Do you have the correct religion?

[DetlefK]

How can you be sure that you have the right religion? Because you have faith that your faith is correct?

What if somebody else has faith that your faith is wrong? Who would win?

When you die, do you go to the heaven of your religion or to the hell of somebody else's religion?
When somebody else dies, do they go to their heaven or to your hell?

[TlalocW]

1. They can't all be right

But they can definitely all be wrong.

TlalocW

[Meadowoak]

2. I have the Right religion, atheism.

[Faux pas]

4. Aw you

beat me to it! Atheism rules!

[MineralMan]

3. See, you can't know until you die, and then it's too late to switch.

One must either pick one religion or refuse them all. I suppose you could cycle through them during your life, but what if your life ended while you were following a false religion. What a dilemma!

[qazplm135]

9. although not every religion cares

if you pick them before death. Christianity and Islam primarily do, although even within them that's not universal.

If there is an afterlife/God, such an entity isn't going to penalize the Hindu born in Calcutta because they weren't Catholic.

[MineralMan]

12. Hmm, I have no idea how such an entity might think or act.

But, since I don't believe any such exist, I don't fret overmuch about it.

[qazplm135]

13. who's fretting?

I simply make an assumption that if said entity exists, by definition it has to at least have as developed a morality as mankind, and odds are, much better.

[uriel1972]

18. What evidence do you have for that?

[qazplm135]

19. what evidence

do I have for a hypothetical entity?

Is that your actual question?

It's a thought experiment.

[marylandblue]

22. Since it is a hypothetical entity, there is no way to confirm

or deny what it would do. And people's speculations about it are all over the map. The speculations seem to say more about the people making them than anything else.

[Mariana]

24. Sounds like the No True Scotsman fallacy.

qazplm135's has defined the word "god" as an entity that, among other things, "has to at least have as developed a morality as mankind, and odds are, much better" and also which "isn't going to penalize the Hindu born in Calcutta because they weren't Catholic".

Isn't that convenient?

[MineralMan]

21. As I said, not me. I don't fret about religion.

I said nothing about you.

[Voltaire2]

14. Well according to Catholic doctrine it cares a lot about that.

The only peeps who got away with wrong beliefs were the ones not exposed to The Truth before they croaked.

[qazplm135]

15. not necessarily

isn't it the Pope now who says even atheists can eventually go to heaven?

One assumes after a really long time suffering in Purgatory?

And yep, after a quick Google search, my memory is correct. He did say that.

[Voltaire2]

29. They still get punished. Did you miss that?

Oh yeah no you didn’t, you just appear to be ignoring it despite having written

“One assumes after a really long time suffering in Purgatory? ”

So again, the RCC says that you choose the wrong god, you get to go to the bad place. Just maybe not forever, and just the outer circle. (And not just the wrong god, it can be the right god but the wrong translation. )

[qazplm135]

31. Most Catholics

Go to purgatory to be "punished" so you can choose the right Good and still be punished.

[Voltaire2]

32. Sure. Not relevant.

[qazplm135]

33. LMAO

So you say punished for not believing in the right Good I say no even Catholics get punished and you say not relevant lmao

[Voltaire2]

35. The fact that Catholics get punished for other sins

does not negate the fact that non Catholics get punished for worshipping god’s the wrong way.

So laugh all you want. Not sure what you are laughing about.

[uriel1972]

17. Actually, according to Mainstream Christian thought...

They will.
You seem awfully sure about what such an entity will or will not do, even if you don't know if such a one exists.

[qazplm135]

20. define

mainstream Christian thought.

Because there are probably 150-200 primary sects of Christianity.

[Bretton Garcia]

26. I guess

I guess we could agree that if a real god ever did exist, he would probably, logically, have to be better than the one that Christians and others believe in.

Which counts as partial evidence against God, and other gods....

[rurallib]

27. How come nobody ever comes back to tell us their choice was right or wrong?

don't our friends and relatives and all those saints and everything like us anymore?

[Mariana]

10. It's not necessarily true that when you die, it's too late to switch.

If the Mormons are the ones who are right, and they posthumously baptize you, you may choose in the afterlife to be a Mormon.

[MineralMan]

11. That's pretty clever of those Mormons, I think.

In their own way, anyhow.

[Hav]

28. Ironically, that also works the other way around

You might have chosen the "correct" religion and enjoy your stay up there until someone posthumously makes you a mormon and down you go.

[Mariana]

30. I'm pretty sure the Mormons believe

that they're giving you the option to be a Mormon after death, not forcing you to do so. You can decline.

[Corvo Bianco]

5. Yes and i also have the correct tooth fairy

[Thomas Hurt]

6. there is no correct religion...

just competing social institutions gathering up wealth, power and adherents.

[Pendrench]

7. Hi DetlefK - thank you for posting this very interesting question.

These are just my thoughts on the matter, but as a believer, I think that if there is a god, then it/she/he is more concerned about how we treat others, rather than the particulars of what we believe, or even if we don't believe at all.

It seems to me that religion/faith reflects the times we live in, as well as where we live, and how we were raised/educated. So it does not surprise me that there are (and have been) a multitude of different ways to view god, worship god, and to codify those beliefs.

Unfortunately, I think that we believers focus too often on those differences, rather than what should be our common core of belief: to love each other and to take care of those less fortunate than us.

So even though I'm a Catholic, I believe anyone who lives their life for the sake of others (regardless of their belief or non-belief) is doing "the will of god".

I've used this quote before, but I think that it is also apt here - in his biography, Fulton Sheen said that when he gets to Heaven, he expects three surprises:

1. People who he thought would be there would NOT be there.
2. People who he did not think would be there WOULD be there.
3. And the biggest surprise of all would be that HE would be there.

Again, thank you for starting this discussion.

Wishing you well and peace.

Tim

[marylandblue]

23. I like Bishop Sheen, but does he really think he might end up in hell?

[Pendrench]

25. Hi marylandblue - thank you for your reply!

Very good question.

I can only offer my opinion, but I think that what he might be saying is that no one who identifies as a believer (including a high ranking member of the clergy) should feel certain that they have already secured a place in heaven.

In other words:

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Not to mention:

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

So I see his statement as challenging people like me (and himself) who say that we are believers not to be complacent, as well as not to be blind/indifferent to the needs of others and to our own failings.

Anyway, that's just my take on this.

Thank you again - wishing you well and peace.

Tim

[MineralMan]

38. You raise the central question with your salient posts.

Those two passages are at the heart of the denominalization and splintering of Christianity into countless schismatic groups. Thank you.

[guillaumeb]

36. A nice answer. eom

[Pendrench]

37. Thank you very much for your kinds words.

Wishing you well and peace.

Tim

[guillaumeb]

39. Peace to you also.

Guillaume

[struggle4progress]

8. oh yes indeed

[Permanut]

16. Great question, DetlefK..

Going for the clinical approach here. The behavior of people joining, and practicing, a religion, often shows characteristics of cult thinking. Fanaticism gives people a sense of purpose, and a sense of belonging, as described by Eric Hoffer in The True Believer.

Which, of course, doesn't answer your question. I think some people are more susceptible to the attractions of a cult, and take advantage of opportunities as they arise (or are recruited). Hence the Scientologists, Moonies, Rajneeshies, Heaven's Gate, People's Temple, and many Christians.

[Iggo]

34. Yes.

Yes, I do.