I never understood how one religion could think it was the only "correct" one. Religion is tailored to fit one's personal and spiritual needs. It's silly to think that one specific religion/belief system is supposed to work for 7.4 billion people. We're all so diverse.
If there is one Creator who is making the rules, then it's not hard to imagine that there would be only one set of rules.
If it were true that religions are something that humans make up, which most are, then sure why not have Windows and MacOS and Linux...
If a religion is based on direct revelation from God, then it is up to Him whether he wants to give us several options or not.
You can find this out from what God Himself said as Jesus (John 3:16-21):
Simply put. All other religions are things humans made up as how they think they should be able to earn eternal life. God says, no. We can't earn it. I've spent 4000 years letting you prove that. So I'll die to take your punishment so that you can have eternal life anyway. All you have to do is accept that gift.
But I'm only going to do this once!
Under such circumstances, humans rejecting that and continuing to make up their own admission criteria is very offensive to God.
Read the bold lines in the above, very loving but strict, quote.
Ignoring that is what is silly.
Stan, you're just saying "All religions except MINE are wrong", which is absolutely silly.
Surely you can see that.
No. I'm saying why I believe one historical record and why that record precludes all others. It you find something else more believable, that's your affair.
But once I have discoveed what I believe to be authoritative testimony directly from God, the rest of my behavior becomes equally rational: I want to share it! Does that make me a bad person? :o)
Wow. So because one book says this, you just agree? What if every religious text out there claimed to be the ONLY path, as I know some do?
To "prove" something in science, multiple independent studies must be done that corroborate and support the same conclusion.
Quoting the Bible is like quoting someone at the end of a really long "pass it down the alley" game, after orally passing a long story through hundreds of people before it reaches you... Then you stake your life, your "eternal soul," to heresay and twisted words of men from ages past.
Trust one book?
I think not. I have read many more books in all paths, and come to the conclusion they ALL contain truths, but none have it all.
acarya π
20160809
Foolish mortal. It is not just one book. The word Bible means "library". It is a collection of 66 different documents written over a period of 2000+ years by 44 different authors. All conveniently collected together. If there were any other such documents that were deemed authentic, they would have been included in the library.
If someone said to you I have 66 documents preserved from antiquity, you would take them seriously, but bundle them together in one volume and they suddenly become a single source.
Conveniently collected together and put together in one book by the Council of Nicea, where they picked and chose from many other books.
The apocrypha contain more truth and true intention of the authors of the time than any version of the Bible ever has.
We are all a part of something eternal, at least from the evidence I have been able to glean over my 42 years here...
Fools, we ALL are.
I'm afraid not. That's more Dan Brown Fiction from the DaVinci Code novel.
Seven church councils were held over hundreds of years and they debated many things. Those who compiled the canon (list of books in the Bible) were church leaders throughout those ages. The simple test for inclusion in the canon were "does this document have a clear audit trail back to an apostle?" This is called due diligence What would you substitute as a process for deciding which of many candidates were real?
The apocrypha did not have such an audit trail back to an apostle, as hundreds of church leaders agreed each time it was discussed. So it got left out in every meeting of church leaders until the counter reformation when the Catholic church added to answer the Protestant claims that they were making up teachings not found in the Bible as accepted for 1500 years by that time.
And that's just the New Testament. The Old Testament dates back another 2000 years and was substantially complete by 400 BC. It was placed in a cave time capsule around 200 BC and discovered in 1947 proving that it had not changed in over 2000 years.