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What gives a religion the right to claim their fantasy is correct and the rest false?
#31
RE: What gives a religion the right to claim their fantasy is correct and the rest false?
I'd also take issue with the topic.

It's a 'Religion 101' thing. If a given religion did not assert they alone hold absolute, literal, inviolate, complete and perfect truth, then it is a false religion, and they are admitting as much.

If a given faith fails to lay out a case, no matter how specious*, laughable*, absurd*, comical*, contradictory* or just plain nuts*, that they alone have Gods ear, can guaranty Salvation®, can instill happiness and a sense of superiority over all other faiths, they got nothin'.




*Mormonism springs to mind
 The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it. 




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#32
RE: What gives a religion the right to claim their fantasy is correct and the rest false?
I wonder if Christianity will ever get past the first book.

"Oh look, a story about a talking snake and the Earth being magicked into being out of nowhere."

Christian 1: "Well, obviously, it's metaphorical. You'd have to be an idiot to think that literally happened."

Christian 2: "Well, obviously, it happened exactly as written. You'd have to be an idiot to doubt the word of God."

So... did any of them get round to asking God? You think he'd have cleared this up by now.
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#33
RE: What gives a religion the right to claim their fantasy is correct and the rest false?
I think a lot of it is "My religion is right because it's the one my parents practiced and they wouldn't lie to me."
Christian apologetics is the art of rolling a dog turd in sugar and selling it as a donut.
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#34
RE: What gives a religion the right to claim their fantasy is correct and the rest false?
Most christians come from christian families, most muslims come from muslim families, how many people look at the worlds religions before deciding on one? Most people spend more time deciding what shirt to wear than they do picking a religion
The meek shall inherit the Earth, the rest of us will fly to the stars.

Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups

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#35
RE: What gives a religion the right to claim their fantasy is correct and the rest false?
The religious oft feel that faith grants legitimacy to their beliefs. Cognitive dissonance prevents them from seeing any contradictions.
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#36
RE: What gives a religion the right to claim their fantasy is correct and the rest false?
(November 14, 2016 at 10:01 pm)Casca Wrote: Science is based on evidence, facts, and theories supported by evidence and fact.

So what exactly gives one religion the leg to stand on and say "this religion is true, the rest are false", when there is no evidence or fact to back up their claim?

Nothing but flawed thinking.

Special pleading is all they need.

You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
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#37
RE: What gives a religion the right to claim their fantasy is correct and the rest false?
(November 16, 2016 at 2:00 pm)zebo-the-fat Wrote: Most christians come from christian families, most muslims come from muslim families, how many people look at the worlds religions before deciding on one?

None.  None at all.  Like I said, it all comes down to "I am a _______ because my parents were."
Christian apologetics is the art of rolling a dog turd in sugar and selling it as a donut.
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#38
RE: What gives a religion the right to claim their fantasy is correct?
(November 14, 2016 at 10:01 pm)Casca Wrote: Science is based on evidence, facts, and theories supported by evidence and fact.

So what exactly gives one religion the leg to stand on and say "this religion is true, the rest are false", when there is no evidence or fact to back up their claim?

I can't speak for every existing religion in the world, so I shall stick to mine and what I personally think. As far as I am concerned, I base my choice to be religious upon two things:

1. I'm convinced that Christ's person understood as an existential model is better than any other I have come close to. 

2. I find my religious experiences compelling. 

Of course, I am well aware that there are numerous questions and challenges that might be posed to these two theses. I don't claim to be 100% certain about my beliefs. In fact, I have doubted my religion over the course of last 5/6 years. I just find these reasons sufficient to convince myself. It's my reasons, not necessarily anyone's else who shares my religious views. That's exactly why I don't go around trying to convince others that I am necessarily right, whilst others has to be wrong. Nor I think that, just because I believe what I believe, every other religion has to be 100% wrong. The truth is that there are similarities, sometimes even substantial, between different religions. It follows that, due to similarities, other religions or denominations (to the extent to which they are similar to mine) has to be true. 

As to the 70,000 denominations within Christianity, it seems to be a false dilemma. If most of these denominations originated in a couple of last centuries, from which most of them were established during the last two centuries or less, I fail to see how they can claim to be even a putative candidate for genuine Christianity. To the best of our knowledge, Christian church was established sometime during the first century AD. If we are aware of that, for someone attempting to find genuine Christian church it is legitimate to eliminate all those thousands of denominations. It turns out we are left with a few dozen churches that fulfili this basic requirement for genuine Christianity. In other words, we are left with churches that possess continuous existence from the 1st century AD to our days.
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#39
RE: What gives a religion the right to claim their fantasy is correct and the rest false?
For the early decades/centuries of Christianity, there wasn't a bible, manual, users guide or website to go check. Word of mouth is how it spread, and congregations were on their own in regards as to how they were going to interpret the 5th, 10th or 20th hand version of the Christ story they heard in their specific village.

This unsystem would guaranty all manner of HIDEOUS and VILE blasphemies and heresies to spread like cancer, and literally no 2 of the early churches would have been hewing to the same actual beliefs, and you're looking at total chaos dogma wise. And since these early churches were populated with unavoidably illiterate congregations who left precious little of a paper trail, or even a simple count of how many of them there were, the true number of Christian denoms would be significantly larger, but even a guess about the actual number would just that, a wild guess.

And of course, as far as God is concerned, whether intentional or accidental, a schism is a schism.

Kinda sad to realize all these early 'beta tester' Christians wound up damned anyhow, but that's the way the communion wafer crumbles.
 The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it. 




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#40
RE: What gives a religion the right to claim their fantasy is correct and the rest false?
An interesting point raised by Ehrman is reading and writing were taught as separate skills back then. While it is noted in scripture Christ could read, there is absolutely nothing anywhere to indicate He could write. In fact if He could, it would have been recorded in scripture.

A sobering realization to me actually, but it makes sense with what we know.
 The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it. 




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