If you are religious, what makes you believe your branch of religion is the right one?

[Soubriquet]

I mean…Jesus was Jewish.

Why do you believe your catholic branch is more believable than someone’s baptist branch?

‘Think of Christian missionaries going to sub-Saharan Africa to "educate" the indigenous people there, as just one example. ‘

You mean, such as advising them that burying slaves alive when their owner died was a bit inhumane? I expect your opinion on that bit of ‘education’ varied whether you were. the person being buried or the burier.

Personally I'm catholic. I don't agree with all the teachings of the church but I grew up in it so it feels like home. I have my own personal understanding of who God is and it doesn't align exactly with any of the main religions. They are just human best efforts to understand, explain and interpret, to some extent with people's own motivations.

I think being 'religious' and your religion being the 'right one' is highly subjective, and your question is asking through a very Christian filter.

I'm Jewish, I observe facets of my religion to some extent - keep a (mostly) kosher house, go to syngagogue quite often. I'm also an atheist. I don't believe any religion is inherently 'right' objectively, but I do practise my religion as a spiritual and cultural tradition.

I am Jewish because my parents are Jewish, and follow our 'type' of Judaism (which is called Masorti) because I grew up in it, and it speaks to me, not because it's 'right' about, I dunno, what happens in the afterlife if you follow Judaism the 'correct' way (and Judaism as a whole doesn't really talk about any afterlife) but because I like its approach. Which is that services are 'traditional' in content, keeping up Jewish tradition and learning, but it doesn't judge anyone on their level of observance - some community members only turn up on high holy days and bar/bat mitzvahs/weddings and don't follow the religion at all otherwise, others are very strictly observant and won't drive on the Sabbath etc.

Yes, it's one of the most baffling things about religious belief imo. That people can genuinely believe that the religion (and branch of that religion) espoused by their particular country / family happens to be the one that's true.

I mean... ok, I get that you can say 'What I believe in is the Christian god. My denomination is just the flavour of Christianity I feel most comfortable with because it's part of my culture or upbringing '.

But what about being Christian in the first place? It's purely by chance if you were born into a Christian country and/or a Christian family. So every religious person in the world throughout history thinks they happen to be lucky enough have been born into the 'true' religion?

I don’t. I respect the beliefs of other religions just as much as I choose to believe my own. There are many paths to the light.

How is the Catholic church defining the bible different from the Protestant church leaving out the Apocrypha? All religions have an element to a greater or lesser extent of human wrangling with the texts. Faith is totally different to religion.

I don't see God as a bureaucrat.

I don’t.

My username isn’t very subtle as to whether I believe in God 😊, but basically means my belief is that God loves all, be they atheist or different denominations of whatever religions.
That’s my personal choice, I don’t expect anyone to follow my views.

Values matter more to me. I have friends from many religions and also atheists, I don’t consider any as better than the other. Or that one will end up in paradise, and another not (I don’t believe in the paradise vs hell aspect anyway).

The belief that one religion is ‘better’ than the others isn’t true for lots of people in my experience, but then again that’s probably to some degree linked to the people I choose to be close with. I don’t know the overall statistics, one factor being because those strongly believing theirs is better do tend to be the ‘louder’ ones, more in media articles etc.

A lot of choices of which religion or not, for ‘regular people’ I think depend on how, when, and where where you were raised, and person life events as an adult which influence maintaining or changing your beliefs, be that change of denomination or atheism.

As some PP have said, basically I believe in the ‘as long as it doesn’t harm others, and as long as you live and let live’ approach.

Regarding wars, religious ones or not, there’s always in my view a lot of political elements to it, especially for the ‘leaders in representation’ of each side, I’m unsure some actually have religion ‘superiority’ views as a main motive.
Some wars are religious, some not, it’s always been the case historically, and some current ones.
People will always find a reason to create wars, I can’t say I feel like I have a view on a proposed solution to that though…
Only my view, again, though 🪷.

I don't really understand that as a response to my post tbb. My point was pretty much that there have been a vast number of deities worshipped by humans. Assuming yours is the one real one seems an either staggeringly arrogant or wilfully naïve point of view, and yet presumably common to pretty much all believers since the dawn of time.

I don’t. I believe it’s the right fit for me. For some people the right fit for them is another branch of Christianity. Or Islam. Or Judaism. Or any other form of religion / spirituality.

I don't,I go with what feels comfortable for me. My feeling is we are all worshipping the same God we may do it in different ways, we may give that God different names and we may come to different conclusions about exactly what ancient texts are getting at but the overall message I think is that we should try to love one another and live in harmony.

The belief that one religion is ‘better’ than the others isn’t true for lots of people in my experience

It's very easy to say 'Oh I don't believe my religion is better than other people's'. So does that mean you believe that other religions' gods also exist then? For example all the Hindu gods? If not, then surely a religion whose god does exist (as I presume you believe yours does) is better than one whose gods don't exist?

Same here and we taught DC’s - some people have a faith and believe in one of a number of different gods. We don’t believe in any of them and so long as everyone respects each other, not a problem.

I don’t believe my religion is the right one or the only one. However it is the right one and the only one for me and our culture and practices are very important to us as a family. I’m happy for others to follow whatever religion they want. I believe in leaving others alone and hope they leave us alone too.

Lots of people all over the world have no problem believing that other religions gods exist.

Agreed.

Didn’t want to write an even longer post than my original one, but, in more detail, my personal view is that (for many monotheist religions mostly) : same God, different ‘main’ prophets (as many are common to different religions, and recognised as such, moreso in the mainstream ones), different ways of praying to God.
In simple terms, it doesn’t matter (to me, as much as it currently does unfortunately).

As for other beliefs (atheists, others), I may not share the views, but don’t think I’m superior (it’s not like any single one one of us 100% know ‘the truth’ anyway…), so goes back to ‘live and let live’.

Responding as my sentence was quoted, @MotherFeministWoman , which is completely fine of course, but feel like this reply goes into more of my personal views, which makes it maybe less relevant to the conversation (I’m also definitely wary of seeming like encouraging my views towards others), I’m unsure.

I know some people 'find' religion when they are older but I've always thought that people are brainwashed into their religion from a young age and because it's so ingrained they cannot see past it.

I mean honestly some of the things different religions believe/teach no-one with critical thinking skills would adhere to/believe. Case in point is the recent boy who's been made a saint by the Catholic Church!

I have a Muslim relative….she absolutely believes her religion is the ‘right one’ she used to send me prayers, quotes from the Koran, constant harassment talk about Islam…thankfully she now lives abroad and I haven’t spoken to her in years!!!

Yes but they’re persecuted.

It's known as the ‘North Korea of Africa’ due to its intense authoritarian government. Eritrea only recognises three heavily monitored Christian denominations (Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Lutheran), so anyone who follows Jesus outside of these denominations – such as evangelicals or Pentecostals – is at constant risk. Speaking out about persecution or government interference in church matters is not tolerated at all.

Totally this. I am CofE and have finally found my ‘home’ at church. It’s taken many years and I am so happy there. But equally I know our style wouldn’t be for everyone, particularly young people.

I'm a Christian. I don't say that I'm Catholic or Protestant but I say that I am a follower of Jesus and His teachings.

There are certain things within the Catholic Church that I could never get on board with. Mainly:

Confession - scripturally Jesus does not command us to confess our sins to a priest. The whole point of Jesus coming to this earth is to restore the relationship between us and God. We have direct access to the Father through Jesus. We have a direct link to God to confess our sins and do not require a priest in order to be saved. We either inherit eternal life or die... there is no in-between.

Purgatory - I haven't come across a single scripture that mentions purgatory. In the Gospels, Jesus's teachings are very clear and simple. His blood has washed away our sins. All we need to do is believe in Him and truly repent.

Veneration of Mary - There is a particular Catholic prayer (Our Lady of Perpetual Help) that asks Mary to communicate with Jesus on our behalf:

"In thy hands I place my eternal salvation, and to thee I entrust my soul. Count me among thy most devoted servants; take me under thy protection, and it is enough for me. For, if thou protect me, I fear nothing; not from my sins, because thou wilt obtain for me the pardon of them; nor from the devils, because thou art more powerful than all hell together; nor even from Jesus, my judge, because by one prayer from thee He will be appeased."

From my studies, I haven't seen anything in scripture that claims Mary can negotiate with Jesus on our behalf.

The OP is asking a valid and legitimate question and doesn’t need to unpick anything.

It stands to reason “if” there was a god, which one is the “real one”? Which region is the “true” one? There are so many variations of the different faiths, that if one is the actual true version, then it must mean that the other religions don’t follow the true version of what happened (supposedly) so they can’t be factually correct?

Unless of course the argument is that all gods are the real god and it’s just different interpretations of the same concept, but the issue with that debate is that there are so many different beliefs that they couldn’t all be right….

Why would I want to confess my sins (sins don’t exist unless you believe your faith has a hold over you) or repent - I’ve done nothing wrong.

Then don't. Nobody is forcing you to. You're free to do whatever you want!

Well, I certainly think that Christians and Muslims both feel they are right. I'm pretty sure Christians do not believe the way to God is through the teachings of Mohamed and likewise Muslims do not believe the way to God is through Jesus Christ.

I'm not saying there isn't (sometimes) mutual respect but neither believe their ideology is interchangeable and offers one means to an end.