Is it possible to KNOW which religion is the most true

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Is it possible to know for sure on Earth which religion contains the fullness of truth? Or is it just accepting something is true by faith? Can anyone say they know for sure their religion is true- even if they came to the conclusion with lots of thought and study their logic could be faulty and as humans. But can you even come to a conclusion? Logic and science don’t seem to be able to help much in the realm of theology

Why would someone accept a religion without knowing for sure that it’s true. Wouldn’t you feel stupid believing in false doctrines etc?

If God really wanted us to follow the correct religion why did he make it unclear which one was most true and make religion somewhat cultural?
 
You can know wich religion is the true one by many ways:
  1. a priori, you can take the philosophical arguments for the existence of God and see what can de deduced from them about God’s attributes. Then you can proceed by excluding every religion that worships any divinity that doesn’t fit these attributes.
  2. a posteriori, you can proceed by two ways:
    2.1) checking the historical evidence in favour of every religion (for example, miracle claims ).
    2.2) checking the internal logical consistency of every religion and prooceding by exclusion.
 
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What if none are the full truth? What if they are all man made with some aspects of truth or goodness
 
The only way you can know wich religion is true is by checking them. Just one thing that shortens the process: if one of the Abrahamitic religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism ) is true, all the others are false, because they are exclusive religions - that is, each of them claim to be the only true one.
 
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The Church started by Jesus Christ himself is the true one. I think that certainly narrows it down, as there are a maximum of two churches (Catholic and Orthodox) in that category, both of which have valid sacraments.
 
How would you prove Jesus was God or sent by God though? Or even that the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus of someone already believed in the divinity of Jesus
 
I think there are two good arguments that prove the divinity of Christ:
  1. Lewis’ trilemma
  2. Resurrection arguments
 
I’ve heard those although I don’t know if there is enough evidence to even use those arguments.
 
rosejmj said:
Is it possible to know for sure on Earth which religion contains the fullness of truth?
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According to the First Vatican Council, there is a twofold order of knowledge: one by natural reason, and the other by divine faith. These do not contradict, since they are both from God (i.e. they both are about reality). We can know by reasoning which religions are false, but not which is completely true, because that goes beyond our natural ability. We can know which religion contains the fullness of truth by divine faith.
rosejmj said:
Or is it just accepting something is true by faith?
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Yes, because our natural powers are limited and knowing something with certainty, such as the Holy Trinity, that we cannot naturally observe, requires a suprarational (beyond rational comprehension alone) revelation, which we can only accept by faith.
rosejmj said:
Can anyone say they know for sure their religion is true- even if they came to the conclusion with lots of thought and study their logic could be faulty and as humans. But can you even come to a conclusion? Logic and science don’t seem to be able to help much in the realm of theology
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By logic and science alone, no, we can not know for sure if our religion is true. With divine faith, yes, we can know with certainty.
rosejmj said:
Why would someone accept a religion without knowing for sure that it’s true. Wouldn’t you feel stupid believing in false doctrines etc?
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Almost every religion teaches some truths and offers some knowledge that we can confirm by natural reason. That is convincing when people learn and experience it. Those truths increase the perceived credibility of the source, and people are more likely to trust an authority that teaches something that has helped them in some practical way. Then they can be lead to believe many things taught by that authority which are above our natural ability to know.

I would feel stupid about believing things when I “should have known better” — as in, I could have known by my own ability to reason that it was false. I cannot know by natural reason what God is, or Who.

[Continued…]
 
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rosejmj said:
If God really wanted us to follow the correct religion why did he make it unclear which one was most true and make religion somewhat cultural?
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This is part of the permissive will of God: why does he allow evil? It’s a primary question about God.

On the one hand, he may permit ignorance of truth to mitigate guilt. People who genuinely do not know the fullness of truth by no fault of their own (invincible ignorance) cannot be held accountable for rejecting what they cannot know. If that leads to fewer souls in hell, then that might help explain why it is permitted.

On the other hand, there is free will. Every religion that is not revealed to us by God is a man-made work of creativity, sometimes of immense and impressive creativity, and not necessarily malicious. Before Christ, God allowed us to express our innate desire for the divine in a rich diversity of cultures. Religion was entirely cultural, originally, and God works his grace through human nature. He nurtured a culture of his own choosing, ancient Israel, for divine revelation.

After Christ, He continued to allow us our freedom for some greater good. Why did God permit Muhammad to proclaim that the Bible is erroneous and needs correction? Why did God allow his followers to raise armies and spread their message through violent conquest? Perhaps there are more people now who worship the true God, even if incompletely, than if Muhammad had not done what he did.
 
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This post raises some large questions–more than one.
One thing–an act of God helps people know Catholicism is true. Faith according to Catholic belief is a supernatural virtue given by God.There have been cases where some people want to believe in the Catholic faith, sometimes because reason tells them so, but they can’t take the step. But then they can, and they feel God made it possible for them to make the step.
 
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I cant remember if it is Bishop Barron or Fulton Sheen, I have been watching them both, It was said, there is a spark of truth in non Catholic religions. There is also a lot of falsehoods in those religions.

To really know what is truth, we must know well what the Catholic Church teaches. Then we are in a good position to hear what other religions hold up and discern if there is a spark of truth, or it is false. Once we have learned Catholic faith , it is easy to pick up falsehoods taught by other religions.

This goes for neopaganism too, the rejection of God for the idolisation of man.
 
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rosejmj said:
What if none are the full truth? What if they are all man made with some aspects of truth or goodness
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Then nothing matters, in fact there is no consequence so this is a fake dilemma.
 
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I’m talking about the consequences of believing in a fake religion if none are true.
 
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Maybe go to Adoration at a Catholic parish and simply sit there and ask God in prayer.
 
LeonardDeNoblac said:
I think there are two good arguments that prove the divinity of Christ:
  1. Lewis’ trilemma
  2. Resurrection arguments
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Can you explain this for those who don’t happen to know Lewis’ trilemma?

Are you talking about what Josh MacDowell calls ‘Liar, Lunatic, or Lord’?

In this argument, Josh (or whoever he took the argument from) says that Jesus either lied about being Lord, he was a lunatic who really believed he was the Lord, or he was in truth the Lord and son of God He claimed to be.

He is universally acknowledged as, at the very least, a ‘good man’ who therefore would not tell such a lie and for several reasons, we can rule out lunacy. That leaves the logical option that He must be who He said He was.
 
The true religion is the one reveled By God. Only one makes a credible claim. And only one has Gods seal of Miricals. Do some research on Catholic miricals , and do a little reading on the life of the saints. , ( St Vincent Fever, St Anthony, Padre Pio, etc .

There is NOTHING like it in any other religion.
 
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