# Is it "impossible to settle" whether Christians are more or less right? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 31, 2013, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-impossible-to-settle-whether-christians-are-more-or-less-right/664975 "2013-07-31T04:54:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-impossible-to-settle-whether-christians-are-more-or-less-right/664975/41 "2013-08-05T02:52:58Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > All well and good, **Voyager** , and I’m sure all believers are weak and developmentally delayed and so on, but I’m simply pointing out that there’s no contradiction between **SlackerInc** ’s statement and religious belief. Ehhhh…wot? ---
**Author:** ![MIDWESTcowboy8312](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@MIDWESTcowboy8312](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MIDWESTcowboy8312)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-impossible-to-settle-whether-christians-are-more-or-less-right/664975/42 "2013-08-05T03:02:09Z")
Of course god exists…but in the Christian sense? Certainly not. We are all from “God” we are separate points of consciousness that are part of a bigger whole ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-impossible-to-settle-whether-christians-are-more-or-less-right/664975/43 "2013-08-05T03:03:07Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > There have been hundreds or more religions that have been followed in human history, most of them are contradictory with one another. So practically only one can be right. What? Oh, yes. [Here it is.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_SubGenius) ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-impossible-to-settle-whether-christians-are-more-or-less-right/664975/44 "2013-08-05T03:19:48Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I agree entirely. There might possibly be a true God in the Universe, but if so, he has nothing whatsoever to do with the Bible’s God. Well stated. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-impossible-to-settle-whether-christians-are-more-or-less-right/664975/45 "2013-08-05T04:33:46Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > If you can replace an explanation with an equally arbitrary explanation and still have the same level of merit, then the explanation lacks explanatory power. If one person says that thunder is caused by god being angry and roaring, and another says that thunder is caused by the battle clashes of giants under the surface of the earth during storms - both of those are explanations with equal merit. There’s no reason to pick one over the other. So they have poor explanatory power. This confuses what is meant by explanatory power. Something has explanatory power if it can be used to form an understanding, and an understanding means you can make accurate predictions. It’s not relative. Science has no problem with multiple models living side by side. If, hypothetically, I came up with two arbitrary explanations, and they both could be used to make surprising and accurate predictions, then we don’t reject both, we keep both. We would then look to see if there is a deeper model that could tie them together, and we’d try to prune both models of anything unnecessary. The main issue with “thunder is caused by god being angry and roaring”, is it’s just a post-hoc description and doesn’t make any predictions. e.g. If it could be used to anticipate thunder based on human behaviour, then it might be a valid explanation. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-impossible-to-settle-whether-christians-are-more-or-less-right/664975/46 "2013-08-05T22:17:07Z")
> [@MIDWESTcowboy8312](#): > > Of course god exists… No, your god _does not_ “of course” exist. There’s no evidence for any gods _at all,_ and even other believers don’t all believe in your god. ---
**Author:** ![ruben4ruben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@ruben4ruben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruben4ruben)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-impossible-to-settle-whether-christians-are-more-or-less-right/664975/47 "2013-08-06T01:42:55Z")
If you think God doesn’t exist, why not totally ignore him/her/it? Why even have this debate? I know plenty of atheist, agnostics who don’t bother and live a happy life not talking about “you know who”. Unfortunately, the world is filled with religious folk that are intolerant, murderous and who violenty impose their way of life on others. I totally agree they have I believe one day all those religions and all those people will disappear. If more and more people today are fed up with religion and it’s “by-products” soon enough it will all be banned and eradicated. If we look at the past 100 years, things on planet earth have gotten more and more secular and life just gets better doesn’t it? The world is more and more at peace isn’t it? Science and technology have really improved life for humans and nature hasn’t it? Everything looks set for a bright future right? Don’t worry folks, pretty soon we will have a godless world. You will have your wish, and then things will get interesting. I know cause the bible tells me so. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-impossible-to-settle-whether-christians-are-more-or-less-right/664975/48 "2013-08-06T01:51:24Z")
> [@ruben4ruben](#): > > . . . Unfortunately, the world is filled with religious folk that are intolerant, murderous and who violenty impose their way of life on others. I totally agree they have . . . That’s the scary part. There are those who would impose their rules, their laws, and their gods upon everyone else. In America, it is generally Christians who are in a position of sufficient empowerment to lord it over others, although we’ve seen instances of other faiths acting badly. > [@](#): > > If we look at the past 100 years, things on planet earth have gotten more and more secular and life just gets better doesn’t it? The world is more and more at peace isn’t it? Well, actually, yes. We’re quite a bit ahead of where we were 100 years ago. (Consider that we’re sitting on the 99th anniversary of the battles of the Marne.) > [@](#): > > Science and technology have really improved life for humans and nature hasn’t it? Everything looks set for a bright future right? Again, yeah, pretty much. We’re better off, by and large, than we were a century ago. A good many diseases which were fatal then are treatable now. Lifespans are up. Education is up. Wealth is up. There’s certainly room for improvement, but that’s the point: we are making those improvements. > [@](#): > > Don’t worry folks, pretty soon we will have a godless world. You will have your wish, and then things will get interesting. > > I know cause the bible tells me so. I wouldn’t want a godless world. I like reading about Zeus and Athena. It would be sad if they were eliminated from all our libraries. I will be satisfied when the world takes Jehovah, and Allah, and Jesus about as seriously as it takes Zeus and Athena today. I would not prevent someone from holding a personal religious belief. I only want to prevent him from trying to compel me to hold a belief. The Bible is only one book among many. Anybody can write a book. ---
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-impossible-to-settle-whether-christians-are-more-or-less-right/664975/49 "2013-08-06T05:44:04Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > The Bible is only one book among many. Anybody can write a book. You can even dictate one, while looking at a magic stone. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-impossible-to-settle-whether-christians-are-more-or-less-right/664975/50 "2013-08-06T06:26:22Z")
Or sit around and wait for an Angel to narrate one to you. Or, if you’re really lucky, somebody hands it to you physically, all written out on tablets of stone. Or you might meet an old sage in a cavern, who tells you to recite the name spelled out by the first letters of the heroes Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles… (But, wait! Are you ready to go around fighting evil while wearing a skin-tight suit?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-impossible-to-settle-whether-christians-are-more-or-less-right/664975.md?page=2)