Probability your religion is true?

[cloudyday2]

It seems to me that "belief" in a religion is the decision to behave as though that religion is true. A person might reason that a religion is 5% likely to be true, but that same person might decide to "believe" that religion - i.e. live according to that religion. This is similar to when a person places a large bet on a horse to win after studying all the statistics. In addition, most people don't behave as though their religion is true all the time; most people will only stick their necks out so far. This is similar to how much a person is willing to bet on their chosen horse.

So I'm curious what probabilities you might give that your religion is true.

 

[Steve Petersen]

It seems to me that "belief" in a religion is the decision to behave as though that religion is true. A person might reason that a religion is 5% likely to be true, but that same person might decide to "believe" that religion - i.e. live according to that religion. In addition, most people don't behave as though their religion is true all the time; most people will only stick their necks out so far. That is another issue though.

So I'm curious what probabilities you might give that your religion is true.

Are you referring to spiritual truth? How do you even measure that?

 

[eartheart]

Living under grace and not under the law, my religion is a light yoke, Christ broke the chains that bound me to RC rules and dogmatic beliefs. Nothing against RCs, i just needed some truth in my religion.

Sent from my LGLS665 using Tapatalk

 

[BeStill&Know]

It seems to me that "belief" in a religion is the decision to behave as though that religion is true. A person might reason that a religion is 5% likely to be true, but that same person might decide to "believe" that religion - i.e. live according to that religion. This is similar to when a person places a large bet on a horse to win after studying all the statistics. In addition, most people don't behave as though their religion is true all the time; most people will only stick their necks out so far. This is similar to how much a person is willing to bet on their chosen horse.

So I'm curious what probabilities you might give that your religion is true.

I came from a atheist father and a non-practicing catholic mother.
So I was not brain-washed as a child to believe in God.
As a child, I had a "being" that protected me from death several times.
Would also enter into my dreams to show me things.
Who also instilled in me a curiosity to read the Bible as a child.
Who gave me compassion to pray for people I didn't know.
As a teenager placed people in my life who prayed for me, and step by step led me to the Lord.
As an adult, guided circumstances so I would be given understanding of who God is, who Jesus is and the Good News message.
I saw a multitude of patterns and codes when I began to read His Word, it was obvious that man did not inspire the Bible.
Archeology and other sciences, plus common sense prove God exist.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

So I'm curious what probabilities you might give that your religion is true.

Probability ?
Of any religion ?
ZERO.

YHWH and HIS WORD ?
ABSOLUTE TRUTH.

 

[cloudyday2]

Are you referring to spiritual truth? How do you even measure that?

A Christian on CF professes the Nicene Creed and that lists some things.
- Christ was born of a virgin
- Christ was resurrected
- Christ will judge everybody
- etc.

Let's say I believe because I saw Jesus and was temporarily blinded until a Christian prayed to restore my sight (like the claims for St. Paul).

Maybe I really encountered Jesus.

Or maybe I hallucinated Jesus. Maybe the blindness was psychological and the healing was also psychological.

Or maybe I encountered some Hindu god that pretended to be Jesus.

Or maybe the CIA put a new mind control drug in my coffee.

The probabilities are subjective of course.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Satan blinds the world.
That's a religion that is 100% true also. (in that it happens, not that it is good)
CIA ? no worries.
hindu ? small potatoes.
hallucinated ? every day ! (although the world doesn't call satan's deceptions hallucinations - the world calls satan's deceptions REAL and TRUE)

 

[cloudyday2]

I'm currently reading "Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium" by Ehrman. The author makes the case that certain verses were more likely to be authentic quotes from Jesus compared to others. There is a lot of informed guesswork in these arguments, and I can see how different people might develop different ideas. As a non-academic, it is hard for me to know if Ehrman's theory is 10% likely or 50% likely or 90% likely.

 

[cloudyday2]

I came from a atheist father and a non-practicing catholic mother.
So I was not brain-washed as a child to believe in God.
As a child, I had a "being" that protected me from death several times.
Would also enter into my dreams to show me things.
Who also instilled in me a curiosity to read the Bible as a child.
Who gave me compassion to pray for people I didn't know.
As a teenager placed people in my life who prayed for me, and step by step led me to the Lord.
As an adult, guided circumstances so I would be given understanding of who God is, who Jesus is and the Good News message.
I saw a multitude of patterns and codes when I began to read His Word, it was obvious that man did not inspire the Bible.
Archeology and other sciences, plus common sense prove God exist.

Thanks for the detailed answer. Those sound like fairly good reasons for you to believe.

So what subjective probability would you assign based on your personal experiences plus archaeology plus science plus common sense?

 

[cloudyday2]

Living under grace and not under the law, my religion is a light yoke, Christ broke the chains that bound me to RC rules and dogmatic beliefs. Nothing against RCs, i just needed some truth in my religion.

Sent from my LGLS665 using Tapatalk

So what sort of probability?

 

[awitch]

As far as the strictly theological parts go, I'd say the probability of truth is quite low. I don't dare say I have all the answers; my path has more to do with coming up with more questions.

But I believe that any god(s) would be more than happy to meet any sincere seeker at least half way.

 

[cloudyday2]

Probability ?
Of any religion ?
ZERO.

YHWH and HIS WORD ?
ABSOLUTE TRUTH.

Oh come on.... surely it's not 100%.

 

[cloudyday2]

As far as the strictly theological parts go, I'd say the probability of truth is quite low. I don't dare say I have all the answers; my path has more to do with coming up with more questions.

But I believe that any god(s) would be more than happy to meet any sincere seeker at least half way.

What do you think would be the probability that there a no gods? Would that affect your religious belief? (Of course "gods" are hard to define.)

 

[Steve Petersen]

The probabilities are subjective of course.

That was kinda where I was going.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Oh come on.... surely it's not 100%.

Absolutely Perfectly So. (and NOT subjective)

 

[cloudyday2]

Absolutely Perfectly So. (and NOT subjective)

O.k. I see your account says "Anabaptist". What is the probability that some detail of your denomination's theology might be wrong? For example, maybe infant baptism is acceptable to God, but a second baptism is an offense to God.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

O.k. I see your account says "Anabaptist". What is the probability that some detail of your denomination's theology might be wrong? For example, maybe infant baptism is acceptable to God, but a second baptism is an offense to God.

Don't go by labels. Go ONLY by YHWH'S WORD. ("infant baptism" is something we are not even allowed to discuss fully on this forum.)

That label is simply the closest one I found in the list that this forum required us to pick one from when signing up. (or whatever, it was a long time ago) .

You could join ANY religion on earth, and still be condemned.
YHWH does not look at club memberships.

Probability ?
Of any religion ?
ZERO.

So we do not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of YHWH (GOD).

YHWH and HIS WORD ?
ABSOLUTE TRUTH.

 

[cloudyday2]

I guess what I'm trying to understand is how many people "believe" their religion with high confidence. Some Christian apologists such as Lee Strobel "The Case for Christ" apparently think there are reasons to have very high confidence. (I have not read his book.) Other Christians might consider Christianity's facts to be very unlikely but not impossible.

So I was curious how much confidence people had in their religious facts.

Maybe some Christians are reluctant to admit that they do not have 100% confidence? I thought it was o.k. for a Christian to have doubts.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

QUOTE="cloudyday2 " I guess what I'm trying to understand is how many people "believe" their religion with high confidence. Some Christian apologists such as Lee Strobel "The Case for Christ" apparently think there are reasons to have very high confidence. (I have not read his book.)

So I was curious how much confidence people had in their religious facts.

Maybe some Christians are reluctant to admit that they do not have 100% confidence? I thought it was o.k. for a Christian to have doubts. QUOTE
It is.
Most Christians do better if they have doubts.
Otherwise they just believe what they are told,
and not what YHWH (GOD) says.

Some of what that one you mentioned believes and says may well be wrong - contrary to YHWH'S WORD - so is SUBJECT TO TESTING.
(I haven't read that book either)

That's why YHWH , in HIS WORD,
says NOT to trust men/ flesh/ religion.
And
if anything being said to you by anyone (EVEN an Apostle Paul or Angel of LIGHT in appearance)
is not in line and complete HARMONY with YHWH'S WORD
then reject it.

YHWH IS ALIVE ! Y'SHUA (Jesus) IS ALIVE ! TALK TO THEM !

Seek YHWH while HE may be found. (there is a time coming when HE may not be found - some or many people may already have passed that time) ....

 

[awitch]

What do you think would be the probability that there a no gods? Would that affect your religious belief? (Of course "gods" are hard to define.)

After all these years without any empirical evidence for any gods, I'd say there's a very high probability that they don't exist. However, as Agent Mulder said, "All the evidence to the contrary is not entirely dissuasive."

What I have is sufficiently convincing and effective for me so I continue on my path. Can't make any promises for anyone else, though.