Which Religion is The True Religion

How heuristic efforts can undo the faith that killed reason.

Guessing which religion is true depends mostly on where you were born, or the one that caught you vulnerable during a crisis. If you were born to a specific faith, that is most likely the One True Church™️—makes perfect sense. With all the options available that certainly makes it a bit easier.

The three lines below represent three major world religions. The religion that represents the line in the center is yours, which initially appears conveniently as the obvious, longest center line in the group.

This is the Müller-Lyer Illusion. If you look closely the center shafts are all the same length, as illustrated below. But appearance is everything in religion. Escaping your pre-conceived (literally in many cases) religion is fighting the odds against honest reason and logic that seems at times an insurmountable challenge against the array of bias research. Heuristics can help with a cognitive hands-on approach. We can train ourselves to be less knee jerk intuitive (belief) and more discerning, or analytical, at the very least, more cautious.

Research shows intuitive people are more likely to believe in god, while reflective, or analytical thinkers are more likely to be atheist. Here is a quick test with answers to see where you fall.

If you got some wrong, no worries. A lifetime of faith can disrupt your natural tendencies (feelings) Many of us spent a lifetime overlooking the obvious acquiescing to faith—and through faith you can know hand-wave the truth of all things.

Monotheistic religions may all appear different, but in reality they all produce the equal ability to embrace contradiction through faith, playing on bias and quirks of herd psychology. It’s so obvious even an atheist can see it. Read More HERE

Author: jimoeba

Alternatives to big box religions and dogmas

104 thoughts on “Which Religion is The True Religion”

    1. Why, yes of course. These same concepts have also killed civility in politics. What we know is what we know, and it must be right, because we know it. I think education exposing these traits would go a long way towards developing tolerance and truth in every genre.

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    1. Same. But see we’ve been raised to overlook the obvious. What may have been natural has been nurtured out of many of us…by pressure. It takes perseverance to think smarter. Knowing it was a test is an advantage too and randomly it may have been worse.
      I did the Gallup Strengths Test this last year. Knowing your weaknesses is a strength that can be a game changer. I take things much slower these days and really believe in nothing as a first premise.

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    1. There are many that earn the title “Hafiz” that memorize the book in total. Imagine trying to undo that indoctrination. They start them as early as age 3.

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    2. Well, at least for a lot of guys, Islam has the “best” afterlife. Every male Muslim gets a minimum 2 virgin houris to spend eternity with him, and a maximum 72. I could find nothing that said they had to stay virgins. Meanwhile, a married woman gets to understand that her husband needs all this variety, but she is still his main love. If an unmarried man dies, he is automatically married to an unmarried woman, plus however many houris he gets. The unmarried woman has to accept the man she is given, along with his houris. You talk about a man’s world, why not just commit suicide the day you become an adult. Why wait?

      Yes, I am being disrespectful, but I’m not really trying to be. Number one, I am pointing out the way muslim women are disrespected, and number two, I am overplaying how muslim men are lured into jihad. Being as I am atheist, I do not believe any of it. I say much worse things about christians.

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        1. Well, at least islam tries to spell it out. Christianity doesn’t even do that. Theirs is a pie-in-the-sky offer, eternally worshipping the guy who caused them to die, and then giving them immortality. Nice piece of work. The jews, as far as I understand it, do not even get an afterlife. Christ stole the idea from the Buddhists, and changed it for his needs. He was a little bit jealous of his father, he wanted some kind of exclusivity too. At least the jewish women didn’t have to be forced to accept their husbands’ needs for variety. As for christian women, I have no idea what they get, if anything.

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    1. That is a tricky question. The idea behind it is simple though. Does one stop to think, or go with feeling. Utility can benefit from feeling, but as you know, common sense ain’t so common. Another area where people seem to think no one else has much but them.
      I look at common sense as being the ability to incorporate a lot of experience into new situations. Religion doesn’t afford that. Faith is by nature un-reasonable. The truth is most people are intuitive, and that’s obvious why superstition is so prevalent.

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  1. Perhaps. But it did not always work exactly like that for me. I assume for others, as well. The first group I was taught were in trouble was/were the “Pagans.” I had no idea what or who they were. Later, I learned that Pagans did not include Jews and Protestants. Later, I also eventually learned what those were. It had little to do with perception or gut feelings. The faith and reason conflict is an interesting one about which much has been written, even by a Pope or two. Why so? ‘cuz it makes no fucking sense but we ask you to believe it anyway…and to send us money. The money part is important.

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    1. I was raised with the assumption pagans were blood-cults with naked women dancing around bon-fires worshipping the devil. Although that sounds more and more appealing as I get older, I see your point. In order for Christianity to succeed, demonize the opposition and poison in the well. Don’t even look, it’s bad, really bad. Turns out pagan was anything outside of Christianity, which I’ve learned here has some pretty fascinating ideas and wonderful people.

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      1. Religion is simply a term of perspective, i.e., if you are a believer, it’s a religion, if you don’t believe, it may be a cult. Just like “freedom fighter” and “terrorist.” If you believe in the revolution, they are freedom fighters, if you don’t, they are terrorists. Pagan comes from the Latin term pagani, which simply described the people that lived outside the main urban areas. Today, we call them hicks, or some such thing.

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      2. And yet, any time christianity encountered a new brand of paganism, they adopted the pagan stories and celebrations into christianity, changing the old to fit the new. Christ born on christmas day! Never happened. Christmas was a pagan celebration, until christianity co-opted it. Show me where the bible ever mentions christmas. Yet nowadays the christian religions all celebrate it. Easter doesn’t even have a date, it changes year-to-year. So what date was christ killed on? What date did he arise from the dead? Freyaday (Friday) is a Norse day of the week, while Sunday comes from many different sources, the Sun being the most widely worshipped celestial body ever.

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  2. I think part of the problem is that there are lots of wrong ideas about intuition as well. People see intuition as somehow separate from the analytical, but while I don’t think both directly connect, I think our intuition over time is modified by our knowledge and experiences. Even if unconsciously. Just like people think that the mind is somehow independent of the body, for them intuition comes from some other place and it isn’t something we can really analyze while we are experiencing it so it becomes this otherworldly feeling. “I don’t know why I had this intuition, but I did” and people think there is something extraordinary going on there. But if we were to look at the overall content of someone’s life I think we would find reasons for why they have the intuitions they often do about things. Intuition, to me, isn’t some 6th sense with magical powers. It’s shaped by our experiences, and likely not big traumatic ones. It’s like our implicit biases. Apparently there are vast differences in the media on how often they show the face when it’s a black criminal as opposed to a white criminal and this feeds into an intuition we might have about a black person being more suspicious than a white person. I don’t think our intuition is always leading us in the right direction.

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    1. Agreed. I’m implementing a slower more thoughtful approach—conscious effort to pave a more reasonable course. I’m learning to slow down. One thing salesman do is try to get you quick—create a need then get your money, or get you to pick sides.

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      1. I think that’s good. I certainly don’t advocate ignoring intuition either. Sometimes it’s just the best way to maybe keep you safe in a particular situation, but I think it’s best to treat intuition as a data point. Recognize, treat it as possibly valid, but that there might be other ways to come to a decisions besides relying on it.

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      2. I should also mention that we have very bad intuition when it comes to probabilities, and so given that much of what we face in life is probabilistic in nature, our inability to intuitively grasp probabilities that civilizations presents us also makes us vulnerable to many mistakes.

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        1. It is this awareness that I wish for everyone to understand. If not to curb mere belief, but promote tolerance. If everyone realized the depth of the issue I can’t imagine it wouldn’t have a profound effect. Belief is the cornerstone of group unity, while merely not believing a specific dogma ostracizes you from the benefits of being a part of something, which we all tend to want whether we like it or not. I can see getting cast aside for a bad behavior, but a belief? Cmon man, that’s a lot of importance attached to a subjective fantasy!

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          1. As another blogger reminded me though that is the problem with Judeo-Christian belief is that it is a belief in a world that is a battleground of good and evil forces. So no longer believing essentially means you have left the side of good, Now obviously there are a lot of Christians who don’t think that way, but the more fundamentalist one certainly does.

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          2. Not sure about the “tolerance” question; I’m struggling with that right now. Read even a cursory overview of the history of Christianity and you’ll see there was very little tolerance of anything in their history and a whole lot of bloodshed. Project that to today, and the results are not much better; very little tolerance of anyone else’s beliefs and a whole lot of effort & money trying to change our collective values to emulate theirs. Abortion, Separation of Church and State, Bible teaching in public schools just to name a few. Toleration doesn’t enter into the equation at all, not sure why we should tolerate their ridiculous mythology & baseless belief system when it intrudes upon our freedoms so often. It’s not enough for them to believe, they have to make us believe as well.

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  3. That baseball question can trip up even the most thoughtful. I got all three but had seen the baseball question before (full disclosure).

    After I blog my life story *snort” my plan is to write a handful of posts regarding tribalism, which plays into your topic today, IMO.

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    1. LDS tribalism. Should be interesting. Seein’s your the analytical type, you must have had some serious questions for a long time. Where you a bit conflicted as a believer, or when did you start to give an honest look and the contradicting info? What took so long, if you even know?

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      1. My first”shelf item” was the Book of Abraham at age 13. My full history is convoluted and there are parts of which I am certainly ashamed, for very real reasons. I doubt I will delve into the real dark days preceding and surrounding my divorce. I will always own my actions and decisions but I don’t need to broadcast them publicly. Suffice it to say I am a double excommunicant. The most recent for apostate behavior in 2016 at the age of 61.

        Being analytical is not always a boon when dealing with tribalism and confirmation bias. After knowing for sure the LDS Church was not true after my first excommunication, I crawled my way back in on purpose! The indoctrination and family pressures are strong (tribalism).

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            1. It’s amazing how we hone the arguments. Volumes of Hugh Nibley and rationalization because we put faith first. Everything beyond that is a neurotic dilemma we excuse because we have to…to keep intangible belief. Any system that welcomes you over a belief, will betray you over belief as well. Fifty years of church and one friend to show for it, and he’s an apostate too. Lol. Good riddance, really.

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    1. I suppose intuition keeps you from mixing chocolate with sardines? Which is why I follow your blog! You certainly have a good eye for food.

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  4. Mine is the only true religion. Unfortunately, it has only one current member; and, that congregation of 1 is a little shaky because I personally would never join a religion which would have me as a member.

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    1. Well, there are two of you out there somewhere. Lord help us! But, that’s a good philosophy. Who ya gonna trust that doesn’t have a bias towards their own neurology and experiences? Religion demands you use your good sense and join them, then abandon your good sense. This way is better.

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            1. Ooooooo, does Pink have a bunch of… ???? … umm, kitty-cats too!!!!???? I would SURE COME to those Gladiatorial games and festivities if so!!!

              Quid est meum tuum est??? 😈

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            2. HAH! Do they chase and snatch-up lil’ Munchkins in the Wonderful Land of Oz!? 😁

              (chuckles as their lil’ legs kick, and they scream in terror with their lil’ Munchkin voices)

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            3. Oooooo, I just got very inspired by images of this and make it into a short poem! Mmmm. I’ll be back soon with it! 😈

              Many many thanks to John Z for tickling this twistedness outta me. Hehehe

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            4. Yes sir, I will. Alright, this is what I threw together… 😏

              ‘Twas the night before Hallow, when all thru the forest
              creatures were a growling, and even Tyrann Osaurus.
              The chains were hung from the ceiling with care,
              In hopes that wickedness soon would be there!

              The Munchkins all were about all snug in their threads,
              While nightmares of monkeys danced in their heads.
              And Dorothy in her tight dress, and soon much less,
              Had all settled in unaware of their pending wild mess.

              When off in the distance there arose such a screech,
              They sprang from their slumber trembling but couldn’t speak.
              Then up above in the darkening sky, came creatures grabbing,
              Tearing and snatching, the dress ripped, twas Dorothy’s undoing.

              The full Moon welcomed them as they lifted their catch,
              Lil voices screaming crying “Please don’t defile us!”
              Then what to their eye’s terror the room they arrived,
              The clanking and swaying these chains and locks contrived?

              “Now please oh please Mr. Evil Professor,” wee voices begged,
              “We are mere Church-goin folk, small snacks and no legs.
              Just take HER the prudish nun, the one doth argues way too much,
              You’ll have much more fun cuz she moans to the touch.

              We Lil Munchkins should know,
              Cuz everyone in her faith behind closed doors
              Are really deviant animals
              Without the least bit control!!!

              Funny what you can unveil when you back ’em into corners, huh? 😉 😛

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    1. Hahahaha!!! Yes, or else your lawbreaking ways will put you in the slammer by Officer O’My-Lady-Tease! No, Officer O’My-Calamities! No, no… damn it… its Officer O’Mall-Disease! That’s it!!! 😉

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  5. I love these type of questions but I have some feedback:

    I didn’t know the answer was inside the paragraph so on the first one I read the answer before getting a chance to work through it.

    Also, the first question has the word “cents” next to the answer, which gives a hint.

    I got the remaining two correct.

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    1. Nice work. Your a programmer, computer scientist guy? The first one did make me think even after I knew it, and I didn’t. The exercise is really to illustrate the foibles of intuitive thought, which requires a little attention. I was raised in religion quite deeply, so it’s hard to know if that is a training ground to believe. I’m very trusting by nature/ nurture, but tread cautiously nowadays.

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        1. Including yourself? Less and less are actually attending churches. It would be a pretty decent bet that you attained your faith through a church, even though you don’t attend one now and have chosen what works for you.

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          1. You stated — “Less and less are actually attending churches.”

            That was true in Rome a long time ago (look at them now)

            The past repeats itself. As i stated before I don’t think we are taking the concept seriously so mankind may be stuck in a repeating pattern.

            As for trusting myself that would be nonsensical (at least in respect to my diet)

            I don’t go to any church so I can’t say if they have any bearing on my understanding. They seem more like a distraction.

            As a child I was raised by an atheist and a baptist but I went to a catholic private school. Not sure if that means anything.

            Just a thought

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  6. You stated — “Guessing which religion is true depends mostly on where you were born, or the one that caught you vulnerable during a crisis.”

    My response — I disagree, “Guessing which religion is true” can only rely on what you are told and has nothing to do with location. Your place on a map has zero to do with indoctrination.

    With that said I do understand the concept of growing up in an area that is either dominated by one or another religion, which does increase the predictability of what individuals will become but this doesn’t negate the reality of indoctrination.

    If you are in an area like New York with every flavor of religion within a few feet, then you know it’s what you are taught not where you are.

    Just a thought

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    1. But if you grow up in Utah or Iran, it’s pretty obvious what your faith will be, and usually remain. Born in the Bible Belt? People vehemently defend their faith based on where they were born all the time. New York however, doesn’t illustrate the statistics. But, I bet if you tracked the religions and the immigrants you’d find that where they came from illustrates the faith they adhere to. Pew has some maps of this and it’s pretty well documented.

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      1. You are 100% correct but the reason is not the location it is the indoctrination.

        What you are talking about is probability, what I am talking about is direct cause and effect.

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        1. Of course, indoctrination can happen anywhere. If you’re born in Iran you’ll be taught in the local religion. That makes it easy to decide your religion is the correct one. Bias is hard to break.

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  7. You stated – “Research shows intuitive people are more likely to believe in god, while reflective, or analytical thinkers are more likely to be atheist.”

    My response — This may be true for some (maybe most) but it’s not true for all, so it doesn’t solve the problem of belief vs nonbelief.

    I like the story of the atheist who saw a frozen waterfall and became a believer. I’m still trying to process that event to make sense of it. Some people call it nuts and others call it beautiful. I find myself curious about the human condition and what is driving understanding.

    There is something going on that requires our combined attention but all I see from the religious side is blind acceptance and all I see from the nonreligious side is abrupt dismissal.

    My fear is that we are not taking the “concept” of god within the “human condition” seriously and this I think may leave us in a never-ending tug of war.

    I don’t believe we are struggling with a reality of truth but rather we are lost in a need to be right.

    There is the first problem:
    There is no way to prove God exist
    There is no way to stop all people from believing in a God
    There is no way to prove that God does not exist
    There is no way to make all people believe in God

    There is the second problem:
    Religion is destroying people’s lives
    Religion is fulfilling people’s needs
    Science negates superstition and belief
    Science fails to explain the unknown
    Then there is the last problem:
    Some of us are decent
    Some of us are monsters
    Some of us are just standing around
    The rub is that we are all mixed in on all sides

    Just a thought

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Damn. I got every single question wrong (having a GMAT flash back). I’m going go stand over here in the corner and feel sorry for myself.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Here Jo, have one of my tissues. It’s not whether you got it wrong, but that you tried…naw, fuck that! Lol. The test is merely to assist us to see if we’re intuitive or logical. It’s designed…

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        1. Hugs are always an excellent remedy. But on the bright side, you are a great example that awareness can trump physiology…if we make the effort.

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  9. I think the first question generates wrong answers due to poor sentence composition — i.e. in stating the “The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost (in cents)” wrongly leads the reader to assume the question is asking for a monetary conversion from dollars to cents. If this were an exam question and the markers noticed that a majority of respondents gave the same wrong answer, it’s likely the question would be either be marked correct for those answering 100. Ask me how I know.

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      1. How I know is because I used to teach a course and mark exams (set by others) in which an overwhelming majority of examinees would occasionally give the same wrong answer to the same question. At that point you have three options: figure out why and mark both answers as correct, elliminate the question from the final marks, or be a pedantic ass and mark it wrong. After bringing it to the attention of those who had the final say we chose the first option.

        I also remember writing an accounting exam with a question covering a topic that wasn’t included in the lesson notes or discussed in the lectures. Upon realizing the error (we’re talking thousands of students across the nation here) the examination board eliminated the question from the final marks and graded the papers on a curve. (And a number of people got fired for their incompetance.)

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        1. Interesting. We have a talented array of individuals here. I often wondered on a lot of these medical exams who wrote them. There always always a ton of bad questions here in Washington state tests, year after year and they keep them in there. I learned over time to get them right since I taught a lot if them. ACLS, PALS, PHTLS, and some other BLS stuff. Bad questions will drive you nuts when you actually know the stuff. Thanks Ron

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  10. There is no “true religion” because religions all require that you adhere to them on ‘faith,‘ therefore surrendering whatever critical analysis one might have applied to such a question. The simple truth is that you CAN’T apply logic or reason to answer such a question because a “rational” answer doesn’t exist. This, I believe, is one of the most damaging aspects of religion; it requires that you suspend any of the natural, logical faculties of which you were endowed by nature in order to accept a thesis which simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Hence the 2,000 years of mental masterbation written by so-called “men of faith,” “theologians,” “scholars” and others in order to “prove” such silly notions as the nature of Jesus, the trinity, the various contradictions in scripture, and so on. Always remember; god has a plan for you and, when the plan sucks or didn’t pan out the way thought, he “works in mysterious ways.”

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  11. Thank you for this post! I myself do not believe that there is “one true religion”. There are many similarities though between certain religions like monotheistic ones, but it seems as though people involved in one are not able to see it. Psychologists like Carl Jung argue that similarities in belief systems are common and founded the ideas of the Collective Unconscious based off similarities between religions and cultures across the world. However, I notice that in many religions today a tribalism “us versus them” attitude is present that really should have no evolutionary place in our world today, yet still exists. This just causes the plethora of problems that we have in our world and perpetuates things like racism, different forms of prejudice, and even justifies war for some. And to backtrack a little on the “God has a plan for you” type statements… I used to believe all of that, but when I really started to become aware that terrible things had happened and were happening in my life, I basically fell apart. The “God works in mysterious ways” sorts of quotes did not help me at all. Even though I am intuitive, I have had to turn to reason and analysis in order to try to understand my life both in the past and the present. I have a much easier time coping with life today and tend to find solutions that actually work for my problems rather than relying on “faith”. At some point I want to explore whether religion could be a block to coping with and living a successful life. It would be really interesting to conduct some non-biased studies about if religion really does benefit someone in the long run.

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    1. Thanks for the input. At some point we just have to laugh and move on. The regional religion phenomenon exposes the true religion thing pretty well. And that’s just the start of it all. The “us versus them” is key to maintain the division. It is that fear that keeps it all afloat.

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  12. You can recognize true religion by watching the people who practice it. Since Jehovah is good, those who are his true worshipers must be good people. Ex. Just as a good orange tree produces fine oranges, the true religion produces fine people.​Matthew 7:15-20 speaks of being on the watch of false prophets because by the fruits you can recognize them.

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    1. That is quite subjective. What you call good, I see as intrusive and restricting human progress. Using your theory, a good, kind, philanthropic atheist like myself is practicing the true religion of unbelief. Christianity has not produced anything definitive in 2000 years and has been the source and byproduct of evil on the world. How do you justify that?

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    2. You’ll have some hard time substantiating that hypothesis. I can think of many “good people” (as subjective as that assessment is) from the “true religion” that just wouldn’t pass muster. (Think Pope Urban II who ordered the First Crusade responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands, Pope Alexander IV (enough said,) Christopher Columbus (literally responsible for the deaths of MILLIONS of native North, South and Central Americans;) almost all of the explorers of the New World; so on, ad infinitum.) Of course, ALL religions are the TRUE religion simply because that have to be; that’s an absolute. There can only be one true religion, right? This is the inherent specious nature of faith; it can only be argued to a point after which you enter a period of speculation since no one knows anything as fact about any religion.

      BTW: There is no true religion; they are all just mythology. Just as there is no such thing as a religion of peace. But I have a great idea: why don’t you just worship your true “Mother,” The Earth? After all, she did birth you. After billions of years of trial and error, cleansing the gene pools of defective genes, useless appendages, inept species, eventually out came us! Earth is our mother and we’d better start taking care of her or she is going to eat us.

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      1. It isn’t what one believes that is the problem. It is belief itself that leaves humanity stuck in this mindset that they need to believe—anything. I don’t know why humanity is so overtly gullible.

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  13. This is such a great question and I’ve thought about our search for the true God all of my life. There is a scripture that I enjoy at John 4:24 that’s says “God is Spirit, and those worshipping him must worship with spirit and truth”. So the idea of truth is found in the Bible, which proves there is acceptable way of worship and unacceptable way…..thus suggesting a truth and an untruth. Really something to think about.

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    1. The spirit you speak of is merely through human hormones the writers have manipulated emotions. Easily duplicated even with inspirational lies, btw.
      Interestingly the natural man is actually the believer, not the other way around. Everyone clings to some type of belief—they can’t help themselves. Religions have capitalized in this by creating a need, then providing a turnkey solution that traps us in our own psychology. Really faith is quite simple and defending it is even simpler. Norepinephrine is released in the brain when belief is challenged. A phenomenon that doesn’t occur with facts. The key to understanding the mystery of all this is unbelief—true true.
      Faith has had 2000 years to meet its objectives and still waiting. I think it’s time to move on.

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