Which was first: Atheism or Religion?

[Esquilax]

A commendable post Esq. Respect.

Well, I was bound to get one eventually.

I don't find variance in the core experiences of all of who I would call mainstream Christians. ie Trinitarian Christians. The experiences I'm talking about are those promised in scripture. Church services depend upon testimony to prove that there's still life in their beliefs. The fruits of the spirit. Church goers can be very skeptical until they see evidence of what corroborates as God's work in someone's life. That's open to abuse too by those that might know what the group want to hear.

Okay, I gotcha. So, how do you resolve conflicting experiences? I mean, you've got christians on every side of politics, social issues, religious positions, many of whom claim revelation from god or personal experiences that justify those positions they've chosen. Now, I agree with you that evidently someone is wrong when they say that, because obviously they can't all be right, but what do you use to tell? Scripture is kind of problematic, since I guarantee every side of every issue can provide some scriptural reference for what they believe, and as for their fruits... well, that leads to further questions, about why those other people feel the fruits of incorrect beliefs are scripturally consistent, where you don't.

I guess what I'm asking is, is there a way to discern the correct set of beliefs here that works- from an outside perspective- for only that one set of beliefs?