Re: Derek also wrote

Bill Payne (bpayne@voyageronline.net)
Thu, 12 Mar 1998 21:44:41 -0600

Tue, 10 Mar 1998 21:09:57 +1000, Derek McLarnen wrote:
>
> > DM>>I was a Christian once, too. I would probably still be one
> > except that I never had any personal experience of God, and
> > I eventually figured something out. If there are millions of
> > Christians that all believe fervently in the Christian God
> > and all that such a belief implies, and if there are
> > millions of Muslims that all believe fervently in Allah and
> > all that such a belief implies, and if there are millions of
> > Hindus that all believe fervently in Brahma, Vinshu, etc.
> > and all that such a belief implies, and if there are
> > millions of ....... you get the idea - then all of these
> > fervent believers can't be right, but they can all be wrong.
> > (Much later I was introduced to the concept that the most
> > reliable indicator of a person's religious beliefs is their
> > parents' or community's religious beliefs - not any innate
> > correctness of the religion itself.)
> >
> > Now, if all of these fervent believers can't be right, in
> > spite of the strength of their belief, then it is reasonable
> > to assume that there is something innately unreliable about
> > belief, particularly fervent religious belief.>>

[...]

> > DM>>And I have little doubt that if you had been Iranian or
> > Indian instead of American, your thoughts would have led you
> > to be a Muslim or Hindu, assuming you managed to survive
> > your first 30 years as an atheist in either of those
> > countries.>>

[...]

> How did you resolve it? The only way that occurs to me is by deciding
> that Christianity (which brand?) was right, all the others were wrong,
> and it wasn't Christianity's fault if the followers of other religions
> couldn't or wouldn't accept their error! But it sounds so arbitary!

Ravi Zacharias was born in India, and was an atheist before becoming a
Christian. If this is your root question, I recommend you root your way
through his teachings. You can find his site at:
http://www.rzim.com/

God bless,

Bill