged from the primordial soup fully-formed from nothing, -with millions of people in each group -all claiming that all the rest are 100% wrong.... If all that inconsistency, conflict, and contradiction made evolution look like a jumbled mess of blind and baseless guesswork made up on the spot and asserted without reason by folks who hadn't any clue, then imagine how religion looks to me.

But the history of science has had its ruling paradigms. It is often dissenters who make breakthrough discoveries. There is some disagreement on the exact specifics of evolution though none approaching the level of beheading infidels I grant you.

But we're talking about people coming up with more and more ideas each increasinlgy different than all the rest, all to describe the same thing. What should be happening in that case is that what might have started out as myriad wild guesses should have whittled themselves down to one final answer -on "absolute truth". But we see is exactly the opposite, implying that everyone's "truth" is straying further and further from the mark, if there was any truth to any of it to start with.

You can discard a great many differing views based upon inspection of how many wild eyed claims there are.

Then too, alot of religions will make claims that can be falsified by science like Joseph Smith's descriptions of the occupants of the moon and a 6,000 year old earth.

Still, I hold out hope that we are not wrong about every single thing about God. Although you cannot rule that possibilty out.