Why are there so many religions in the world?

Boy that is a poser ricky, I suppose it has something to do the general insanity of Homo sapiens sapiens. Or just too much karma-phala in their gestalt. I avoid all of that by only eating Cap't Crunch with Crunch berries for brekkies.

Do you mean those who don't believe in your religion is insane? If it's really what you think, I won't bother reading and answering your post.

Oh but you did read it. And you did answer it.

But if you study the various religions of the world you will quickly find that all of them preach the same basic message. What's more, pretty much all of them are derived from some older religion. Maybe they all have the same origin. Who knows?

As to why there are so many, that's a question that is easy to answer, and Rex has done it, even though his answer might be phrased in a way that makes it hard to see.

The reason there are so many religions is that there are many people with many different agendas, who seek to abuse the capacity of faith in others in order to obtain their goals.


Welcome to A2K by the way.

Thanks but I don't quite agree with you. Using my previous example of "sun". Although the sun looks a bit different when viewed from different places, we find it more or less the same object. However, when comparing God of Christianity with the gods of Hinduism, say, we may hardly find anything in common. So it's very difficult for me to believe that they have the same origin. And if they are really just the same thing, is it still necessary for me to believe in God in order not to go to hell after death? If I really go to hell, which hell should I go then? There are so many kinds of them!

Who is this "we" you speak of? You are assuming that everyone in the world has the same understanding of what the sun is, how it came into being, how it will end, etc... I suspect that if you traveled to some regions of Africa or the remote mountian or jungle regions of Asia you'd find people that have very different ideas about the sun than you or I have.

You and I may have the same concepts but that's because we were brought up with the same "religion" (aka standard western science). Someone that has never set foot in a classroom might have very different ideas.

Just study the religions ricky. Your objections suggest that you haven't done so much of that. There are, in fact, many similarities between the hindu gods and the christian deities.

Ricky, you have a point about the God in the different religions are the same. I recently read the Bible, I have not finished it since it is so long, but I read the bigger part of the Old Testament.

Well, the way I understand it, the Old Testament talked specifically about the God for the Jewish people and no one else. And then, I have not read this part in detail, but how did the Jewish God become the Christian God, who supposedly is "our" Father in Heaven. By "our", I think the New Testament means if you follow the God whom Jesus preached. How was the transition made from a Jewish God to a Christian God?

And of course, Hinduism has its own God(s). as well as other religions. What I found funny reading the Bible is that every religion seems to invent its own story of the beginning of the world/mankind. I did not realize that Adam and Eve came from the Old Testament, so does that make us all Jewish?

Questions, questions, more questions that religions raise rather than answer for me, at least.

Who says music and art are necessarily man-made?

I wanted to make a correction but you already posted, JPB. I wanted to say in the first sentence the God in the different religions not being the same.

cello

Jesus was a jew. Whenever Jesus referred to god, it was the jewish god he meant.

After the death of Jesus, some of his followers thought it a good idea to found a religion based on his teachings, and then a whole new concept of god was invented, based on the jewish concept of god.

The christian old testament is also known under another name; the hebrew bible. And another name still, in Judaism; the Tanakh.

So much for "not being the same". :wink:

It's a Catch-22 situation. Since I'm not a Christian, I won't spend too much time reading the Bible. It's also true for other religions. So please excuse me for my ignorance. But even without in-depth knowledge of Christianity and Hinduism, we can easily see one major difference: there is one and only one God in Christianity, but there are many gods in Hinduism. There is even no god worshipped in Buddhism. How can you possibly explain the difference if you insist there is only one true God who created all humans on earth?

Also, if there's no difference, from the point of view of a Christian, do you think it doesn't matter which religion I believe in? Do I still have the privilege of going to heaven after death?

Frankly, I would like to see as many religions in the world as there are individuals. It's when religious practicioners get together to form congregations that mischieve occurs. Religion is private in its essence; it is our deepest, most honest, necessarily ineffable perception of our true nature in immediate reality.

Why concern yourself with the point of view of a christian if this is not your point of view?

I am not a religious man either. Still, the impact religion has had on the world is far too great, in my estimation, for for me to disregard the entire subject. As far as I am concerned, the study of religion is the study of man, not god.

And I wouldn't classify buddhism as a religion. It's more a philosophy, and if you chose it, a way of life.

But perhaps Buddhism IS a religion in the sense of religare (to reconnect or bind one with all).

Yes, in that sense I would say that it is a religion.

Thanks for the explanation, Cyracuz.

I saw a movie where it was said that religions have caused more death than all the wars combined throughout the history of humanity. A question I have is whether without religions, the world would have been a better place to live?

JLNobody, does the word religion come from religare? That is interesting because I used to think that religions give people a sense of belonging to a community (the people of the same religion).

Contrary to you, Ricky, although I don't follow any religion, I am very curious to know the different religions. I think that when religions were started, there was a good intention, because the persons who started them were good and kind people who just wanted to teach us "good" things - good is a relative term. It is later on, when religions become more developed, people forgot what was originally taught, and so you see the preachers deviating from the real teachings, applying their own ideas and misconceptions of what their religions are. And getting involved in politics like the present Pope. Frankly, what does whether Turkey can join the European Union have to do with the Pope? The EU doesn't need his blessing, or lack of, to decide it.

One thing I dislike about the Christian religion is that only God (the Jewish-Christian) God should be followed. It does not allow people to believe in other Gods, if you want to follow Christianity. I heard that the Muslim religion is more tolerant of other religions. However, why is the term "infidels" used? I don't know anything about the Muslim religion.

And Ricky, I would not worry so much about whether I will go in heaven after death, as long as I live my life in the "best" manner as I can (e.g. not to hurt other people, etc.). We don't even know what happens after, so why worry?

Cello, the word, religion, contains the roots RE and LIGIO (I think that's right) which indicate re-connecting one with the universe, as in the mystical dimension of religion. The term, ligio, is also the root for ligament, that tissue which connects our skeletal structure. It also suggests "to bind" or "to tie" as in binding the members of a community together. Anthropologists have generally held that the institution of religion (in its various forms) is a universal phenomenon. While not every individual is religious in the usual sense of the term, all societies seems to be tied together with respect to a religious institution to which all members belong. This is, of course, more the case in ancient and primitive situations. Today most societies are pluralistic. Like ours they contain multiple religious and ethnic groups.
We often think of religions as moral codes. But if we look hard enough we will find moral codes without religions and some religions have standards for belief and behavior that we might not consider moral or ethically valid.

There are many religions created by man, because they are all based on mysticism, cultural beliefs, hierarchy and for homo sapiens to believe "we" can't be the supreme animal on this planet called earth.

Since Charles Darwin's "evolution," many religious' beliefs have been superceded by new scientific knowledege and technology.

Today's largest religions, Islam and Christianity, are based on the Jewish Torah and the bible. The spread of these religions has more to do with the geological base from which they were "born."

These religions are based on governance of the multitudes based on fear and rewards.

I'm an atheist.

There are so many religions in the world today because religion was born from man, not from god.

2000-4000 years ago when many of today's religions were created, before the advent of sohpisiticated scientific devices or processes, HUMANS CREATED 'answers' to questions that they could not have known the answer too ('Why do we get sick', 'Why are we here', 'What happens when we die', etc). Also, in a world with so much brutality, sickness, and death, religion served as a motivation to keep on going; the promise of this life being a road to a 'perfect life' is pretty consistent in every religion.

Because mass communication devices and speedy forms of travel were not yet invented, the different groups of humans in the world, separated by insurmountable distances or obstacles (thousands of miles of desert, towering mountains, vast oceans, etc) could not communicate their religions quickly to the others, so they were forced to create their own gods/etc to answer these questions.

That somewhat explains how the major religions were formed, but today you'll see perverted and pervasive distinctions within these major religions (Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, etc). These sub-religions were created to accommodate varying interpretations of the religious books and ideas the main religions use or follow. Some of the distinctions of these sub-groups seem to qualify as completely new religions. There are groups in Christianity that don't believe in Satan, Adam and Eve, The Ark/Flood, Hell, the Virgin birth, whether or not good deeds are required for heaven, etc. These are major events in their book of choice, yet there is still disagreement over these major tenants. Also religion has been watered down over the years. You used to not be able to eat meat on Fridays in Christianity, but they tossed that out to get more parishioners for example.

Really, ultimately, I hope you see that IF there is a god, it is UNLIKELY that any human religion understands ANYTHING about this god or what this god wants. How could they? How could we?