Keep in mind, a child is not a born (insert any religion), they are taught. ( read: brain washed). Same as that they are not born evil or sinful, they are taught. Watch any child brought up in a happy home and their happiness, their goodness, can be seen. Until they are taught that they are sinful, and therefore evil. Until someone starts to manipulate them. Anyway, be kind to yourself, and good luck with your life.

"A History of God" was written by a (previously) Catholic nun, Karen Armstrong. It was claimed that over 150,000 religions have been around since the dawn of humans. She later wrote: "An omnipotent, all-knowing tyrant is not so different from earthly dictators who made everything and everybody mere cogs in the machine which they controlled. An atheism that rejects such a God is amply justified."

Well humans are constantly reinventing the wheel,as in their version of god is bigger and brighter than all that went before. ...like a washing soap advert...."our god washes whiter"!

This has gone on since man could speak and I doubt it will ever stop

I've always thought that it is very coincidental that you are a Christian because you were born in a Christian country to a non minority family and the exact same if you are a Muslim in a predominantly Muslim country!! How is it that others don't see that their preferred form of worship is largely an accident of birth ?

My god has a bigger dick than your god - George Carlin

Have noticed that every religion has to believe their god is the only "true" god. Even down to the interpretation of what "their" god means, wants, demands. It's all to establish "authority" in the minds of followers. Then to control through the guilt and fear, that religions require, to propagate their beliefs. Be kind to youself, and good luck with your life.

...then take it a step further, and be even MORE baffled by believers who claim their religion is THE one true religion. (Think Joseph Smith / Mormonism as an overt example.)

It is indeed baffling, but then again, I came from that background so I understand how the ego gets a huge stroke when your holier-than-thou belief makes you better than anyone else. That's all it is: pride.

Actually all the religions claim that their God is the only true God , and other religions God is fake , so who we can believe and why? it's depend on the human mind.

It's all silly to me.

Everyone knows that whatever they believe is obviously the only real and correct thing. Their man in the sky is better and real! Lol

Not at all, because one of the main tenets of the Christian religion is faith. The hold their beliefs in total denial of any facts that may contradict it. I am pretty certain most religious people believe theirs is the right one. It does give us something to laugh at though.

Consider this concept. One's geographical place of birth will be the most determining factor as to what 'god/gods' they believe in. Born in the US, odds are you will be Christian, then Jewish, and way down the line are all the other faiths. Born in India, odds are you will be Hindu.
But it's overwhelmingly about place of birth. I think that's one of the most invalidating aspects of believing in a specific religion.

Silly, and it starts to piss me off. And I'm not a fan of crosses.

No. It's the prerequisite of their belief taking the stance that their god is the only one and true god assuming that all others are false. It enables them to trivialize any other gods to justify their belief system. In order to strengthen their position, they must weaken anyone elses.

Yes to me who was raised Jewish I ask the question-Why would all these people decide that a Jew deserved to have a religion created around him?

I would say it annoys me more than anything, it's blatant ignorance. The human race did not get to where we are today by embracing ignorance. Curiosity and free-thinking along with hard work and dedication are what got us to where we are today. Not God.

Well then, That's gonna put a few Islamic noses outa joint ain't it

there are all these gods but only one devil. strange I think.

all religion completely baffles me. all I see is fairytales made up by men to dominate and get money out of you. it would be funny if so many humans didn't take it so seriously.

Tanna is a small volcanic Island in the South Pacific, part of the Vanuatu group. One tribe there follows an interesting belief system, goes something like this:

Ancient Yaohnanen legend tells of a mountain spirit that traveled to a far off land. The story goes that when he reached his destination, this mountain spirit would marry a powerful woman and the Yaohnanen held that he would one day return to his homeland. When visiting the colonies in the 1950’s, the Queen of England, a powerful woman, was shown great respect by colonial figures. The tribe filled in the gaps and came to the conclusion that her husband, Prince Philip, must be the long lost mountain spirit.
Ultimately, Prince Philip exchanged gifts with the Islanders – some photographs and a pig-killing club – and in 2007 a consortium from the tribe visited him in London, where more gifts were exchanged. Notice that the monarchy did nothing to dispel the myth; after all it is convenient for a woman, whose placement on the throne is attributed to divine intervention, to be associated with something divine; albeit by a tiny tribe in the middle of nowhere. But that’s just a numbers game.

When we travel the world visiting closed cultures, we find that they all have local belief systems, based for the most part around inexplicable geographical, material or meteorological phenomena – those near active volcanoes tend to involve the appeasement of volcano spirits; those with poor precipitation involve rain spirits and so on. But belief systems are universal – no matter where we go, people believe in some higher power. That’s cool. The problem is, no one person can pin that power down, and that's where any belief system can be abused.

In the case of the Tanna Islanders it suited the monarchy, and the tribesmen, to perpetuate the myth that Prince Philip is a god. Modern Christianity is a bit like that. There are people in positions of power for whom it is beneficial to use religious beliefs as a tool of manipulation. It’s easy to understand that's what's going on because the behaviours of those powerful people– warmongering, worship of money, judging others etc etc etc - go completely against the teachings of the Christ figure they purport to revere (under threat of eternal damnation? Can they really believe what they espouse, knowing they're going to hell for their actions? I doubt it very much).
Christianity is consistently used to manipulate women (abortion is not mentioned in the bible) and through sheer volume of numbers, entire cultures can be manipulated to ensure some sexual deviants are cast out, while others are promoted to the highest positions in civil society.
The other way Christianity is used as a tool of manipulation is by way of the ‘fear of the other’. Tribalism is rooted in this area, which allows atrocities to be committed on other people that we would not wish on ourselves. There are socio-cultural reasons for this (and biological reasons; see how South America was devastated by European diseases during the middle ages). As pattern-seeking creatures, always willing to save energy, we have a tendency to gather in groups that define themselves by certain common characteristics, with a tendency to be suspicious of anything outwith that group. It's system of mutual benefit. All you need to appeal to the group is a team of psychologists, a suit, a microphone, a TV, social media and a big mouth…

To go back to the fact that all cultures have belief systems, no matter where we go we will find some hope, regardless of adversity. This notion that ‘there must be something more’ is intrinsic to the human condition and it is a tragedy that such a personal state can be usurped by people of power, simply to maintain the status quo - in other words, to keep themselves in power.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and anti-nazi. He was executed in 1945. While in prison he wrote this:

“How wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge. If in fact the frontiers of knowledge are being pushed further and further back (and that is bound to be the case), then God is being pushed back with them, and is therefore continually in retreat. We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don’t know.’

Yup completely agree. Theres so many different religions with vivid descriptions. And its all about where you are from. But theyre so brainwashed that yes..they believe all of them are going to hell. Woshipping other idols..ya know

The chaplain at my school (Methodist College) told us that there was just one god, and he was the same one that all the other religions worshipped, too, except they used different names for him. I suppose this was a fairly enlightened attitude.There was certainly supposed to be something rather special about Jesus, though.

A fellow died and went to heaven. St. Peter was showing him around when he saw a little group of people way off in the clouds, he said. "Hey, St. Pete, who are those people way over there." St. Peter said, "Sheee! Those are (insert any religion of your choice here), they don't know anybody else is up here."

Such people need a course in comparative religion. I don't think they are aware of all those other gods. They may have some inkling but are not fully aware.

In Iran they would be Muslim. There is a demographic group think quality to religion.