Why are there so many religions?

Almost all religions identify a supreme God or Creator of everything. He is described as being omnipotent, meaning that He can do anything. If this is true, then why are there so many religions?

For instance: for the sake of argument, let's say that Islam is the true religion and that Allah is God. All the other gods are false. If this is the case, then why would Allah permit so many other religions to coexist with Islam? This example goes for Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and the others. What kind of omnipotent being would tolerate so much blasphemy among His creation?

Some might explain the current scenario today by saying that God wants to separate faithful worshipers from the idol worshipers. However, the other major religions describe the SAME kind of God with mainly the SAME attributes. Aren't they all describing the SAME God then? If they are describing the same God, then what would be His reason for a multitude of religions? Do you follow what I am saying here?

a) If there is an omnipotent God, He would only allow one religion concerning Him.
b) There are many religions concerning Him (an omnipotent God)
c) Therefore, there is no omnipotent God.

This form of valid argument is called modus tollens or "denying the consequent" and can be represented as such:

a) If P, then Q.
b) Not Q.
c) Therefore, Not P.

Unless you guys can dismiss the truth of one of the premises a or b, the conclusion c necessarily follows. It becomes deductively valid.

I'm not trying to convert people to atheism or anything; I am myself a Christian. However, I found myself thinking about this anomaly in the world today and would like to bring it up for discussion.

Thanks for reading! : )

Perhaps its becacause God is such a complex concept that any time you try to use human speech or text to explain it, you're going to end up with as many different explanations as there are people trying to do the explaining.

Another thing, spiritual beliefs are not immune to controllers wanting divide and conquer. Rather it is likely they be priority.

reply to post by wolfwood290


Uh oh, you are using logic to understand religion. It's not gonna be pretty. There is a lot of circular reasoning in religion it seems.
Trying to look at the question logically will just create more questions. At least it does for me a lot of the time.
I mentioned earlier today in a post that I think all religions have some nuggets of truth...it's what gets thrown in with all those different nuggets by humans that causes all the problems.
Arg...it's late and I have been talking too much religion for some reason today. I'll just check back in later.

Because "God" is a concept over the human-understanding-capacity. For me, Jesus, Allah or Buddah are just representant of "God". People who are "God" in a more profound maner than us, humans. Everyone IS god. But it's hard to attain this state of consciousness and we try to explain this state or the road to this state with religions.

But that's just me

[edit on 6-5-2010 by jolois]

There are so many religions because once a very long time ago, there were many different cultures and tribes of people separated by distance and languages.

These different peoples formed their own unique but often times similiar religious belief systems.

God (Allah, Buddah, etc.) did not create religion. Man did. But there is some truth in all the major religions if you look.

Why so many religions....

Because if you ask any 2 people to come up with an explanation for everything, they will make up different stuff. Depending on their experiences and imagination.

And it wasn't a case of just shrugging your shoulders and saying " I don't know" The people being asked were the "wise" people of their tribes, they had to come up with something.

So over a period of time mankind collected thousands of "religions" and "cultural stories" . But the "wise" people still know its all made up.

Because there are as many roads to god as there are stars in the universe.

Secondly...Free Will reigns...so people are free to not believe if they so choose.

reply to post by Sarkron


Incorrect. People can only "believe" what they are taught. To parrot what others tell them.

Someone on a deserted Island would know nothing of say Jesus & Christianity.

Some very deep and complex suggestions have been presented, BUT I wonder if it is really all that difficult to comprehend.

Why are there so many religions?

Simply put, because of the Fallen. They polluted the Original Religion/Form of Worship, during there time on Earth.

Instead of GOD, they (The Fallen) became the focus and took HIS place as gods and deities around the globe.

It's recorded in every Ancient Culture, so it really isn't that deep or difficult to figure out.

A better question is why has man turned his back on the One True form of Worship, to seek and praise, rebelious and defeated wannabes, instead of maintaining a life as GOD intended for mankind?

But maybe thats another topic.

Ciao

Shane

Originally posted by wolfwood290

a) If there is an omnipotent God, He would only allow one religion concerning Him.

This form of valid argument is called modus tollens or "denying the consequent" and can be represented as such:

a) If P, then Q.
b) Not Q.
c) Therefore, Not P.

Unless you guys can dismiss the truth of one of the premises a or b, the conclusion c necessarily follows. It becomes deductively valid.

The false premise is the first one.
You cannot dictate what an omnipotent God might choose to allow.
The Biblical God is described as discouraging alternatives; but he does not choose to prevent alternatives from entering people's minds

Solomon found that diversifying religions could be a very lucrative business. It wasn't so much that he "was the wisest man" as that he was actually a shrewd business man.

More religions were needed to accomodate what people wanted god to be.

Solomon built temples for every major religion of his day. He had an assortment of wives and concubines from all the nations. And once he built his empire of one land that encompassed all religions, it brought in many merchants and religious pilgrimages into his dominion. This is also why Solomon was the wealthiest king.

Solomon's venture of global religion brought great political alliances as well as industry and "religious peace" where all could practice their own religion in the same country.

The merger of the one world religion of today, which is based on "inter-faith" with very general doctrines which focus on similarities instead of differences, is based on Solomon's idea of centralizing religion for the greatest power and wealth.

reply to post by wolfwood290


Well I'll keep it as simple as possible for you. There are many religions because Satan uses false religion to lure people in and keep them from the true religion.

Think about. All of the differnet religions CANNOT be right.

[edit on 5/7/2010 by Blueracer]

reply to post by Blueracer


What and yours just happens to be ?

Can you spell DELUSIONAL

I think his question was "if god is omnipotent, and intolerant as written in the Koran, Old testament, Torah, then why are other religions allowed". Not the origin of seperate religions. And I think the answer is quite obvious. Because god does not exist in the form or shape that most people try to force god into, and is not an active, individual, separate conscious entity that moves in the world with a controling and judgemental intent.

There are so many religions because there are many paths to same destination. If God is so great, so powerful, so much more than what we can comprehend, why do we think that anyone of us alone could have the answer... no one religion is "right" or speaks the total truth, or even speak for God, all religions have some truths, put them all together we might actually have a better understanding of our world, our mission and God, but human nature and mankind in general uses religion for personal gains and therefore we continue to divide and conquer.

[edit on 5-7-2010 by worldwatcher]

You make a valid argument. This is my take on it, They are the same god. The one true religin was lost to mankind well over a millenum ago. Islam, Christinty, Judeism etc are all products of this one. This is why they are so similer. They splinter because man could not agree on the correct way to worship and found others that felt the same as they did. Over time they turned into a form of slavery. God does not get involved in this because it is of no concern to him/her/it. We have to find our own way.

If you study the context in which the majority of religions are created is usually in a tumultuous period in the region. A visionary, and someone with above average intelligence figure raises with good oratory skills, good person in general and people start believing .And then , the others, that get attached to that figure for the sole purpose of getting power and control of the ppl in that specific society. As you can see all the Holy Books of the big religions were written after the person that had the direct connection with God dies, some even many years after the person's death and how convinience that there is nobody alive that was a direct witness to those accounts.

Maybe Human Beings need religion to be under control until we get to a higher level of intelligence as whole and we would be able to judge what is right without having to be religions to tell us what is moral or not. There is a lot of evil in the world now even though we have religions, can you imagine what would be if religions didn't exist?

Maybe is just a phase that humanity needs to overcome to reach the next level of conciousness and religions serve its purpose.

Just my opinion...

Btw I would recommend you the movie "Religulous", is a comedy/documentary, however it shows how easy is to start a religion. Here is the link
video.google.com...#

Sorry for my english.

Originally posted by wolfwood290
a) If there is an omnipotent God, He would only allow one religion concerning Him.
b) There are many religions concerning Him (an omnipotent God)
c) Therefore, there is no omnipotent God.

This form of valid argument is called modus tollens or "denying the consequent" and can be represented as such:

a) If P, then Q.
b) Not Q.
c) Therefore, Not P.

Unless you guys can dismiss the truth of one of the premises a or b, the conclusion c necessarily follows. It becomes deductively valid.

In logic, an argument can be valid and unsound. The first premise assumes that we can know that an omnipotent God would only allow one religion concerning him (i.e. that we can see the argument from the "perspective of God"). In fact, we necessarily have to consider the argument from a human perspective. Therefore, the argument is valid, but not necessarily sound.

Why are there so many religions?

Simple really....because there are so many groups that want power over others.
They want to be able to control what they believe, how they act, and give their own answers to their people's questions...answers that will keep them in power....

Whether you are talking about the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt or the modern churches, the motivation is still the same...we're just all a bit sneakier about it these days....

Two Reasons.

1)Because man was created with need to have spirituality, when he can't find the truth about the proper way to worship God he makes it up to satisfy this basic need.

2)Satan knowing about this basic need, has muddied the waters of truth, allowing people to artificially fulfill this need with false worship that doesn't please God.