"There are 4,200 religions in the world with 320 million gods to believe in. What makes you think Christianity is the ONLY true one?"

[rossum]

They’re the same being.

No they are not. One is triune, the other isn’t. One has a Son, the other doesn’t. One has sent His Messiah, the other hasn’t yet. I suggest you have a long talk with your local Rabbi about the many and significant differences between the Christian God and the Jewish YHWH.

rossum

 

[Gorgias]

No they are not. One is triune, the other isn’t. One has a Son, the other doesn’t. One has sent His Messiah, the other hasn’t yet.

No, they’re exactly the same being. The difference is perception, not nature.

I suggest you have a long talk with your local Rabbi about the many and significant differences between the Christian God and the Jewish YHWH.

I suggest you have a long talk with your local psychologist about the many and significant differences between ‘perception’ and ‘reality’.

Seriously, though: the difference isn’t in the nature of God, but in our understanding (or acceptance of that understanding) of who He is. A Jewish rabbi would disagree with my understanding – but that disagreement would be over our perception of God’s nature … no?

I get what you’re saying … but I disagree that you’re making reasonable distinctions. After all, you (as a Buddhist) would have something to say about my perceptions about reality, without claiming that there are multiple realities, right?

 

[crenfro]

Hello.

This might be something I’d say:

I could have 4200 cars, but the Ferrari and the Ford may not be of equal caliber.

 

[LeafByNiggle]

Without addressing the actual question in the OP, I would like to address a kind of side-issue, and that is the logical fallacy implicit in the question itself. If the question had been, “What makes you think Christianity is true?” that would have been a straightforward question with no implied logical fallacy, and one might proceed to try to answer it in a straightforward manner. But when coupled with the first sentence about the number of religions, the question becomes an implied argument, and that implied argument is the one with the logical fallacy.

The implied argument goes like this: There are a large number of religions practiced in the world. They should all have the same probability of being true. The sheer number of them makes it harder to show that any one of them is completely true. Since Christianity is one of many religions, it has a small chance of being true.

The fallacy in that argument is in the statement: “They should all have the same probability of being true.” There is no reason a priori to assign every religion an equal probability of being true. The question of whether Christianity is true ought to be the same even if Christianity were the only religion that was practiced. In fact, if you accept the principles of Christianity, it makes perfect sense that there would be many religions. One of the premises of Christianity is the Man was created by God with an instinctive desire to seek him and to worship him. So when people spread around the world and became separated, even if their culture did not remember God, they would still have that instinct in them. Therefore they would invent religions in an effort to fulfill that desire. Even those religions, like Buddhism, that do not have an actual deity, still search for things like idealized truth and goodness - characteristics we associate with the God of Christianity.

Of course that explanation could be offered by just about every other religion too, so it is not a complete answer to the OP question. But it does at least minimize the importance of there being so many religions in challenging the true of Christianity.

So I suggest that people trying to answer the OP question instead answer the question “What makes you think Christianity is true?” and forget about the sentence before it.

 

[Tuan]

Because only Christians have a holy book like the bible. Written by dozens of people throughout 100s of years. Containing wisdoms like love your enemy, he without sin can punish others for their sin, so basically nobody. Containing a prophecy about a people that would be exiled from their land but would ever return. Which happened 2000 years later in 1948 when the state of Israel was founded. And because catholicism is the orignal church that was created by the discipels if this one marvellous man: Jesus Christ!

 

[abucs]

What would be a good answer to this question?

There are 4,200 in the world, and I have never heard or know nothing about the majority of them.

There are a lot of bad arguments against religion. This is one of them.

Firstly we have to discriminate between what we mean by God and what has been translated as ‘God’ from certain cultures.

So for the Christian civilization God is the creator of the material universe. If other religions acknowledge a Being which is the creator of the material universe then we are talking about the same being and it is incorrect to count this Being multiple times.

We might have different names for this Being, disagree on when He has acted in this world or even disagree on His nature. But we are talking about the same Being, who is properly called God.

Now if there is a translation of a ‘God’ which is not the creator of the material world then we are not really talking about the same thing even if people use the same word (incorrectly). So if someone in India believes there is a Spirit living in a tree who grants favours we are not really talking about God in the Christian sense but more of a belief in a supernatural spirit.

It is wrong in my opinion to label every believed supernatural spirit as a God, equate that to the Christian concept of the word and then pit all such cases against each other in some sort of exclusive winner take all Royal Rumble of belief.

Regards.

 

[ericc]

Who comes up with these silly posts…320 million gods?

These posts aren’t serious, they’re temptations to distraction for others.

Not if they are Hindu gods. Anyone can be gods in that religion.

The 330 millions probably came from a misunderstanding of the word “koti” for “crore” which denotes 10 millions. Hindus identify 33 “trayastrimsati koti”, koti means ‘supreme’, pre-eminent, excellent, that is, the 33 ‘supreme’ divinities. Where does the count of 330 million Hindu Gods come from? Is there a broadly approved list of these 330 million Gods, compiled by a well-respected saint or scholar? - Quora

So it ranges from 1 to 33 to infinite. Yes, there are some who believe there is only one god as well. But it is difficult to nail down all the variants of hinduism. It is also not easy to classify it. It is a philosophy, a culture as well as a religion.

 

[ericc]

What would be a good answer to this question?

There are 4,200 in the world, and I have never heard or know nothing about the majority of them.

First we need to define the word “true”. Each of the religions’ believers it is “true” for them. I only know of the Elijah’s Yahweh vs Baal challenge 1 Kings 18:20-40. May be there are others out there.

If a believer of a particular religion is not aware of other religions, it is not possible for them to establish “truth” because of ignorance. Peoples are separated by distance, locality, culture, language and so on and so it may be rather impossible to know the truth about other religion. And when a religion has many variants, that becomes even more difficult. And not all religions are inclusive. It may be applicable to a particular race of people only, and Judaism may not be the only one. The Hindu caste system will not allow crossovers for example.

Can a “true” religion be identified? I believe if people agree on the criteria, the process can be determined. If a religion is exclusive for a particular group of people, either by language, race or tribe, it is difficult to even past the first stage. This god is only for the AXXX people ONLY. Our god, not yours.

 

[Trickypixie]

I believe in Jesus Christ because I’ve met him. As to the mysteries of faith, when I have questions, I read solid apologetics. I cannot give my faith away and I cannot explain God’s relationship to those who do not know his son. I only know that when I call out for Christ, he comes to me every time. As to being the only way, I have no trouble believing that as he orchestrated this entire affair. I will say that in order for my questions to be answered to my satisfaction, I had to be willing to read apologetics and not just give the idea of God lip service. If you want to meet Christ, ask for him. If you want to know about Christ, start reading because no forum can give you that education. God is worth the time.CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, is a great place to start.

 

[PetraG]

I’d ask where they got those numbers, because I have never heard anyone claim with a straight face that there were 320 million distinct deities. I certainly don’t think there are 4,200 different religions that consider themselves the only religion for all of humankind. Ruling out a group of tribal religions that don’t want me and doesn’t think I ought to believe what they do hardly counts as much.

I guess I’d point to Acts 17:16-34 and tell them I think Paul’s pitch to the Athenians is the truth. Some of them did, too, and they had plenty of pitches to choose from

 

[Seeksadvice]

This has made me wonder as I journey to Catholicism…

Could some of these religions be attempts to explain the manifestations of God’s power?

The Nordic people for example weren’t there in the Middle East to observe Israel, etc.