What makes you think you are right?

orestes

Ok, I couldn't think of an impartial title for this thread, and I apologise if the title seems like a challenge or accusation in any way. The basic idea is; what is it that convinces the followers of any specific religion that they are following the one true religion? What makes you believe that you are right while the other religions are wrong?

I didn't want to post this thread in any specific religious forum, but when I clicked the Religion & Spirituality forum there were only other threads relating to specific religions. Since posting this in any specific religions' forum would be taken up by some as a specific shot at that religion, whichever one it happened to be, I figured this forum was the safest bet. I hope this shows that I'm not posting this thread in order to cause an arguement with the believers of any particular faith, but am concerned with debating the nature of religious faith in general.

Botany Bay

Lets clarify something then. You want to know what makes religious believers, believe what they do and why they are so sure they are right??

You do realise that this is an Atheism and Agnosticism forum right? By definition, Atheists don't subscribe to any faith based system/religion. Atheism being an absence of belief in a creator being. I don't think you'll get the answer to your question from an Atheist. Unless some of the posters from the other religious forums decide to answer you here. Personally i think you should post in Christianity and tell them you're genuine.

Im sure they'd take you at face value and give their honest answers without feeling threatened by your question. At least id hope so.

If on the other hand you're also trying to find a reason for why atheists don't subscribe to religious belief, then im sure you'll get plenty of responses. Personally i take all religions as being equal. Equally irrational, illogical and downright absurd. Based on no verifiable or observable evidence and quite frankly followed by people who have either never seriously questioned their faith. Are completely unwilling to question their faith( intellectual laziness, is what that is) or have questioned it, but for various reasons, put it down to either cognitive dissonance, intellectual dishonesty, emotional insecurity or severe compartmentalisation of the mind. Have decided to continue believing in nonsense.

For me Sam Harris sums it up perfectly: " When one person has a delusion, its called insanity. When many people have a delusion, its called religion".

orestes

I'm an atheist myself. Like I said in the original post though, I would have liked to post this question in an impartial forum but this is the closest I could find. I figured if I posted it in the Christianity forum then the Christians would think I was having a go at them specifically, same goes for the Islam forum and the others. I tried to explain that at the end of the original post. Likewise, I'm not trying to provoke atheists into posting their reasons for not believing in religion. The question does not ask followers of X faith why they think X faith is true, it asks the followers of ANY faith why they think THEIR faith is true regarding all other faiths.

I'm not posting this question to stir sh1t, I'm posting it because I genuinely want to hear believers reasons for their thinking that theirs is the "true" faith. I find the subject interesting and would like to hear it debated. I just noticed that there are a lot of religious believers from the various faiths that post in this forum, granted from their own religious perspective, but I thought that all things considered this was the most appropriate forum for the question.

Botany Bay

Fair enough. Its a legitimate question. Don't think you''ll get any profound answers though. When you think about it, its really a question largely based on your place of birth, the religion of your parents and the environment that your exposed to. Particularly when growing up. The validity of one religion over another isn't exactly taken on grounds of impartial reasoning but rather largely on the reasons above. Its a nonsense when you think about it.

Dades

All you're likely to get here is what non-believers think the reason that believers insist their religion is the right one.

I would think the majority of 'believers' never really question their religion against what other faiths have to 'offer'; e.g. your common-or-garden catholic was born into a catholic family and has never read the Qur'an, Dianetics or whatever. Since religion is a societal creature, it makes sense not to want, or need to stray from the pack.

On the other hand you'll get the other breed of believer who have seriously looked at their faith. Some might suggest they have communicated with God, or he with them, but ultimately their faith 'fits' them, to an extent they know it to be the one.

Ultimately if you are a non-believer you won't get a satisfactory answer to the question. Agree to disagree, tbh.

Zillah

orestes wrote: »

I apologise if the title seems like a challenge or accusation in any way.

Why? Whats this weird PC atmosphere thats come creeping into society that says its somehow innapropriate to challenge each others beliefs?

18AD

What makes me believe I'm right?

Why, I'm infallible!

Ineffably.
AD.

Dave!

I believe I'm right for lack of a reasonable alternative

pclancy

Botany Bay wrote: »

Personally i take all religions as being equal. Equally irrational, illogical and downright absurd. Based on no verifiable or observable evidence and quite frankly followed by people who have either never seriously questioned their faith. Are completely unwilling to question their faith( intellectual laziness, is what that is) or have questioned it, but for various reasons, put it down to either cognitive dissonance, intellectual dishonesty, emotional insecurity or severe compartmentalisation of the mind. Have decided to continue believing in nonsense.

Pretty much sums up why I think I'm right in not believing too

Zombrex

orestes wrote: »

Ok, I couldn't think of an impartial title for this thread, and I apologise if the title seems like a challenge or accusation in any way. The basic idea is; what is it that convinces the followers of any specific religion that they are following the one true religion? What makes you believe that you are right while the other religions are wrong?

I didn't want to post this thread in any specific religious forum, but when I clicked the Religion & Spirituality forum there were only other threads relating to specific religions. Since posting this in any specific religions' forum would be taken up by some as a specific shot at that religion, whichever one it happened to be, I figured this forum was the safest bet. I hope this shows that I'm not posting this thread in order to cause an arguement with the believers of any particular faith, but am concerned with debating the nature of religious faith in general.

The probably with your question is that you are very unlikely to ever get an honest answer.

Plenty of theists will tell you what they believe is a rational argument justifying belief in their religion (e.g I've read the Bible and only Jesus said he would come back from the dead and he did come back from the dead therefore he was God), but that is just a layer put between rationality and what they want to be true. Which is why a debate on the reason given goes no where because it isn't actually a reason, it is a justification that they think excuses their faith as being rational.

You are unlikely to get a theist to honestly admit why they really believe what they believe, because facing that reason they would have to admit it to themselves why they honestly believe what they believe which is something that can't be justified with reason. Which leads to doubt and uncertainty.

And if they won't do that to themselves you aren't going to get them to do it to strangers on the Internet

philologos

Where do atheists find their conviction that all the religions are wrong then?

humanji

Jakkass wrote: »

Where do atheists find their conviction that all the religions are wrong then?

There's no evidence for the religions and no need for them, is my guess.

Dades

Jakkass wrote: »

Where do atheists find their conviction that all the religions are wrong then?

The same place a Christian get their conviction that all other religions are wrong.

robindch

Jakkass wrote: »

Where do atheists find their conviction that all the religions are wrong then?

That's a question worth a thread in itself.

Off the top of my head, and talking about christianity only, history suggests that most christian talk of peace and love is false; my knowledge of greek and roman literature and the ancient greek language suggests that the NT is not the accurate account of historical events that many people seem to think that it is; psychology and sociology suggest that certain types of people enjoy the ingroup and outgroup divisions that religion creates, and the self-legitimization that religion provides; anthropology suggests that religions can be broadly classified quite easily and all have common factors suggesting that they are nothing more than consequences of the design of the human brain; philosophically, they are mostly meaningless, sometimes amazingly so; the descriptions they provide of the real world are generally inaccurate, sometimes wildly so; they encourage the existence of a parasitic priestly class that performs little or no useful work; they encourage vanity, violence and closed-mindedness. I could go on, but you get the idea

And as Dades points out, you'll probably find that most of the reasons that I've given here are probably similar to the reasons that you reject other religions.

Zillah

Jakkass wrote: »

Where do atheists find their conviction that all the religions are wrong then?

Um, the complete lack of evidence?
All the contradictory evidence?
The ridiculously counter-intuitive explanations for events?

jtsuited

Jakkass wrote: »

Where do atheists find their conviction that all the religions are wrong then?

1. Common Sense
2. Reason
3. Logic
4. An ability to think
5. An inability to be forced to think a certain way by an institution
6. in their understanding of the reasons for religion
7. in seeing the flaws in those reasons
8. in their much higher than average intelligence and education.

I'm always right. Obviously. ;0

Zillah

bluewolf wrote: »

I'm always right. Obviously. ;0

The ever beneficent humility of a Buddhist...

Ruskie4Rent

Jakkass wrote: »

Where do atheists find their conviction that all the religions are wrong then?

We can't be convinced either way. The fact that there is nothing that convinces me of them being right makes me choose not to believe.

Zillah

Zillah wrote: »

The ever beneficent humility of a Buddhist...

Galvasean

Ruskie4Rent wrote: »

The fact that there is nothing that convinces me of them being right makes me choose not to believe.

Good point. I wouldn't believe anything someone told me unless there was some sort of proof. Religion is no different in this sense.

Princess J

I don't think I'm right. I believe everyone has their own reasons for what they choose to believe, even if those reasons are simply that it's all they've ever known and they've never had the courage or motivation to look at another possible belief system.

Lazare

robindch wrote: »

That's a question worth a thread in itself.

Off the top of my head, and talking about christianity only, history suggests that most christian talk of peace and love is false; my knowledge of greek and roman literature and the ancient greek language suggests that the NT is not the accurate account of historical events that many people seem to think that it is; psychology and sociology suggest that certain types of people enjoy the ingroup and outgroup divisions that religion creates, and the self-legitimization that religion provides; anthropology suggests that religions can be broadly classified quite easily and all have common factors suggesting that they are nothing more than consequences of the design of the human brain; philosophically, they are mostly meaningless, sometimes amazingly so; the descriptions they provide of the real world are generally inaccurate, sometimes wildly so; they encourage the existence of a parasitic priestly class that performs little or no useful work; they encourage vanity, violence and closed-mindedness. I could go on, but you get the idea

And as Dades points out, you'll probably find that most of the reasons that I've given here are probably similar to the reasons that you reject other religions.

Excellent post.