by Not Writing

Created on: December 10, 2006   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

Those who hold to the tenets of a given religion are likely to answer this question in only one way, that, of course, there's one right religion. It will be the one the believer adheres to. Their argument can only be that they believe in that religion because it is the one right religion; there can be no admission that it is the right one because they believe in it. And, as far as can be determined, no believer has ever said that it is another religion, one other than their own, which is the right one. Attempting to determine the existence, or otherwise, of the one right religion from a census of believers in religions is fruitless: one cannot be sure that their claims are not simply based on personal preference, compounded by faith. This is not to decry or deny such personal beliefs, it is simply the observation that the only way to accept that any religion is the right one, based on the testament of its followers, is to first accept that religion. But, if one only wants to accept the right religion, how are we to know which is the right one without believing it. Anyone arguing for the correctness of their religion is therefore suspect and their argument treated with extreme circumspection.

So, what are we to do? The only option appears to be to listen to the arguments of those who don't believe in any religion. For believers, this may be an anathema: how on earth can a non-believer (pagan, infidel, heretic; choose your term) determine which is the true religion? And they would have a point. If a non-believer had established the nature of the one right religion, they would believe in it. And, therefore, their arguments would be suspect because they believed in a religion and they may be pushing its rightness from personal conviction rather from any inherent, absolute correctness of the religion itself.

And that's the problem.

You can't believe believers on this subject because they're biased (they may be right, but you cannot tell without accepting their beliefs, and you might pick the wrong religion to believe).

You can't believe non-believers on this subject because they're not biased (if they'd found the answer, they'd be believers and, therefore no the non-believers you imagined they were).

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