Why No Single Religion That Everyone Uses?

[T.G.G. Moogly]

There's only one science, and we all use it, even religious people, even religious nutters. So does it say anything about religion that there have been thousands, and thousands of alleged magic beings? Is this the elephant in the room when it comes to any discussion of religion? Why is this fact almost always overlooked when discussing religion?

It seems religious people like to talk about "belief" as if it is some kind of unifying, religious phenomenon. But in reality there is no single belief, all these beliefs are different.

Seems like religion started out broken and it's only broken down more as its splintered into thousands of separate pieces.

 

[Atheos]

The religious who actually hold that there is one god generally rationalize this by suggesting that everyone actually believes in the same god but they don't understand that god very well. God is complex and mysterious. So everyone is journeying towards an understanding of the one true god but taking different paths to get there. The metaphor actually works and it's difficult to argue against because it's completely unfalsifiable.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

That would be a new religion, would it not? We could call it Unitarian Universalist Monotheism, and I'm certain it would split soon enough.

 

[zorq]

Science "speaks" to all of us the same way. Gravity on earth pulls objects at 9.8m/s2, discarding other resistances.

Religion "speaks" to each of it's adherents in different ways. Mostly because the entities in religions don't "speak" at all. The religious mistake their errant thoughts, wistful dreams, and typical daily occurrences and coincidences to be divine (or devilish) messages. These "messages" never agree from religion to religion or even person to person within the same religion. The reason for this is obviously because their messengers aren't real and the messages are imaginary.

 

[abaddon]

Sometimes they’re not advocating one belief for all, but just belief for belief’s sake. It can be taken as a unifying religious phenomenon without needing it to be one particular belief. Atheos gave a good example: some see earthly existence as a phantasmagoria to be passed through, and sacred belief can guide wayfarers to the light eventually.

I don’t know if traditional religion’s splintering and people coming up with "new religions" or adopting "pagan" ones means religion’s going to totally disintegrate. Lots of cultures mixing, lots of information available… the “spiritual but not religious” are potentially new religions. I’m not a history buff but isn’t this a similar situation to the stew of religions in preChristian Rome?

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Sometimes they’re not advocating one belief for all, but just belief for belief’s sake. It can be taken as a unifying religious phenomenon without needing it to be one particular belief. Atheos gave a good example: some see earthly existence as a phantasmagoria to be passed through, and sacred belief can guide wayfarers to the light eventually.

I don’t know if traditional religion’s splintering and people coming up with "new religions" or adopting "pagan" ones means religion’s going to totally disintegrate. Lots of cultures mixing, lots of information available… the “spiritual but not religious” are potentially new religions. I’m not a history buff but isn’t this a similar situation to the stew of religions in preChristian Rome?

Religious diversity owes it's existence to cultural, biological, environmental and the resulting socioeconomic diversity. It's just a product of geography. But as the world shrinks and our experiences become more common religious diversity should follow right along, which it appears to be doing. Science, however, has always been and will always be the same everywhere.

People interpret their religious experiences which is why religion is always splintering. There's undoubtedly a heavy dose of supremacism associated with religious identity. Science, however, could care less.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

People interpret their religious experiences which is why religion is always splintering. There's undoubtedly a heavy dose of supremacism associated with religious identity. Science, however, could care less.

Really? One can never discount inertia... except on college campuses. While science does usually tread down the right path, it is not uncommon for alternative ideas to be face palmed, even while they are being determined to be true. Religion isn't much different, other than it works more on a geologic time scale.

Religion has a lot more momentum with it, hence harder to slow down.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Religions make only superficial appeals to rational thought. The 'reasoning' in theology turns out to be circular narratives in which all the terms are defined to conform to whatever deity profile is featured. It's all invisible, so you can describe it (it being the deity, the creation narrative, the salvation plan) any which way you want. It's also about property values in the afterlife -- most believers want to cancel the leases claimed by all the other camps.

 

[beero1000]

Arbitrary conventions are arbitrary. Of course, pointing that out doesn't help with the person that holds that their arbitrary convention is the only correct one. The reason it isn't used as an argument is because the immediate rebuttal is "People not of my religion are wrong/sinners/ignorant/etc, etc" at which point you're right back where you started - debating the correctness of their specific sect's claims.

 

[Angry Floof]

There's only one science, and we all use it, even religious people, even religious nutters. So does it say anything about religion that there have been thousands, and thousands of alleged magic beings? Is this the elephant in the room when it comes to any discussion of religion? Why is this fact almost always overlooked when discussing religion?

It seems religious people like to talk about "belief" as if it is some kind of unifying, religious phenomenon. But in reality there is no single belief, all these beliefs are different.

Seems like religion started out broken and it's only broken down more as its splintered into thousands of separate pieces.

It's like that because religion and culture develop much like biology. A bunch of different religions sprout up in different environments like different species. I have no doubt that if our species is not destroyed, the world will eventually unify into one(ish) culture. Hopefully we will develop a humane and philosophical ideology for the world, and stop tolerating the codification of cognitive pitfalls into our belief systems: absolutism, dogmatism, us. vs. them, bias, supernatural mumbo jumbo, fear, evangelism, etc.

 

[C_Mucius_Scaevola]

There are 1000's of Xian denominations, dozens (at least) of schools of Islam, many different Jewish movements, several "paths" of Buddhism, and I hate to think how many different kinds of Hinduism. As humans, we have infinite different opinions on any subject you care to mention, and religion is no exception. Only a perfect being would be able to create a world where everybody in it agreed on anything at all, let alone everything.

Why No Single Religion That Everyone Uses? Because There Is No God.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Humans like variety.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

There are 1000's of Xian denominations, dozens (at least) of schools of Islam, many different Jewish movements, several "paths" of Buddhism, and I hate to think how many different kinds of Hinduism. As humans, we have infinite different opinions on any subject you care to mention, and religion is no exception. Only a perfect being would be able to create a world where everybody in it agreed on anything at all, let alone everything.

Why No Single Religion That Everyone Uses? Because There Is No God.

Which is the key point. Science has something external to validate against. If you drop a rock, it drops at a certain speed and it's the same speed for everyone. If you throw a ball at a surface at a 45 degree angle, it bounces off at a 45 degree angle no matter who's throwing it. The conclusions match for everyone because there is an external reality to test against. With religions, there's absolutely nothing to test against, so every possible conclusion is just as right (or just as wrong) as every other one.