If Your Religion Did Not Exist

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This is an interesting question! 🙂

I have admiration for all the world religions, because I view them as integral to many of the great cultures and civilisations which do and have graced our world. Religion and civilisation are inseparably linked, as I see it, providing not only the moral framework and ethos but also the impetus for cultural growth and development.

Outwith Judaism and Christianity, I have a natural sympathy for the Indian religions in particular, as well as Taoism and Zoroastrianism.

Buddhism and Jainism appeal to me very much, because of their teachings on ahimsa (non-violence) and the Buddha’s keen insight into psychology and the roots of human suffering. I do not think that anyone has plumbed the depths of the human psyche quite to the extent of the Lord Buddha. I greatly appreciate the Noble Eightfold Path, the Four Noble Truths and the detailed descriptions of jhanic states etc.

I love the Upanishads of Hinduism, there teachings on love, oneness with God etc. I respect the Bhagavad Gita’s precepts on how to act without thinking of results.

I share a deep regard for Sikhism. The Gurus were profoundly revolutionary, preaching the unity of humanity irrespective of race or religion, tolerance, the equality of the sexes and social equality. The Guru Granth Sahib ji has some of the most sublime religious poetry I have ever read, replete with bridal imagery, pithy teachings and a characteristic egaliterianism. The connection between Creator and creation in Sikhism (called Consonance in Creation), the recognition that God is everywhere in all things and much else besides draws my respect. Furthermore the emphasis placed upon adherence to the Hukam (Will) of God and living in the state of Naam strike me as moving and profound.

An oft negelected religion is Zoroastrianism, the native belief system of pre-Islamic Iran and which still exerts a noticeable influence on Persian culture (through Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh). Again, its monotheism appeals to me, its age, Zoroaster’s belief in religious liberty, an afterlife, the resurrection of the dead etc.

I’d probably be either a Buddhist though.
 
I meant to say above either a Buddhist or a Sikh, although I could fit naturally (I think) into quite a few other religions (Taoism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism).
 
Vouthon said:
I meant to say above either a Buddhist or a Sikh, although I could fit naturally (I think) into quite a few other religions (Taoism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism).
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Shalom Vouthon;

Excellent reflections; thank you for your thoughts on Sikhism and the Buddha.

Shalom Aleichem
 
Excellent question. I was thinking about this some time ago, I was studying other religions beside my own. There are quite few that I sympathise with, most of all those elder ones - three great monotheistic religions, hinduism and buddhism. I think that I will have to write multiple answers.

As Steve Ray said: There is one true religion - Judaism, and Catholicism is its continuation. So if there would be no Christianity, I would be, as many others, Jew, waiting for Messiah.

If there would not be judeo-christian tradition, no Abrahamic religion; I would be probably a montheistic hindu (believing that all gods are manifestations of the One God) or worshipper of Hare Krishna (the triunity of God is what interests me on Hare Krishna). Sikhism would also be a good option, but I am afraid that without Abrahamic traditions, there would be no Sikhism.

What I am afraid of, that without Jesus Christ, I would be an atheist, or the same as I was before my conversion to Catholicism. New Age has a strong influence on young people today and it is very, very confusing. Mabe Wiccan or modern-day slavic pagan. But those are like the last options.

Thanks God that I was born in a Catholic country, even though my family is “cafeteria catholic” mostly and non-practicing. I was lost withouth Christ and without the Church, I am afraid, that if Christianity did not exist, I would be without any particular religon or faith, just lost “believing anything”.
 
ThomasMartin said:
What I am afraid of, that without Jesus Christ, I would be an atheist, or the same as I was before my conversion to Catholicism. New Age has a strong influence on young people today and it is very, very confusing. Mabe Wiccan or modern-day slavic pagan. But those are like the last options. I was lost withouth Christ and without the Church, I am afraid, that if Christianity did not exist, I would be without any particular religon or faith, just lost “believing anything”.
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Shalom Thomas;

Very good observation.

I had a period in my life, not all that long ago, where I was quickly slipping down a slippery slope into the garbage that is the New Age. It really is a “works for you, works for me” type system; and anything is valid.

The reading of testimony’s of people who escaped through Yeshua, is what led me out. Some terrifying encounters to be sure; demonic power surges through such practices, and they don’t like it when one tries to follow the truth.

Shalom Aleichem
 
I’ve thought of this before, too…and I’m not sure…it would be difficult to imagine such a world.

Hmmm…without Christianity, I would still believe in a few basic things that simple logic would lead me to conclude, and if I was to choose an existing religion, it would have to meet these criteria:
  1. There is a Creator, Who must be powerful enough to have created the entire Universe and therefore, logically, must be outside of the physical Universe and capable of bending its rules, since He by definition would have been the one to make them. Any theory where there is no Creator always seems to lead to the problem of infinite regress within a system (the physical universe) where we can see with our own eyes that nothing happens without a cause. This is an oxymoron, and thus I could not find belief in an uncreated Universe to be tenable. So in short I would believe in an omnipotent, non-physical, transcendent Creator.
  2. There is something immortal and non-physical about the human being, and probably all lifeforms (although since I only know what it is to be human, humanity would be the only lifeform about which I could be totally certain), and this immortal part of us must be non-physical. If we were strictly physical beings, I see no reason to believe that we would be truly “alive” inside, as opposed to being more like a supercomputer made of meat, a bundle of blind, lifeless “circuitry” that happens to be made of flesh instead of metals and such. But we are alive, so we must be more than that. And if we are not therefore a “collection of parts” we must be indivisible, thus immortal (death cannot occur without disollution). So I would, in essence, believe in the immortal soul.
  3. There is such a thing as Objective Good, and thus such a thing as Evil. Basic beliefs about good and evil are so hardwired into us that, if #1 is true, I would have to believe that this hardwired tendency to believe in good and evil must come from the Creator. Now, keep in mind that if EITHER #1 or #2 were false, I could not believe in #3. Without a Creator, our sense of good and evil might just be biology designed to keep the species physically alive, which would hardly be a source of objective morality rather than accident of evolution; yet without a soul, there would be no real life, only advanced computers made of flesh, and computers cannot be capable of good or evil, not to mention that the whole question would be moot since there would be no real lifeforms to care. But because I would still believe in both 2 and 3, it would make more sense than not if the Creator intended for those moral codes to be there. I.e. I would believe in some sort of Natural Law of Good and Evil.
  4. The Creator cares about His Creation, perhaps especially humanity. Due to #3, I would be disinclined to believe that Deism was true. To painstakingly include a moral code in One’s Created Lifeforms is a step that I don’t think one would take if One did not care how the Lifeforms fare. Becaue humanity is unique in having a moral code, I would have to believe that humanity–and any other being with an intellect if, in this hypothetical universe, such a being were discovered–ranked a bit higher in the Creator’s scale than other creatures which had not been given the gift of morality.
  5. The Creator desires a relationship of some form with Humanity, both in this life and the next. As with #3, the search for Ultimate Truth is far too common to humanity to be written off. If there were no Creator, it could just be a by-product, a “glitch” of the evolution of human intelligence. But since there must be a Creator, it makes sense to believe that this desire for Ultimate Truth is a deliberate inclusion in the human psyche. Moreover, the vast majority of humans seem to have a desire not only to “know” the Truth intellectually, but to be united with that Truth as a Higher Power. I would be convinced that this is a sign that the Creator does intend to have some sort of relationship with humanity, and since humans have immortal souls as per #3, this would not end with death. I wouldn’t know the exact nature of this relationship, but the evidence would lead me to believe that it was one in humanity’s best interests, for it could be the very purpose of our creation.
  6. The odds are high that some existing religion out there is true, or at least several highly similar ones are each mostly true except for in the small differences. Because of #5, I would probably suppose that the Creator would give some sort of set revelation of how to have a relationship with Him. While this is not necessarily true (and this belief would be much less set-in-stone for me than the others), it is highly irregular to expect to have a relationship with someone who is absolutely clueless as to what your tastes, preferences, etc. are. Do you marry someone without sharing with them your expectations? Do you hire an employee without making the requirements known? While I would be willing to believe that the Creator might not show Himself to everyone in a blinding supernatural way–because I can see how having faith is a virtue of love–there would still have to be something or other in which to have faith in the first place. A vague notion of “just do the right thing and believe that there’s some sort of Creator” could be what you’re having faith in, but #5 would lead me to believe the Creator would be a little more personal than that.
  7. ??? is the True Religion. I’m not sure what that religion would be if it weren’t Christianity, which is symbolically fitting (and accidental, by the way): This would be number 7 on the list, which is Biblically the number of fulness and perfection. So the fulfillment and perfection of my beliefs would be whatever the True Religion was. Yet without Christianity, I wouldn’t know exactly where to find that final piece of the puzzle. But the point of including this point is that I would not consider my beliefs fully complete until I had found it.
Now with that list noted, let’s consider what my options would be.

In a world without Christianity, I’m not sure that I would believe in Judaism even if it still existed. It is the Resurrection of Jesus, to me personally, that proves Judaism to be valid, because Judaism was the religion that Jesus affirmed. So without Christianity, I wouldn’t believe in Judaism either–not because they believe anything about God that would contradict what I would believe of Him (many Jews believe everything I listed above, after all), but I would not probably find sufficient evidence to make me believe that He had specially chosen one race out of all the world, that Judaism’s 613 Laws were necessarily relevant to what God would desire for humanity, etc. Again, let me repeat that I am not saying there would be anything wrong with Judaism, it’s just that without the Resurrection of a God-Man Who had said Judaism was true, I wouldn’t have seen any reason to believe that Judaism was true out of all the religions in the world. Ironically, the very thing that proves Judaism to be true in my eyes is the very thing that compels me to believe in Christianity rather than Old Testament Judaism.

Of course, there’s the possibility that I would believe in whatever religion that I had been born into (therefore including Judaism, if I’d been born into it), as long as it didn’t contradict the criteria above. Otherwise, one of the monotheistic faiths, with prescribed ethics and rituals (due to #'s 5 and 6), would probably be the most likely candidate. It’s difficult to say which one that would be, though, because I cannot think of any religion besides Christianity that is not only based in so radical and special a miracle as the Resurrection, but around which the known facts and history surrounding it seem to indicate that something highly irregular and unprecedented really did happen, and for which all the “natural” explanations fall too short to make sense to me. So if I didn’t end up believing whatever I was raised to believe or just settling on whatever religion that appealed to me, had good ethics, and didn’t contradict the above convictions, I’d probably be a bit of a drifter, hoping to find the True Religion, believing it was somewhere out there, but fearing I might never find it until the next life. 😦

:signofcross: Thank God that, in reality, He chose to speak loud and clear by giving us the Resurrection of Christ! It might still require faith, but given the unparalleled historical support for the existence of Jesus, and what is in my opinion a total lack of any other convincing (when all is examined closely) explanation for the Resurrection claims, the choice seems a lot clearer to me in a world with Christianity than in a world without it! I am happy to say that in reality the Resurrection of Jesus Christ gives me my #7, the missing puzzle piece. :extrahappy:

I don’t mean to start a debate with any of the above, by the way, as that would be off topic. I feel the need to say that, because I’ve seen a fair number of curiosity-based threads like this get derailed by debate when something someone says is taken as a challenge by someone who disagrees. I just wanted to share the specifics of what I would believe in such a world, since for me it wouldn’t be a simple one-step or clear-cut thought process at all. 🙂

Blessings in Christ,
KindredSoul
 
Islam, easily. I was a Muslim for 3 years, and if Christianity did not exist, I would very easily accept Islam again, because it would have to be the truth. The ONLY reason I reject Islam is because the New Testament has 95-99% accuracy among all manuscripts, and ALL manuscripts indicate that Jesus claimed to be the messiah. So the idea that Jesus never claimed it, is therefore, false. However, if Christianity did not exist (New Testament didn’t either), then I would find no issue with Islam.
 
KindredSoul said:
In a world without Christianity, I’m not sure that I would believe in Judaism even if it still existed. It is the Resurrection of Jesus, to me personally, that proves Judaism to be valid, because Judaism was the religion that Jesus affirmed. So without Christianity, I wouldn’t believe in Judaism either–not because they believe anything about God that would contradict what I would believe of Him (many Jews believe everything I listed above, after all), but I would not probably find sufficient evidence to make me believe that He had specially chosen one race out of all the world, that Judaism’s 613 Laws were necessarily relevant to what God would desire for humanity, etc. Again, let me repeat that I am not saying there would be anything wrong with Judaism, it’s just that without the Resurrection of a God-Man Who had said Judaism was true, I wouldn’t have seen any reason to believe that Judaism was true out of all the religions in the world. Ironically, the very thing that proves Judaism to be true in my eyes is the very thing that compels me to believe in Christianity rather than Old Testament Judaism.

Blessings in Christ,
KindredSoul
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Shalom Kindred;

I forgot the names of the two individuals, but I have read an account of two Jewish Rabbis, who proclaimed that if the Mashiach had not come at the time of Yeshua, than the prophecies concerning the Mashiach have already passed and not been fulfilled.

They came to faith in Yeshua after accepting the timing of His ministry and death, which accords with Daniel’s prophecy.

Shalom Aleichem
 
YeshuaOrHaOlam said:
Shalom all;

If your religion ( hypothetically speaking ) did not exist, but all of the remaining except yours, did still exist; which one would you find yourself attracted to the most?

To make things simple, lets keep things under very general umbrellas ( IE; Christianity = Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodox )

Please explain why you would choose such a faith.

Shalom Aleichem
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If Christianity did not exist? Definitely Judaism. In my humble opinion, the Messiah and Redeemer of the world will come from the chosen nation of Israel. 👍
 
YeshuaOrHaOlam said:
Shalom all;

If your religion ( hypothetically speaking ) did not exist, but all of the remaining except yours, did still exist; which one would you find yourself attracted to the most?

To make things simple, lets keep things under very general umbrellas ( IE; Christianity = Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodox )

Please explain why you would choose such a faith.

Shalom Aleichem
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Jew- now does that include the Jews for Jesus? lol

Although the old testament infuriates me with the Israelites. lol
 
joe370 said:
If Christianity did not exist? Definitely Judaism. In my humble opinion, the Messiah and Redeemer of the world will come from the chosen nation of Israel. 👍
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Shalom my friend,

Ha!

But if the Abrahamic religious traditions did not exist?

Shalom!
 
minkymurph said:
That’s a hard one.

Buddhism appeals to me. Pacifist yet realist, did the ‘open hand’ method of martial arts emerge under Buddhism? Buddhist’s may correct me. Reincarnation - I recently sent both my dogs, 14 and 17, my pals, to the big kennel in the sky. I had them cremated and sprinkled their ashes in Lough Erne where we have a boat and spent a lot of time to release their spirit into the circle of life. I can’t believe God created animals for no reason. Meditation, spiritual enlightenment, doing no harm to others etc. appeals.

Judaism - as I understand it, but I may be explaining it badly, they have a different understanding of the Devil which I think says something. I think the Christian concept of the Devil may have been influenced by the Greeks. They also think we our ‘dark’ side helps us, in that we learn to, among other things, be streetwise and have ambition which are useful life skills. But as I said I may be explaining it badly.

Methodism - the focus on equality, good works and singing appeals, and the fact they think everyone who professes a belief can share in communion and you don’t have to join their Church to do so.

Truth is, if Catholicism did not exist I may start my own religion that would be a mixture of many. 😃
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I say I would write my own Non Catechism Catechism.😃
 
YeshuaOrHaOlam said:
I should clarify, and my apologies for not doing so in my first post;

But, other than our Judeo-Christian tradition, so including Judaism, what other faith would you be prone to follow?

Shalom Aleichem
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If Judaism did not exist either? Well, the idea of Jesus, as the Messiah, would not exist either so that would exclude any mention of Him in connection to a religion. I suppose I would not be affiliated with any organized faith, including atheism.🤷
 
joe370 said:
If Judaism did not exist either? Well, the idea of Jesus, as the Messiah, would not exist either so that would exclude any mention of Him in connection to a religion. I suppose I would not be affiliated with any organized faith, including atheism.🤷
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No Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism? Tao, Aboriginal Spirituality?

😉

Shalom Aleichem
 
JillianRose said:
After studing Middle Eastern religions, I would never embrace Islam. Especially since I am a woman. I would be atheist.
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Shalom Jillian,

Islam would fall under Abrahamic religious tradition.

Good thing Yeshua has come, I’d hate to lose someone to atheism! ( the most depressing, emptiest philosophy I have ever encountered )

Shalom Aleichem!
 
JillianRose said:
Not to be stupid, but what does your religion “Talmid Ha Mashiach Yeshua” mean? Is it Jewish? I am not familuar with you quote. 😃 Please educate.
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Jillian,

Please don’t feel silly! 🙂

Talmid Ha Mashiach Yeshua, is Hebrew; it translates to, Disciple of Messiah Jesus.

👍

Shalom Aleichem
 
YeshuaOrHaOlam said:
No Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism? Tao, Aboriginal Spirituality?

😉

Shalom Aleichem
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Hinduism and Taoism are generally associated with a multiplicity of Gods and Buddhists, as per my Buddhist friend here at CAF, do not believe in God, which would rule Buddhism out. I suppose if I had been exposed to Sikhism I would probably investigate and evaluate the merits…👍
 
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