"I used to be heavily religious. I have read the whole bible, but I recently took a course on world religions and learned a lot about the aspects of religion that people don't really want to acknowledge. There are soooo many different religions in our world and some of these religions do very radical things for what they believe. We are geared to the beliefs we were raised by, so who is really correct? I believe there is a higher power, because some things are unexplainable, but I don't adhere to organized religion anymore. Look at kids who grow up in foreign countries with no knowledge of Christ. How do they get a free pass to the afterlife without doing the adhereances that everyone else has to do over here? I don't mean to sound negative, but I am a realist. I would love to feel like we are right in our beliefs, but I don't think there is enough evidence to convince me. Especially when we take into consideration the history of earth and mankind."
What would you say to this person?
This is what is called a Gish gallop. Someone fires off every objection they have ever come across to a beleif knowing that no one will be able to respond to all of them.
Let us examine some of the claims and see whether they are helpful at understanding what is true about the world or not.
Lots of religions in the world - By implication if there was a real tue religion then the whole world would recognize it.
How many inferences do we have that offer explanations of quantum mechanics?
Over a dozen!
Only one of them is correct or perhaps none of them.
The fact that knowledge is gained over time and people maintain culturally-enforced false beliefs is found throughout history and their is no reason to expect religious Knowledge to get a special exemption.
We are geared to beliefs we are raised by!
This is the genetic fallacy.
The question we are asking is what can be known about God's existence? And then what can be known of the truth of Christian claims and evidence.
Notice how your statement if true, would destroy all knowledge not just religious knowledge. It has nothing to do with the investigation of the truth of Xian claims.
I'm not an exclusivist so the fact that people were born without ever knowing about Jesus in know way keeps them from perceiving God or acting morally as recorded in Roms. 1 and 2 respectively.
They can respond to the limited revelation they have. So God is not so small as to make a cultural barrier so large that people are unable to approach him or be in relationship with him. It is only against a Calvinist understanding that we could paint God as such a cruel despot.
