How do you know your religion is the right one?

you don’t – hence the notion of “faith”.

I’d say for me, it is because the Baha’i faith stresses the following:
-Individual investigation of the truth
-Consultation
-Unity
-Love
-Respect for all beliefs

I wasn’t raised as a Baha’i, but I saw the inconsistencies between the words and deeds of so many people that I really questioned all religions. For me, non-belief was never an option, so i was quite happy to find the Baha’is who held the same beliefs as I did about so many different issues.

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” -Stephen Henry Roberts

No one knows if their belief is “the right one”. It’s arrogant to say otherwise.

I read the question differently.
I thought he was asking how you know that it is right for you.

one has faith in the religion of their choice. I’d assume most didn’t choose a religion though, it was something they were born into.

@ AstroChuck: if there was a “Narrow-Minded and Cliche Answer” button to click, you would’ve had my vote. I would’ve expected more from you.

Who could believe in a religion they didn’t consider “right”? You admit that you yourself cannot. Most people “know” their religion is right in the same way you know your lack of religion is right. As nocountry says, it’s a question of faith. Your faith that God doesn’t exist, mine that He does.

Personally, I don’t “know” anything. I believe that God exists, but I certainly can’t speak to his character. I follow my religion because they don’t teach or believe anything that I find morally reprehensible, and if I find that I disagree (or am unsure) about something they do believe, it’s okay. They don’t require (or desire) my blind adherence to dogma. If God does exist, my relationship with him is my business—and my responsibility—alone.

I would recommend you also come to your own conclusions—about God and spirituality, certainly, but also about believers themselves. There is much negativity these days toward those who are religious. While some of it may be warranted (terrorism and whatnot), the vast majority of religious people are not as horrible, narrow-minded, stupid and bigoted as some of your more rabid atheists would have you believe.

@Fireside – Many religious people do not seem to see a distinction between “right for you” and “The Right One.”

My faith and the religion I practice are right for me. I continue to practice the religion I was born into. I have always made my religion real to me. I believe that the basic tenants of my religion are valuable quiding principles upon which to build a meaningful life, spiritually, or otherwise.

@ Laureth – fair enough, since you used “many”. i guess that is my bias coming through.
Hey! your lurve is at 333. good number!

@LostInParadise, why do you need to understand religion?

I think Schleiermacher and Charles Hartshorne offer some compelling arguments for what religion is. But a working definition of religion itself is hard to find. You can’t toss that word around like you do in the question you’ve posted, and frankly, atheists are notorious for assuming too much of the word religion; I don’t blame you for categorizing any non-rational belief as religious. But surely you can see the incongruity of assuming that just because something is taken on faith, it’s religious faith. Hence my recommendation to read Schleiermacher and Hartshorne for some fairly useful, rational attempts to understand this thing we call “religion.”

As to knowing if your religion is the right one… Hmm… I think that concept is problematic, both for the religious and the non-religious. Is there a right one, or are people even looking for a “right religion” to join up with or otherwise practice? What is meant by “right”? And what is meant by “religion”? We could very, very easily begin to talk in circles if these fundamentals are not at least agree upon in some fashion to continue the discussion. See, these questions have been treated for millennia, literally. I’m not sure a discussion on Fluther will answer it. But I hope that my comment at least helps to point you in a direction that will help.

Lastly, your question begs another one. It presumes that religious people, if there is such a thing as a “right religion,” consider themselves as finding that right one, and that all others aren’t right. What you’re getting at is what is called exclusivism or absolutism. Frankly, few religions, compared to all religions in the world, actually have a working concept in their theological framework of absolutism. Even Christianity, which has been labeled as an exclusivist religion, in large measure, has a theological precedent for the possibility of being accepting of other non-Christian religions (Luke 9:49–50). I think most religions recognize that they do not hold a monopoly of truth. Eastern religions are especially inclusivist, combining concepts of “simultaneous truths” where a truth expressed by one religion, though contradictory of another truth expressed by another religion, can both be truths. And what of personal, individual religious experience? Some argue that even New Atheism is religious (whoa, yeah, I know, but still this would have merit in a discussion on truth claims of religious organizations). Again, though, this opens up a large realm of inquiry that treats the questions of other forms of missiology, ecumenism, world religions, and so forth.

The Cynics Dictionary defines atheism as “A godless religion that retains all the dogmatic posturing of the faiths it so confidently denies, with few of the consolations”

random I know but I’ve been having a really bad day

Because they have cookies.

I like this quote from Einstein that I found earlier today, so I’ll post it again:

The most beautiful and most profound experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms – this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.

Albert Einstein – The Merging of Spirit and Science

To continue with the quoting

“The trouble is that God in this sophisticated, physicist’s sense bears no resemblance to the God of the Bible or any other religion. If a physicist says God is another name for Planck’s constant, or God is a superstring, we should take it as a picturesque metaphorical way of saying that the nature of superstrings or the value of Planck’s constant is a profound mystery. It has obviously not the smallest connection with a being capable of forgiving sins, a being who might listen to prayers, who cares about whether or not the Sabbath begins at 5pm or 6pm, whether you wear a veil or have a bit of arm showing; and no connection whatever with a being capable of imposing a death penalty on His son to expiate the sins of the world before and after he was born.” Richard Dawkins.

To those who say that religious belief is a matter of faith, I say you are begging the question. Why faith in one religion rather than another?

I am glad to see so many here expressing toleration of other religions. The world would be a better place if there were not so many who are so convinced of the rightness and superiority of their religion that they are willing to kill for it.

@Fireside: I say “many,” because I have not met “most,” let alone “all.” ;)

On one hand, most of the Christians I have known believe that part of the Bible where it says that “no one comes to the Father ‘cept through me, yo.” There have been nice Christians who have not attempted to convert me, but even then, most of them seem to have thought that everyone else was wrong, because they don’t believe in the “one true way.” They also seem to think that Christianity (since it’s “true”) is the one flavor that is right for everyone.

On the other hand, I’ve seen roomfuls of (especially) Pagans discussing their differing views of religions with a kind of open respectfulness that makes me admire them, even if I’m not one of them anymore. Are the Maiden, Mother, and Crone one Goddess, or three different ones? Is there a God and a Goddess, or just a Goddess? Is it Odin who’s in charge, or Zeus, or is it just nature itself, since Thou Art Goddess? They can disagree all day, but no one claims to have The One Right Way (at least that I’ve seen).

When people see there as being only one road to heaven, everyone else on all the other roads must be “wrong.” However, if all religions have a golden thread running through them, then everyone has a version of the Truth. I know which I prefer.

That’s the beauty of Progressive Revelation it leaves room for more than one interpretation.

Someone I was talking to earlier today said, “Christians seem to have gotten Jesus’ message of love, but they definitely missed out on the unity part of the message.”

Easy question.
Mine is the right religion, why would I chose the wrong one?

Indoctrination.

A person of certain mentality and background born and raised Southern Baptist in Memphis, TN is going to believe his religion is correct. Take the same set of circumstances applied to a fundamentalist Mulsim in Pakistan and he will likely believe those contradictory teachings to be true. I won’t even go into Mormonism and Scientology and such.

Most people will believe in anything because they need to believe their lives have more meaning and importance than they really do, and like all humans, they fear death. Logic is easily ignored in the face of such need, familial and societal pressure, and an accessible alternative to death.

I personally believe brainwashing children to believe that people different from them will suffer everlasting torment when they die is a horrible thing to do. But as most of the indoctrinators believe the same thing, they see no moral quandary with the practice.
They even think they are “saving” them.

I was handed the same absurd teachings as a child and am grateful to have rejected them.

First person to tell me, “You need to have more faith!”
...wins a cookie!

I read through the thread and forgive me if this was covered but, in the end isn’t it the religion that tells us?

We search until we find the one that speaks to us with what we accept as the truth?

@malakai

You’re saying that indoctrination is what is experienced for anyone to have any kind of religious truth claim. For that to be true, you’d actually have to prove that all religions have a false origin, but that would require the combined efforts of all of anthropology to even attempt to come to any consensus on the cultural origin of religion. By your definition of indoctrination, who’s to say that science isn’t one big indoctrination? How does one arrive at an objective reality to say that it’s not indoctrinating scientists in their own methods? I understand where you’re coming from, but I do wonder if indoctrination really can be the reason for absolutist truth claims of religions based on your reasoning.

Indoctrination is also unequal across religions. I’m not sure the same circumstances for a Southern Baptist in TN when applied to a Pakastani Muslim would produce an “indoctrinated” and exclusivist adherent. What brings Muslims to their belief system is an entirely different set of traditions, customs, worldviews, politics, and family cultures than what makes evangelical Christians choose their faith. Indoctrination itself is too diverse in its application to really even apply the term unilaterally across these various religious groups.

Also, indoctrination is not equal to brainwashing, and to equate Mormonism, Scientology, Southern Baptists, Islam, or any other religious movement as being complicit in brainwashing as part of their methods of indoctrination is something I can’t accept from you; I’ve known too much of these faiths to buy into the idea of conspiratorial brainwashings. The only one I fear could be institutionally aware of brainwashing tactics to any degree is Scientology, but I don’t want to open that can of worms. I’ll just say in this case that they’ve been incredibly misrepresented online and deserve a little more serious study before we can conclude that they are actually complicit in brainwashing their adherents. In the very least, equating these faith groups as somehow akin to each other in how they indoctrinate is what I think is problematic about answering this question.

Apologies for the long response, but I think we can’t say enough about this since so much of world strife seems to come back to how people view their own and others’ religious claims to truth.

Perhaps it’s a quest, maybe you’ve just begun. I will agree that indoctrination is the first step. Then the second step is to challenge your indoctrination by studying others’ knowledge, wisdom, and spirituality. Read their books. Grow your spiritual vocabulary and pick a theism to practice on your own.

I, for better or worse, have stayed with my original religion – or it has chosen me.

@Malakai For you