[IndianaMatt]

According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, there are over 38,000 denominations of Christianity alone.

Further, there are 19 major world religions which are subdivided into a total of 270 large religious groups, and probably tens of thousands of smaller ones.

If there are so may lots to cast your eternal soul into, how does a person compelled to religion know their particular god or practice is the right one?

If one sect of Christianity considers the use of electricity a sinful vanity, while another has no problem with it, how do you tally the "god points"?

Seems like a pretty risky lottery to me, seeing as the price of the wrong choice is eternal damnation.

[Bren]

Best I can tell, whichever one your parents or significant other follow is almost certain to be "the one true religion."

But, like you, I'd be interested in what religious people have to say.

[Schabesbert]

Originally Posted by IndianaMatt

According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, there are over 38,000 denominations of Christianity alone.

Further, there are 19 major world religions which are subdivided into a total of 270 large religious groups, and probably tens of thousands of smaller ones.

If there are so may lots to cast your eternal soul into, how does a person compelled to religion know their particular god or practice is the right one?

If one sect of Christianity considers the use of electricity a sinful vanity, while another has no problem with it, how do you tally the "god points"?

Seems like a pretty risky lottery to me, seeing as the price of the wrong choice is eternal damnation.

Are you asking sincerely, or are you trolling?

[IndianaMatt]

Originally Posted by Schabesbert

Are you asking sincerely, or are you trolling?

Sincerely.

[Vic Hays]

Originally Posted by IndianaMatt

According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, there are over 38,000 denominations of Christianity alone.

Further, there are 19 major world religions which are subdivided into a total of 270 large religious groups, and probably tens of thousands of smaller ones.

If there are so may lots to cast your eternal soul into, how does a person compelled to religion know their particular god or practice is the right one?

If one sect of Christianity considers the use of electricity a sinful vanity, while another has no problem with it, how do you tally the "god points"?

Seems like a pretty risky lottery to me, seeing as the price of the wrong choice is eternal damnation.

Actually it is fairly easy to pick a denomination out of Christianity.

There is only one God in Christianity so that narrows the search down to looking for which denomination is closest to God's revealed Truth.

The Bible is the Word of God passed down through the ages. God is able to protect His Word or He would not be God.

Out of the Bible there are only a couple of times that God wrote anything Himself so they must be pretty important.

God wrote the Ten Commandments Himself. Doesn't everyone believe in the Ten Commandments? Actually, No. There are many denominations that give lip service to them, but there are few that actually keep the Seventh-day Sabbath which is right in the heart of the Ten Commandments and points to the specific God of creation as His Sabbath day.

There are some groups that keep the Seventh-day Sabbath and neglect faith in Jesus and His sacrifice for our sins. Not a good choice to neglect the savior.

Now the Bible tells us itself by contrast which group is pleasing to God and which groups are lost.

Revelation 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.
14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

[Paul7]

Originally Posted by IndianaMatt

According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, there are over 38,000 denominations of Christianity alone.

Further, there are 19 major world religions which are subdivided into a total of 270 large religious groups, and probably tens of thousands of smaller ones.

If there are so may lots to cast your eternal soul into, how does a person compelled to religion know their particular god or practice is the right one?

If one sect of Christianity considers the use of electricity a sinful vanity, while another has no problem with it, how do you tally the "god points"?

Seems like a pretty risky lottery to me, seeing as the price of the wrong choice is eternal damnation.

Most of those 38,000 Christian denominations agree on the essentials of the faith, as expressed in the creeds for instance. As far as non-essentials, I thought diversity was good?

You act like denomination A believes the other 37,999 to be going to hell, that is almost never true.

It is interesting how almost everyone all over the world believes in a god of some kind. Oh well, some people aren't interested in sex either.

[IndianaMatt]

Originally Posted by Vic Hays

Actually it is fairly easy to pick a denomination out of Christianity.

There is only one God in Christianity so that narrows the search down to looking for which denomination is closest to God's revealed Truth.

The Bible is the Word of God passed down through the ages. God is able to protect His Word or He would not be God.

Out of the Bible there are only a couple of times that God wrote anything Himself so they must be pretty important.

God wrote the Ten Commandments Himself. Doesn't everyone believe in the Ten Commandments? Actually, No. There are many denominations that give lip service to them, but there are few that actually keep the Seventh-day Sabbath which is right in the heart of the Ten Commandments and points to the specific God of creation as His Sabbath day.

There are some groups that keep the Seventh-day Sabbath and neglect faith in Jesus and His sacrifice for our sins. Not a good choice to neglect the savior.

Now the Bible tells us itself by contrast which group is pleasing to God and which groups are lost.

Revelation 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.
14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Okay. That is all well assuming the only contender is Christianity.

But why choose Christianity and not, say, Buddhism?

[Paul7]

Originally Posted by Bren

Best I can tell, whichever one your parents or significant other follow is almost certain to be "the one true religion."

My parents and wife were not raised in religious homes, all three are devout Christians today.

[dbcooper]

The major determining factor is geography

[void *]

Originally Posted by Paul7

You act like denomination A believes the other 37,999 to be going to hell, that is almost never true.

You've made a study of all 37,999 belief systems and noted which ones claim that there is an essential disagreement where the others are wrong enough to not be able to make it to heaven?

Or are you just claiming "that is almost never true" without really having a basis?

(Not that I would expect two sects that are very, very close to think the other would be going to hell, but in 40k denominations there's certainly got to be a sufficiently large difference that some of them will claim that sufficiently large groups of the rest, if not necessarily all, are wrong *enough*, if you get where I'm headed)

[Paul7]

Originally Posted by IndianaMatt

Okay. That is all well assuming the only contender is Christianity.

But why choose Christianity and not, say, Buddhism?

The OP asked how do you choose a god, what god is involved in Buddhism?

[Roering]

Originally Posted by IndianaMatt

According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, there are over 38,000 denominations of Christianity alone.

Further, there are 19 major world religions which are subdivided into a total of 270 large religious groups, and probably tens of thousands of smaller ones.

If there are so may lots to cast your eternal soul into, how does a person compelled to religion know their particular god or practice is the right one?

If one sect of Christianity considers the use of electricity a sinful vanity, while another has no problem with it, how do you tally the "god points"?

Seems like a pretty risky lottery to me, seeing as the price of the wrong choice is eternal damnation.

I went with the Church started by Christ Himself.
Jesus only started one Church.

[Paul7]

Originally Posted by void *

You've made a study of all 37,999 belief systems and noted which ones claim that there is an essential disagreement where the others are wrong enough to not be able to make it to heaven?

Or are you just claiming "that is almost never true" without really having a basis?

You tell me, how many of those denominations think everyone else is going to hell? Must be 15,000 or so if you're right. My statement is based on experience, I'm pretty familiar with the Christian world and don't see this attitude that atheists constantly overstate, you know, the myth that the Second Baptists think the First Baptists are going to hell, or the same attitude from the Missouri Synod Lutheran about the Wisconsin Synod.

[Geko45]

This seems appropriate.

What if you're wrong?

What if you're wrong?

[Bren]

Originally Posted by Vic Hays

Actually it is fairly easy to pick a denomination out of Christianity.

I'm curious about how you even pick christianity to begin with.

Originally Posted by Paul7

The OP asked how do you choose a god, what god is involved in Buddhism?

Did you misunderstand the question, or are you ducking it?

I believe it is central to buddhism that there is no reason to believe in gods because there is no evidence that they exist. However, beyond saying "choose a god" in the title, the question is clearly intended to be, how did you choose this religion and no other and, right or wrong, buddhism is generally considered a religion.

[IndianaMatt]

Originally Posted by Geko45

This seems appropriate.

What if you're wrong?

Love it! I think the "sheerest accident" language towards the end pretty much answers my original query.

Dawkins is great.

[Paul7]

Originally Posted by Bren

I'm curious about how you even pick christianity to beging with.

Having a founder who fulfilled prophecy, performed miracles and rose from the dead is a good start.

How did you pick your worldview to the exclusion of all others?

[void *]

Originally Posted by Paul7

You tell me, how many of those denominations think everyone else is going to hell?

Well, ok. I think you're probably right as far as "everyone else", as everyone else is a pretty high standard.

Now, how many of those 38,000 have sufficiently large theological disagreements with large portions of those other 37,999 groups that they think large portions of those other groups are wrong enough to not make it to heaven?

I suppose you could start with the largest divisions. How many Protestant denominations think that the Catholics are wrong enough to not make it, and do the Catholics think that in general if you're Protestant you don't make it?

I don't know the specific answer to that, but I do know that there are Protestant denominations that think the Catholic Church is actually a tool of satan or something along those lines.

[dbcooper]

Originally Posted by Vic Hays

Actually it is fairly easy to pick a denomination out of Christianity.

There is only one God in Christianity so that narrows the search down to looking for which denomination is closest to God's revealed Truth.

The Bible is the Word of God passed down through the ages. God is able to protect His Word or He would not be God.

Out of the Bible there are only a couple of times that God wrote anything Himself so they must be pretty important.

God wrote the Ten Commandments Himself. Doesn't everyone believe in the Ten Commandments? Actually, No. There are many denominations that give lip service to them, but there are few that actually keep the Seventh-day Sabbath which is right in the heart of the Ten Commandments and points to the specific God of creation as His Sabbath day.

There are some groups that keep the Seventh-day Sabbath and neglect faith in Jesus and His sacrifice for our sins. Not a good choice to neglect the savior.

Now the Bible tells us itself by contrast which group is pleasing to God and which groups are lost.

Revelation 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.
14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Yet had you been born in say... Saudi Arabia you would know that there is no God but God and Mohammed is his prophet, free to choose from one of those sects. It's geography.

[IndianaMatt]

Originally Posted by Paul7

Having a founder who fulfilled prophecy, performed miracles and rose from the dead is a good start.

How did you pick your worldview to the exclusion of all others?

Well, I cannot speak for Mr. Bren. But my own worldview - agnosticism - professes only what I do not know. I do not know that miracles were performed or god killed his son only to be resurrected or whatever.

And you do not know these things either. You feel them to be true and you want them to be true, but you do not know them. You do not and you cannot know them because I do not and cannot know them. And you do not possess powers of intuition or perception that I do not.

In contrast, I can easily testify to what I do not know. And I am quite content with life remaining a mystery. Its just so much more interesting that way.

Its a humble view.

[Bren]

Originally Posted by Paul7

Having a founder who fulfilled prophecy, performed miracles and rose from the dead is a good start.

How did you pick your worldview to the exclusion of all others?

You may be the king of circular reasoning, having used it in every response in the thread. You believe your religion is true because your religion says it's true, therefore you can believe it? was that 2 circles?

I don't "pick" my world view - that's the differtence between us. What I believe is decided by what evidence I see. If I "picked" what to believe, I would be an irrational person.

[Schabesbert]

Originally Posted by IndianaMatt

Love it! I think the "sheerest accident" language towards the end pretty much answers my original query.

Dawkins is great.

Yeah, and this post pretty much answers my earlier inquiry, which you answered untruthfully.

[Billspider]

Strange question to ask on a (GUN SITE)?

[void *]

Originally Posted by Billspider

Strange question to ask on a (GUN SITE)?

In a subforum on that gun site that is specifically dedicated to religious issues? I don't think so.

[Billspider]

Originally Posted by void *

In a subforum on that gun site that is specifically dedicated to religious issues? I don't think so.

I stand corrected.