I’ve always wondered how deeply religious people could be so certain their “faith” was the real deal and everyone else’s was bogus. Brian Hines wonders, too:
“People will reject unsubstantiated claims in holy books… except the book they believe in. People will reject miracle stories… except miracles related by their own faith. People will reject the divinity of living prophets or messengers of God… except the person they accept as a genuine spiritual teacher.
Every religious believer, aside from the few who are genuinely open-minded, considers that he or she has found the One True Faith among the 4,199 or so false faiths. Yet how is this possible, logically or realistically?
It’s like Garrison Keillor’s Lake Woebegon, where all the children are above average.
There are good reasons for belonging to a religious, spiritual, or mystical group. But having a lock on cosmic truth isn’t one of them. Nobody knows what lies at the heart of reality, or even if there is such a thing: a heart, a core, a central truth.
So the only honest attitude is “I don’t know.” Along with, “You don’t know either.” This leaves us all on the same unknowing level.”
There are many people of Religion who insist that their way is the only way. Unfortunately sometimes (more often than not) those folks are much more vocal than the people who have strong personal relationships with the God and understand that we don’t all have to agree, it is a personal “thing”. Some even say that organized religion is an oxmoron (sp) and that may be true. And while wars and have been fought and many people killed in God’s name – at the same time many wonderful, kind and generous things have been done by in His name. So perhaps we need to blame the user and not the maker. God gave us free choice and NONE of us always make the correct choice. We are human.
From Mark Twain:
“Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion–several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother’s path to happiness and heaven….The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste.”
– “The Lowest Animal”
See also “The Blind Men and the Elephant”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant