There is so many believes, but only one or none could be right

[Mortensen]

I could take one of the strong believers here on the forum and compare him to another person with just as strong belief, but believing in rather the oposite. Both of them can't be right so why shoud any of them be right? There is so many religions and believs that are and have been on this planet and all of them cant be right. I believe in Trolls. Is my belief less sirious than any other christian belief just because there is few out there believing in it?

 

[DeepThinker]

I could take one of the strong believers here on the forum and compare him to another person with just as strong belief, but believing in rather the oposite. Both of them can't be right so why shoud any of them be right? There is so many religions and believs that are and have been on this planet and all of them cant be right. I believe in Trolls. Is my belief less sirious than any other christian belief just because there is few out there believing in it?

No not realy, your belife is just as valid as the next persons.

you cant disprove anyones belife untill you know the absolute truth, and even then how do you know that that truth is correct.
I like to think that if there is a God which as you know I do, that he would be accomodating and realise as you have said that there is nothing pointing to one religion or the other, and so not condem anyone because they belived the wrong thing. I guess we will all find out when we die, or we wont, if athiests are right

 

[DeepThinker]

Oooo yes I just remembered, there is one more option.
They Could all be right, this is something I learnt about a Hindu belife in an RE lesson beack in the day, think I was about 14 or something but I loved the Idea and still do.

The view relates God to an Elephant, and all the different religions are Blind men, each man is told that what they are feeling is an elephant but each one is feeling a different part of the elephant, eg one man has the trunk, another the tail, another the ears. So they blive that that is what an elephant is, although none of them are wrong none of them have seen the whole picture either.

 

[Mortensen]

But the bible history, jesus's death. Jews don't think he was god's son, but christians do. Both of them can't be right. So if you look apon every belief with an equal chance of them having right, christianity for example kind of have the odds against them.

 

[DeepThinker]

But the bible history, jesus's death. Jews don't think he was god's son, but christians do. Both of them can't be right. So if you look apon every belief with an equal chance of them having right, christianity for example kind of have the odds against them.

Its true that there is a big chance, scientifically at least, (if you could apply science to such a thing) that no one religion has got it all right, thats why I gave the Hindu elephant analogy.

 

[Telephone]

I could take one of the strong believers here on the forum and compare him to another person with just as strong belief, but believing in rather the oposite. Both of them can't be right so why shoud any of them be right? There is so many religions and believs that are and have been on this planet and all of them cant be right. I believe in Trolls. Is my belief less sirious than any other christian belief just because there is few out there believing in it?

If we cannot know, with absolute certainty that our understanding of reality is the true picture, then the least we can be is intellectually honest.

It is when we introduce emotion and personal desire into our understanding of reality that we end up praying to goats, gods and ghosts.

 

[DeepThinker]

It is when we introduce emotion and personal desire into our understanding of reality that we end up praying to goats, gods and ghosts.

Do you know that with absolute cirtainty?

 

[Achichem]

Both of them can't be right so why should any of them be right?

I don’t get your logic can you expand? As one belief system can form within another, and as such two (or more) can have varying degrees of truth within any one (known or unknown) universal system. Do you mean absolute truth? Because in that case, I’ll bet you the people you’re thinking about mean an absolute “practical system of understanding truth” not “100% unequivocal factual truth”.

There is so many religions and beliefs that are and have been on this planet and all of them cant be right.

True

I believe in Trolls. Is my belief less serious than any other Christian belief just because there is few out there believing in it?

No, but it is less serious because experiences (testimonies) with trolls is very limited (almost nonexistent), where as Christians report experiences in the bucket load, and this includes very creditable people.

But the bible history, jesus's death. Jews don't think he was god's son, but christians do. Both of them can't be right. So if you look apon every belief with an equal chance of them having right, christianity for example kind of have the odds against them.

Why would you look upon each belief with an equal chance of being right? There are processes in which we all evaluate chance based on our own experience and the creditability of outside sources.

 

[Telephone]

Do you know that with absolute cirtainty?

If we deal exclusively with the demonstrable, the clearly apparent or what is capable of being logically proved, we tend not to venerate invisible sun gods or magic holy ghosts.

 

[DeepThinker]

If we deal exclusively with the demonstrable, the clearly apparent or what is capable of being logically proved, we tend not to venerate invisible sun gods or magic holy ghosts.

Yeah that makes sense, but I dont think you can say that is the only reason people do these things, I would say its alot more complex than that.

Dispite the fact that in actuallity, we cannot actually "Prove" anything whatsoever, I dont like that word.

 

[Mortensen]

We are all atheists when it comes to the supernatural beeings the planet have seen. We cant prove that they doesn't exist but that doesnt mean that they do exsist. What makes the religions we have today any different?

What about buddhism. They believe that the world really don't exist and that they will come to an "absulute existence" when they reach Nirvana. I don't know how many precent of the earth population that is buddhists, but why dedicate your whole life, living very strict just to try to reach Nirvana, when there is so many beliefs out there that conflicts this faith. Is the buddhists saying "I am right and you are wrong" or are they admitting that the chances for what they believe in, what they dedicate their life in, is very slim?

 

[DeepThinker]

We are all atheists when it comes to the supernatural beeings the planet have seen. We cant prove that they doesn't exist but that doesnt mean that they do exsist. What makes the religions we have today any different?

What about buddhism. They believe that the world really don't exist and that they will come to an "absulute existence" when they reach Nirvana. I don't know how many precent of the earth population that is buddhists, but why dedicate your whole life, living very strict just to try to reach Nirvana, when there is so many beliefs out there that conflicts this faith. Is the buddhists saying "I am right and you are wrong" or are they admitting that the chances for what they believe in, what they dedicate their life in, is very slim?

Well i dont think they think there chance for nirvana is slim, thats your belife, but thats all it is... a belife. Again think of the elephant what if part of the buddhist belife is right? what if every religion is right in some way? then that chance is significantly larger, but the fact is it has nothing to do with chance, its belife, or reason, or a little of both.

 

[Mortensen]

Well i dont think they think there chance for nirvana is slim, thats your belife, but thats all it is... a belife. Again think of the elephant what if part of the buddhist belife is right? what if every religion is right in some way? then that chance is significantly larger, but the fact is it has nothing to do with chance, its belife, or reason, or a little of both.

If there is ten different beliefs. I don't see why the chanses is not equal, so the chanses of one of them beeing right is maximum ten percent. That cannot be dennied

 

[michabo]

If there is ten different beliefs. I don't see why the chanses is not equal, so the chanses of one of them beeing right is maximum ten percent. That cannot be dennied

Of course it can be denied. It could be that one has a probability of 50% and the rest have a very slight probability. For example, if I ask how much polonium is in my breakfast cereal: 0-9%, 10-19%, 20-29% and so on, there would be ten groups but it isn't much of a leap to see that the max chance of the 0-9% right is considerably more than 10%.

But in the "god" case, it would be a fit of dreamy optimism to think that any of these were even possible, let alone probable.

 

[Mortensen]

Why is a religion more probable than other? Just beacuse more people believe in it?

 

[michabo]

Are you asking me? I don't think any religion is possible, let alone probable.

 

[DeepThinker]

But in the "god" case, it would be a fit of dreamy optimism to think that any of these were even possible, let alone probable.

you seem very sure of yourself

 

[michabo]

you seem very sure of yourself

And...?

I bet you seem sure that the sun will rise in the morning.

 

[Achichem]

We are all atheists when it comes to the supernatural beeings the planet have seen.

Can you rephrase?

We cant prove that they doesn't exist but that doesnt mean that they do exsist.

True, unless we are talking about one individual person, because that is a different ballgame.

Is the buddhists saying "I am right and you are wrong" or are they admitting that the chances for what they believe in, what they dedicate their life in, is very slim?

It only slim from an objective point of view not from their personal one; for example, let say you happen to meet a Buddha in your life, would that not change the chances of believing Narvona is possible?

If there is ten different beliefs. I don't see why the chanses is not equal, so the chanses of one of them beeing right is maximum ten percent. That cannot be denied

Michabo explained it well

But in the "god" case, it would be a fit of dreamy optimism to think that any of these were even possible, let alone probable.

Unless your personal experience is more consistent with that model of reality, correct?

I am not saying that is true for every religious person, but if your seeing angels (because of schizophrenia or otherwise) it is going to change your view isn’t it?

Why is a religion more probable than other?

Because it seems to fit your experience of reality better than any other system. Now keep in mind that in most (all) cases beliefs are determined by people who know very little of the vast many religious, philosophical or scientific options, so for them it is not a question of is “Islam, Christianity, Buddhistism, Taoism, Hinduism, atheism (philosophical), atheism (skepticism); ect models most like my own, it is far more limited.

Now, you may want to call that intellectually dishonest, but then I say anything else is simply unpractical and practicality as large a factor as anything. After all if you want to get super objective and skeptical, there is only one honest option: Nihilism. Which frankly to me is the most nonsensical egotistic worldview in existence, and I would be highly surprised to find any functioning person operating within it. Now don’t get me wrong skepticism is a powerful tool, but you can’t let it over shadow every other part of the human condition and expect to be considered healthy, can you? Life is so much more than “logic” and personally I rather be wrong and exploring than right and stagnant.

 

[DeepThinker]

You do know that know one knows the answer right?

Also isnt it a little arragent to think that your so great that no one could have possibly been your creater.

Think of it this way, we have created book characters and computer game characters, although they are just figments of someones immagination how can you be so sure that we are not the same? If you think about it openly this is entirly possible.