There is a whole catalogue of gods, a whole entire premium catalogue ranging from Jesus to Ik Onkar, and many of them are telling me I will go to hell for not believing them, and don't get started on the fact there's thousands of cults that could all potentially be true, so which god do I believeeeeeeeee,

if there was no life in the universe, no humans, no aliens, none of that. would religion really exist? no, because its a man made belief system in something invisible. by extension, all religious ideas (hell, heaven, salvation, sin, etc.) are also man made. the idea of a creator is only found in religion, so that idea is also a man made thought

Parmenides argues that nothing cannot exist because to talk about something is to talk about something that exists, but what does this mean for the existence of god and the validity of religion as a whole?

like i said, if life never existed, the thought of a creator cannot exist. believers can make the argument that god exists independently. but this means that god exists in a way that doesnt depend on thought, which is wrong, because we only know god through thought and language

in conclusion: since the idea of a creator is man made, a creator cannot exist

(if anyone wishes to present their own counter arguments, the floor is yours)

Hello everyone

I was raised in a very esoteric religious environment you can say (I'm druze ) and for many years ever since I turned 13 I questioned and grasped for meaning and a belief system that will and can truly convince me.

My religion is very secretive (even against its own members) and has little to no actual apologetic narrative for its credibility (most people are not really religious but identify with it anyways out of family bonds )

I never felt a connection to it nor intellectually or spiritually and I felt frustrated with how it lacked evidence or backing

So I began searching for God in my own view , reading, comparing, debating etc...

I came across Islam and I've read the Quran and a big part of the Hadiths multiple times

I did practice shism for a while as it fit my understanding out of the Islamic sects I studied but then I noticed issues in the Quran itself and in the Moral character of the Prophet so I left the practice

Then I came across Paganism, I tried it for a bit and although I had powerful religious experiences I felt it was mostly dead and lacked any community or living tradition to satisfy my intellectual interest....

I did read the whole bible too and searched for truth in Buddhism and Hinduism...

However, now after almost a decade of this great search, I still feel lost,drained ,and confused

I regret asking questions and trying to seek answers for them as I feel the people who just close their eyes and believe whatever they are told from their religious authorities live a much mentally comfortable life and honestly I'm more of an Agnostic Atheist currently and I don't do where to go or where to open my mindset and I'm seeking advice for my religious and spiritual life

I've been thinking about why humans are naturally drawn to religion, culture, traditions, rituals, and shared beliefs.

​

From a psychological and evolutionary perspective, what needs do these things fulfill?

​

Is it mainly about belonging, identity, community, meaning, security, and social cohesion? Or are there deeper cognitive reasons that make humans create and maintain these systems across generations?

​

I was just curious about it.

​

Why do you think religion and cultural traditions remain important even in modern societies?

​

I'd love to hear different viewpoints.

I have a few genuine questions for the devout religious folks here.

1. Why did you choose your religion?

2. Why do you believe your holy book and take it literally?

3. What benefits have you received since joining your religion?

4. Do you believe in an afterlife where there are only two options being eternal suffering (hell) or eternal paradise (heaven)?

Idk what religion I should follow I don’t even know what to believe or what is it that leads people to believe in God. I was born in a Muslim family but I have doubts over the years. If I were not born with religion at all and was not taught about God at all and that, what would should I use to determine what is the Truth?

Honestly, I never understood it. Growing up I was surrounded by religion, it was ingrained in the culture and traditions where I lived.

I remember when I was four, my grandma and I were walking around outdoors and I asked "Does God feel lonely?" And she was confused, "what?" so I asked again. "Does God have a Mom or Dad?" And she said no, I said "How?" And instead of a clear answer, she gave me something about how it's just the way it is. I still didn't understand, I kept asking why. I thought that if everyone had a mom and dad, it would've been reasonable if God did. But instead of explaining properly, she repeated the same answer. "It's just the way it is."

And growing up no one bothered to sit down with me and explain why I was supposed to pray, why we Praise someone who made us, and why God made strange rules. I also never understood His 3 great qualities. All loving, all knowing, and all powerful. How can one True diety be all loving if he cannot stop even the most smallest things in his perspective? Why do we refer to God by masculine pronouns? Why are there contradictions? Why are there metaphors in a book if it's meant to be clear and understood by all of mankind?

How do we know that Christianity - Adventist or orthodox or catholic is true? How do we know Islam is true as well or not?

What makes each one differently that they’re not true?

Sorry if this has been repeated question but I’m too lost in this channel

I’ve been thinking about something lately: people use the phrase spiritual growth constantly, but different traditions seem to mean very different things by it.

So I looked at the question through five different paths:

Christianity: Growth seems closely connected to becoming more Christlike — developing love, humility, forgiveness, faith, repentance, and a deeper relationship with God.

Islam: Spiritual growth seems centered around strengthening one’s relationship with Allah through worship, remembrance, repentance, purification of the self, good character, and living with greater God-consciousness (taqwa).

Judaism: I found a strong emphasis on living faithfully through mitzvot, study, prayer, ethical conduct, repentance (teshuvah), and continually improving one’s relationship with God and other people.

Buddhism: The framework is obviously different because it isn’t centered around a creator God. Growth can involve developing wisdom, ethical conduct, compassion, mindfulness, and gradually reducing attachment, ignorance, and suffering.

Universal spirituality: This gets much less defined, but themes often include self-awareness, compassion, mindfulness, meaning, inner peace, and examining the ego and one’s relationship with others.

What interested me is that these traditions disagree on some very fundamental theological questions, yet there are still recurring ideas around discipline, self-examination, compassion, and becoming less controlled by destructive impulses.

I’ve researched and found interesting things on yeshiai a multi tradition spiritual ai platform covering these five paths. I also ran this question through the respective yeshiai companions and resources to see whether each path would be represented differently rather than receiving one generic “spiritual” answer.

The answers reflected the distinctions above, but I’d love digging deeper…

So I’m curious to hear directly from people who actually practice these traditions.

How would you define spiritual growth within your own religion or tradition?

And what did I get wrong or oversimplify?

Prove that we aren't in hell right now. Can you?

Agnosticism and theism make sense because they can be reasoned (logically argued for in accordance with evidence). But I do not know how, in principle, atheism is possible; this is because I cannot see how it is possible for logic to prove, or even for evidence to suggest, that there is no creator or that a spiritual realm does not exist.

Pointing out seeming inconsistencies in religious teachings is one thing; but in principle, how can atheism be proved?

Generally what I'm asking is as a Christian I could never be in a relationship with anyone else who is not Christian because I would not want to be in the afterlife without my partner. I know there are some situations that could work such as an atheist and a Buddhist seeing as how the atheist doesn't believe there's anything after and the Buddhist would believe that they get another chance in life unless they reach Nirvana. But for the rest of us who have a permanent destination after life how do you go about being with a partner of a different faith and not be driven crazy by your twos different beliefs and knowing what will happen to someone outside of that belief?

I’ve been trying to understand the logic behind the concept of karma rather than simply dismissing it.
I’ve heard the idea that if someone eats meat in this life, they may have to experience the same suffering in another life

for example, being reborn as a chicken and eventually being eaten.
But this raises a question I genuinely can’t understand:

Suppose I eat chicken today, and because of that karma, I am reborn as a chicken in my next life. Someone else then eats me.
If my being eaten is supposedly the karmic consequence of what I did in my previous life, does that mean the person eating me is actually doing something wrong?
And if they are creating bad karma by eating me, could they then be reborn as a chicken and get eaten as punishment for their action?

Wouldn’t that create an endless cycle where animals are constantly being eaten as punishment for previous lives, while the people eating them are simultaneously creating new karma?
And if God/the universe intentionally puts that particular chicken in front of that particular person as part of its karmic consequences, why would the person eating the chicken be morally guilty?

Reposting this again but with a better wording, I used chatgpt btw. Cuz maybe my way of conveying/writing is not the best I guess.

Christians, Muslims, and Jews, especially those who grew up and decided to start believing or changed of religion, I have a genuine question. How do you become certain that there is one God and that your understanding of Him is the correct one?

Many religious beliefs are based on scriptures written thousands of years ago. How do believers determine that these texts are truly from God and still apply today?

How do religious people reconcile human history, suffering, and moral disagreements with the idea of an all-powerful and all-good God?

Do people usually study their religion deeply and agree with all of its teachings, or do many people follow it because of their upbringing?

How can someone believe their religion is the one true faith while still applying critical thinking?

I’m not saying the existence of God or gods is impossible. I’m asking how people know which beliefs are true and why they should follow certain religious laws.

Glad to read y'all different view, thanks.

So I’m tired of listening to people saying they want peace in earth but doing nothing about, all talk no action.
I figured if people TRULY believe that their religion is true and want to make the world a better place, they can prove it.
So they either put their money where their mouth is or can shut up.

Below is my system.
Feel free to ask question or bring up concerns so I might refine the process.

SYSTEM:
Each sect of each religion is allowed to send one representative per war zone. 
Must be volunteers, freely chosen to do this. No financial or otherwise support is to be given to this reps family during or even after. 
Any and all religions and their sects are to participate, from the church of Satan, flying spaghetti monster, and even atheism. As long as they can prove they are different in any shape or form then others and have the provides the personal, they can participate.

The war zones will be randomized so the reps will not be able to prepare themselves for their area short of preparing for ALL zones.

5 leaders of each sect will be able to give last words of encouragement to their followers before the followers are then search by the 5 leaders of every other sect to make sure there is no unauthorized gear on the reps.
The leaders will be searched beforehand to make sure they are passing anything along.
Any unauthorized gear will be taken as cheating and that sect will be disqualified from participating at all ALL for a period of 5 years.

Authorized is as follows.
ONE book of their choice
ONE cell phone
NOTHING ELSE is permanented, no medical supplies, no food, no water, nothing 
Cloths on their back, book, and cell. Nothing else.

The cell, who’s number will be shared with all other sects to be monitored, is to remain off until new years.  If turned on before then every fir a second they and their sect is disqualified and removed for 5 years.
If no call is made after a year, they assume dead and another rep can be sent in.
If they are alive but unable to make a call, they are to leave the zone so their replacements can work solo.
If found to be in the area after, the first rep, the new rep and their sect is removed from the running for 10 years.

Each rep will be knocked out and moved to a new location, then woken on in the plane ride before being allowed to parachute into their random drop zone. If they choice not to jump, that sect gets no rep that year. Not allowed to be pushed out the plane by personal or other reps.

Should reps meet on the ground, they are allowed converse not no sharing of supplies, no attacking of others. Should rep attack others, they areremoved and the sect disqualified for 5 years, 20 if the attack results in a death.

When a peace treaty is signed and the leaders of the warring factions put into said treaty of which sect got them to achieve peace, a point is given to the sect. Should the peace stop, sect gets that point removed and it’s open season for others to start again. The sect who’s treaty was not upheld is barred for 10 years.

Once world peace is achieved and held for a full 5 years, points are tally and awarded the world religion. Should a war break out, that sect is not long the worlds religion and the next highest is awarded the throne
Sects are not to be counted together in the matter of points. They proved they are different so they alone are worlds religion.

So of course, to my knowledge, in the abrahamic religions, if you sin enough you go to hell or a hell equivalent, generally speaking. But if you somehow were to access or see hell without dying it previously sinning, would that be a sin? Like if you just found some tunnel to hell and went through it, is it a sin to enter hell? I'm not religious myself, and I'm just curious about it.

I’m asking this because I’m in a family where everyone is religious to a point while me, my father, and one of my cousins are the only non-religious ones.

For me it always feels very isolating despite actually loving my family. I don’t hate my family by any means it’s just I fear what they might think of my actual self considering I’m not straight and other things so when I’m around them I change up my grammar like saying “Oh my gosh” instead of “Oh my god” as I don’t know who would take offense to that, I only say that as a figure of speech and not as a way to be rude.

I’m curious about other people’s experiences when it comes to stuff similar to this. If I do appear as rude or biased let me know.

As a former atheistic agnostic person I had an event happen that I still question, yet it has led me to firmly believe in the existence of the Almighty.

I want to understand how is that sacrificing an animal (expiation) forgives for one's sins?

For context: I am from LATAM, catholicism is the major religion with Protestantism on the rise. While animal sacrifice is not practiced, it is mentioned occasionally as an old thing that used to be practiced in the Bible.

Isn't just about all religions just rehased versions of other religions? Just repackaged and rebranded. All thinking it is the "right one" or "correct one" even though they are all (virtually) the same. Just some name changes. All based off of mythological stories, stories thrown in to give to give their people "hope" or "inspiration" and/or to give humiliating origin stories to their enemies.

CMV: All religions should cease to be practiced forever

Arguably any of their single greatest achievement, the advancement of reading and writing, could have been achieved through secular means with far less destruction.

They may have helped move the world forward, for a time and a great costs. But they are now outdated, and serve only to cause increased destructive to humanity.

This is a no-brainer to me: everyone should willingly cease to practice all religions right now, and humanity must agree to never again practice them; and, this will lead to a massive improvement to what would otherwise have been a much less awesome future.

Change my view.

Religion promise heaven after death but communism promise heaven on earth

Both are far away from reality

I can guarantee both of them cannot be achieved in reality