Which Religions Are Delusional?

[patkelly]

According to Adherents.com there were 4,211 active religions in 2002. With all these different religions a rather obvious question comes to mind. Which religion is the one true religion? An even bigger question is where did all these other religions come from and how have so many people come to believe in false religions? The final question some people are asking these days is what makes my religion any less delusional than all the others?

The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. But what the constitution does not guarantee is freedom from religion and those who attempt to sell their particular flavor of religion to the masses. It also does not guarantee freedom from all the infighting by the different religious groups to have their religion reign supreme over the world.

The fact is different religions do no co-exist together well because they must all compete with one another for the same single group of potential consumers. And as one religion tries to defeat another religion through economics and media measures, other religions avail themselves to whatever promotional resources they can develop. And unfortunately, no one really gains in the war between the faiths which has likely claimed more lives throughout history than any other cause except disease.

When was the last time you saw a fund-raising telethon on your favorite cable channel sponsored by the "Anti-Prayer Allegiance" to support and promote the idea there is no one listening to all these prayers? When was the last time your heard a government official say that faith at the expense of reality is not a positive personality trait? Surely it is ok for people to lead delusional lives if they chose so long as they do not become so delusional they believe they are on some sacred quest to make everyone subscribe to their delusions.

Now I know people do not like it at all when anyone challenges their delusions. On the other hand, many people are getting tired of hearing about all those who continue to lose their lives over the global war for religious or cultural supremacy. We need a third party to come to the table in this age old conflict and suggest to the warring factions that maybe they are all wrong. There is simply no rational evidence to support beliefs in any religion while the true source of all religions are a matter of historical record. The human predisposition to be delusional is also a well established part of that same record.

Just a few thoughts this Sunday taken from the creators of LogicalReality.com

[acmavm]

1. There is no true religion. There are great truths in all religions,

there are great lies in all religions.

Religion, you did that
It helps to keep your little leaders fat
Like faith ,n superstition stay
To help you pass the time away
IAN HUNTER - GOD TAKE 1

2. all of them are delusions

but they're are necessary delusions

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/theses.htm

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/feuerbach/works/essence/ec26.htm

[Dagaz]

3. Anything with a hierarchy

Surely we don't know the answers to God(s) but surely anything that has a CEO and a corporate type structure can't be for real.

On edit..I'm not talking about having a President and an organizational staff just ones where some are more godly than others.

[Az]

4. A civil society

requires that one allow another to be mistaken. You may attempt to prove the case for your beliefs by living according to them and setting an example. But forcing ones beliefs on one another has historically lead to bloodshed.

We are born into this world screaming and ignorant. What we manage to learn before we die is merely a portion of all there is to know. To expect everyone to get it right is perhaps foolish. To try to force the little bit you have learned is damnable. The best way to guide the society through the darkness is with compassion and understanding for our collective ignorance. Attempting to rise above it but understanding that not all are at the same place at the same time.

[patkelly]

7. I like you mind AZ!!!

I like you mind AZ!!!

[jonnyblitz]

5. ALL of them. n/t

[Clete]

6. Religion is a business like any other.

I really don't know why people believe stories about things that aren't real. I wish they would keep those beliefs about other worlds and spirit beings to themselves until they have proof. Instead these churches have tapped into a source of income from the faithful. I do believe there are other dimensions out there that we haven't tapped into yet like the microscopic world of single celled life, which we only learned about in the last few centuries with the invention of the microscope, that made that world visible to us. When we do make the discoveries of these hidden dimensions, it will be something amazing, I am sure. But maybe that is what religion should be, questioning, discovery through invention and learning about the universe, not the dogmatic tales that belong in the world of fantasy fiction.

[patkelly]

9. Firmly Planted in Reality

Clete is sounds like your thoughts are firmly planted in reality. Not an easy feat in today's world...

[Catch22Dem]

8. Every one of them

Not that is hasn't been said already.

[starroute]

10. Religions are best taken as fruitful metaphors

There really are "more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy." However, ordinary science and logic don't give us much of a clue about those things.

Religions claim to -- but no two religions agree.

This suggests that religions are best taken metaphorically. Heaven and hell, angels and devils, even god can most usefully be understood as metaphors for those things about ourselves and the cosmos that we apprehend only dimly.

The metaphors of religion are shadows we see flickering on the wall of Plato's cave. Or they are cross-sections of higher-dimensional realities passing through our three-dimensional world. Or they are holographic projections of whose sources we remain ignorant.

Religions become destructive when they lose their humility and forget they are dealing in shadows, projections, and cross-sections.

If we could all keep in mind that our religions are not only metaphors but ultimately metaphors for the same thing, we might get along a lot better, not only with each other but with the universe.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

11. Call me deluded then, because

I'm a Christian. If there's a problem with that, it's not mine.

(Note: Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, et al., are NOT Christians. What they say has nothing to do with the King Of Kings.)

[patkelly]

12. No Problem At All!

I am just a little courious though about your answer to the question of how your religion is in any way less delusional than all the others.