# What do Christians think of other religions? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 22, 2002, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217 "2002-07-22T13:47:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/41 "2002-07-23T16:56:31Z")
DJ, my friend, you’re entitled to attend (or not) any party you wish. I choose to attend the party of love. There are Southern Baptists, Buddhists, Witches, and even Atheists there. Stupid is as stupid does, I guess. And if we’re all fools for loving Love, then I am happy to be a fool. ---
**Author:** ![dalovindj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dalovindj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalovindj)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/42 "2002-07-23T17:32:33Z")
Loving people isn’t the foolish part. The foolish part is assuming that one’s unproven explanation of the nature (and ultimate fate) of reality is the only possible truth. So basically, saying things like “no one gets a good afterlife unless they believe in (and worship) Jesus” is idiotic in my book. Being nice to people is, however, a good thing. Judging people because they disagree with one’s unprovable statements is _not_ a good thing. Neither is making predictions of future events with the attitude that one cannot be wrong, and all who disagree are doomed (read: worse off than ones own hubristic self). DaLovin’ Dj ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/43 "2002-07-23T18:11:43Z")
> [@](#): > > So basically, saying things like “no one gets a good afterlife unless they believe in (and worship) Jesus” is idiotic in my book. That _would_ be idiotic, but Jesus didn’t say that. Try once more: Whoever obeys my command to love, I prepare a mansion for them and dwell now in their hearts. There’s nothing there about belief. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/44 "2002-07-23T18:18:44Z")
Or religion either. ---
**Author:** ![dalovindj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dalovindj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalovindj)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/45 "2002-07-23T18:57:55Z")
From John 3: > [@](#): > > **18** Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. See? DaLovin’ Dj ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/46 "2002-07-23T19:32:24Z")
Yes, I do see. I see that you had to look away from the discussion at hand to find that. 😉 But going where you’ve gone doesn’t get you anywhere. Immediately following the verse you gave are these: This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. (19-21) You can’t know whether you believe in Him until you come upon Him. How can you believe in something not even identified?. :eek: Belief (or faith) isn’t our doing, but God’s. First is love. Belief merely follows. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/47 "2002-07-23T19:46:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RickJay \* > \*\*I’m a Catholic. > > My belief, which I think is not entirely dissimilar from how Jews take it, is that God’s arrangement with people of other religions is between them and God, and really has nothing to do with me. If God has chosen to reveal Himself to people in different ways, who am I to say He’s wrong? \*\* Here here. See, almost every religion considers itself to be the ONE TRUE RELIGION. They cannot ALL be the OTR. So, therefore, you’d have to say they all are and none of them are. God works in mysterious ways-that sort of thing. Besides, he’s GOD. Who’s gonna stop him? 😉 This is from a somewhat lapsed Catholic. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/48 "2002-07-23T20:04:39Z")
What religion is God? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/49 "2002-07-23T20:21:10Z")
I think God is a Unitarian? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/50 "2002-07-23T21:00:30Z")
Good one, Guin! 😃 In all sincerity, though, maybe God just doesn’t like religion at all. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/51 "2002-07-23T21:13:40Z")
Ah, so he’s an atheist, then? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/52 "2002-07-23T21:21:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by WV\_Woman \* > \*\*The Bible, which most Christians consider to be the infalliable word of God (and those who say they are Christian and yet don’t consider it the word of God seriously make me wonder) . . . \*\* Better recheck your figures. A recent Gallup poll found that those who believe the Bible is the actual word of God declined from 65 percent in 1963 to 27 percent today. [http://www.thelutheran.org/0109/page9a.html](http://www.thelutheran.org/0109/page9a.html) Similarly, another poll found only 32 percent believe the Bible to be the literal word of God: > **[Issues Archive](https://www.firstthings.com/issue/1996/10)** > > Religion and public life is not a new topic. Grab a cup of coffee and read through the archive of First Things issues that date back to 1990! ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/53 "2002-07-23T21:49:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pldennison \* > \*\*Ah, so he’s an atheist, then? 😃 \*\* No, he’s just more interested in talking about heaven than being in it. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/54 "2002-07-23T23:09:53Z")
If God is an atheist, doesn’t that just mean he has low self-esteem? I mean, if he doesn’t believe in himself… d&r ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/55 "2002-07-23T23:36:22Z")
> [@](#): > > **Through me" means "through love"** > [@](#): > > **What religion is God?** Libertarian, God is not _any_ religion. Religion is man’s search for the divine. God Himself _is_ the divine, and thus the **object** of the religions that worship him in the ways that he commanded. How can you discount everything else Jesus said, to focus on this one little phrase? You can’t zoom on your wonky interpretation of “many mansions” and claim that it means all roads lead to God. Because he also quite clearly said “I am the door: **by me** if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. ([John 10:9](http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Jhn/Jhn010.html#9))”. “Me” does not mean “love”. It means “Jesus”. He said “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. ([John 14:6](http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Jhn/Jhn014.html#6))”. **By Me**. Not by love. The greek is [symbol]di emou[/symbol]. The root of [symbol]emou[/symbol], as you know, is [symbol]egw[/symbol], the subjective case of the personal pronoun: ME. God prescribed two acceptable relationships between Himself and mankind: The first was the Covenant of the Law, which provided mankind with an objective reference to show him that he is sinful, and with a temporary method of covering his sin. This was superseded by the second: the Covenant of Grace, though the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which cleanses mankind of all sin **through faith in Him**. Jesus made it more than sufficiently clear that He did not accept all ways or faiths as valid. He said that there is ONE door: Him. And ONE way: His. **Walloon** : I think your studies may be flawed. How is it that more people believe the Bible is the _literal_ word of God than believe that the bible is the word of God? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/56 "2002-07-24T03:40:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Joe\_Cool \* > \*\*Walloon: I think your studies may be flawed. How is it that more people believe the Bible is the _literal_ word of God than believe that the bible is the word of God? \*\* Actually, one poll asked whether the Bible was the _literal_ word of God the other poll asked whether the Bible was the _actual_ word of God. Slightly different wording can give slightly different results. Also, you have to allow for the standard margin of error for the sample size. Here’s a third poll that asks a similar question: [http://www.pollingreport.com/religion.htm](http://www.pollingreport.com/religion.htm) All three polls indicate that a minority of Americans, ranging from 27 to 36 percent, believe the Bible to be the literal (or actual) word of God. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/57 "2002-07-24T04:37:14Z")
> [@](#): > > What do Christians think of other religions? Historically, they have found them to be excellent targets. Some of them claim to no longer hold this view. ---
**Author:** ![Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ben)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/58 "2002-07-24T05:37:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*Here here. > > See, almost every religion considers itself to be the ONE TRUE RELIGION. They cannot ALL be the OTR. So, therefore, you’d have to say they all are and none of them are. God works in mysterious ways-that sort of thing. > > Besides, he’s GOD. Who’s gonna stop him? 😉 > > This is from a somewhat lapsed Catholic. \*\* If I might ask you and RickJay two questions: Do you believe that the physical Resurrection was a historical event? Do you believe that the Koran was really given to Mohammed by an angel? (Incidentally, I don’t follow your logic above. Lots of people have claimed to be the one and only Napoleon. Does that mean that all are and none of them are? Clearly there can be a one true religion, and lots of false claimants.) ---
**Author:** ![WV\_Woman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@WV\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WV_Woman)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/59 "2002-07-24T06:12:28Z")
Walloon were the people in the poll actual Christians, who live it, or people who say they are Christians but can only manage to get their butts to church for Christmas and Easter and somehow “can’t afford” to tithe? Big, huge difference between the two. ---
**Author:** ![WV\_Woman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@WV\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WV_Woman)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217/60 "2002-07-24T06:32:25Z")
/hijack And before you jump on me and ask questions like “are you saying you have to go to church every Sunday and tithe to be a Christian?” — no, I am not saying that. What I am saying is there is a big difference between people who do their best to obey God, and those who just fit Him into their busy schedules when it’s convenient for them. 77%-83% of Americans identify themselves as Christian, however only about 38% make it to church once a week. You can’t tell me that the other 39% or so WANT to go, but goshdarnit, they have to work on Sundays. (Give or take a few on the numbers.) What I’m saying is that when I see polls like that, I have to wonder just who they are talking to and how committed of a Christian they are to begin with. It’s not my place to go “oh, she’s saved, he’s not, etc.” but the Bible tells us we will know God’s people by their fruits. Believing stuff that specifically goes against the teachings of Christianity naturally gives cause for doubt. /end hijack Cites: [http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr\_tren.htm](http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_tren.htm) [http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/church\_poll020301.html](http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/church_poll020301.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-christians-think-of-other-religions/120217.md?page=4)