Are all religions just one big con trick?

bobcat said:
I think that's an error in logic. If there are 10 doors, and the chance of a car behind one of them is 50/50, and one by one, you choose the wrong ones, then using that logic there can be no car behind any of them.

Sorry, but even if there is one door or a hundred, the chances are still 50/50 that a car is behind one of them. If all the other doors are the wrong ones, it doesn't change the possibility. It simply means that the more doors there are, the more chances you have of guessing the wrong one.
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Thanks Bobcat. I've been reading this thread but have found most responses very superficial. Your response is not that.
 
bobcat said:
I think that's an error in logic. If there are 10 doors, and the chance of a car behind one of them is 50/50, and one by one, you choose the wrong ones, then using that logic there can be no car behind any of them.

Sorry, but even if there is one door or a hundred, the chances are still 50/50 that a car is behind one of them. If all the other doors are the wrong ones, it doesn't change the possibility. It simply means that the more doors there are, the more chances you have of guessing the wrong one.
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So what are the chances that you just happened to have been raised in the one, true religion out of those 100 or so? As a child I was raised (brainwashed) in one of them, but most of my neighborhood friends were not. Oh well, too bad for them!
 
there's gotta be something wrong here? a whole variety of different christian groups often opposed to each other ; Islam ; India gurus ; high church ; low church ; catholics non catholics -buddhists they can;t all be right and/or wrong? - surely they are all making it up as they go along?

ps: maybe we invent them all to give us some meaning in life - otherwise it could become meaningless - like wot the criminals is?
 
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Thread title "Are all religions just one big con trick?" is purposely provocative in typical ways trolls pose in order to annoy their audience with an unbalanced, unfair statement in order to incite reactions into defending what most would consider overstated negative perspectives. Then in typical fashion in order to be able to defend expected criticism of what solely their title related, explains within the body of the post, the rest of what they more fairly are thinking about and questioning.

So in that sense, the OP played a Con on their audience. Despite our SF admin warning members to use meaningful titles, some members here regularly create threads with various types of vague titles to simply draw in the curious wondering what whatever is about. Thread titles must necessarily due to display limitations be short and often one cannot put enough into text to clearly describe purpose. However that ought not be a reason to play games though such may be rampant elsewhere on the web.
 
I suspect that the core of most religions came out of early governments as a set of rules for living that made civil cohesion practical. It was an end-around, a way to sell the dimmer masses on the laws, rules, and wisdom of brighter minds and help ensure continuance beyond the lives of those founding members.

Before very long though it became necessary to fold in all sorts of superstitions used to explain the world when people lived as extended families and roving bands.

As with anything, some individuals saw power in this and before long we had priesthoods and tithing wrapped in mysteries and gobbledegook. In many cases it took over criminal punishment in the forms of everything from stonings to lynchings and staking people out for crucifiction and burning.

Then as now, most people just aren't very bright. Without the threat of supernatural punishment they just can't be trusted to have enough vision to understand the counterproductive nature of deleterious actions. It isn't about some people being "better" than others, we just have a wide range of sentience within human populations.
 
I once attended a Church of Christ ; there were also a few remaining Churches of God ? - then in UK they have the Church of England - gets a bit confusing heh?? - then there is the Church of Scotland and probably Wales too - and if we listed them all there would be dozens and all having different types of services - some have the Eucharist meal weekly some every few months - who's making the rules around here??
 
smiley said:
Or a control mechanism in societies through which negative/ bad/ animal type behaviors can be controlled. If no religions and their guidances existed would some of us still behave positively and kindly. Or is the balance always moving between "good and evil" - seems fifty/fifty to me atm?? Even their manifestos offer different messages from Buddhism and its various forms to Christianity and its? - Could we really manage without them all?
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Only if you believe there is a secret cabal responsible for everything that goes wrong. Religious experience isn't so bad but when you institutionalize something so deeply personal you often get trouble.

Of course we can manage without them all. We can also manage without snack food, movies, books and nature .. but who would want to?
 
This is the way it worked for us. We wanted a new type of church. We collected a huge library of relevant subjects, have 10 acres of untouched forest to "be" in :) and live as a community.
If a person is seeking the meaning of their life, God is not a con. We have seen the changes in people when they embrace God. It can be the most significant event of their life. You will be hard pressed to make many people say that " God is a con".
 
{shrug} I am not in a position to determine how God wishes to reveal him/her/itself to us mere humans. That's way above my pay grade. The Christian/Islam/Hinduism/Buddhism faiths account for close to 80% of how we identify based on our religion. Non-believers account for about 15%. Jews <1%. I have no problem thinking that of the 4 major faiths, and all the smaller ones, each can be true to the believers. Hindus & Buddhists believe in reincarnation, so that may be true for them. Christians do not, and believe we are only on this earth for one time. Heaven awaits us. And perhaps that Muslim warrior will be rewarded with 70 virgins (although I often wonder what is in it for the virgins..).

And as for the non-believers, then yes, your non-belief will result in exactly what you think will happen when you die. As someone on here recently said "bones in a box, ashes in an urn". That will be your truth, self determined.

YMMV
 
I am writing this as a former Christian who was raised in the church (to date, had been one for most of my life). I accepted Islam when I was in my 40s. While reading up on things, I came across an article about medical professionals and scientists from different specialties who attended a conference where passages in the Quran were referenced. None of the panel were Muslims. It was brought out that things written in the Quran, which we believe was revealed by God (Allah) more than 1,400 years ago, referenced biological and medical things that people back then could not have had knowledge of.

This is not the original article I read, but has similar content. There are quotes by each of the doctors who found the Quranic verses to be remarkable. According to the original article two of the doctors were so impressed when reading further that they accepted Islam. Keep scrolling because the article continues beyond the intrusive ads.
Non Muslim Scientists Testify to the Divine source of the Holy Quran

I didn't see this doctor of embryology's name in the article but here is what he has to say about what the Quran revealed about embryology and what he learned from it. https://muslimconverts.com/islam-and-science/ModernScience-EGC.htm
 
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One "Truth" we all will face. When you die you will know nothing, just lights out!

Or you will experience some form of awareness. Most all religions focus on this "afterlife" awareness and what may or may not happen. If you experience any type of awareness, it will either, be hell or something else...think about this and plan accordingly!
 
I think human behavior, including sharing and caring (as well as suspicion and fear), is innate.

I think religions started as ways to try to understand the world and to control it:
"why is there thunder and lightning tonight - someone is angry - what can we do to calm him down so we don't get hit by lightning";
"why hasn't it rained - someone is angry - what can we do to get rain";
"I don't like this but I can say a prayer/sacrifice to the god and I can maybe control what is going to happen", etc).

Then religion could also be used to comfort ("bad things happened to me - don't worry the big daddy/mommy was mad at you but they still love you"; "I'm very upset because my child is dying - tell the child they don't need to be afraid because they're going to a nice place when grandma/pa is going to greet them and mom/dad will come later").

Then I think religions morphed toward controlling others behavior ("You are the reason the rain hasn't come"; "don't do that or the gods will be angry with us"; "if you tell a lie the god will know and you'll be smitten, so you must tell the truth to us"; "those others don't obey our God so make them change or kill them"; "I'm god's favorite - or a god - so obey me"; "if you question the religion's rule that I tell you, then you are committing evil - regardless of 'new revelations' causing the rules to change when I tell you they have").

You'd think now that we know about all the different religions and that kids just normally believe whatever religion their parents have (which can change due to conquered by a group with a different religion), that we'd start to realize our own are just as silly as we consider other peoples', but apparently the fear of losing the control or comfort is too strong for a lot of people.

I'm kind of chuckling while I write this because I was watching a YouTube yesterday of an ex-Mormon whose husband was hoping he'd be excommunicated from being Mormon because he bought some 'Mormon magic underwear' for her to show on her YouTube channel, which apparently is a secret to be kept from non-Mormons.
 
HoneyNut said:
I think religions started as ways to try to understand the world and to control it:
"why is there thunder and lightning tonight - someone is angry - what can we do to calm him down so we don't get hit by lightning";
"why hasn't it rained - someone is angry - what can we do to get rain";
"I don't like this but I can say a prayer/sacrifice to the god and I can maybe control what is going to happen", etc).
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Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I think you're way off base here, even if that is just my opinion.

Picture how hard life would have been a couple of thousand years ago. Who would've sat around wondering why there is any of the stuff they experienced? There was no science then, certainly not in its modern form. No one had time for theories about why the world was the way they found it.
 
MarkD said:
Picture how hard life would have been a couple of thousand years ago. Who would've sat around wondering why there is any of the stuff they experienced? There was no science then, certainly not in its modern form. No one had time for theories about why the world was the way they found it.
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Stonehenge? Greek Mythology (and science and math)? Native American mythology? I don't think I've ever learned about any ancient culture that didn't have all sorts of explanations of things they experienced.
 
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