Ojuice5001

Atheists often say to Christians that they agree in seeing religions in general as being made-up mumbo jumbo, and that atheists merely see Christianity as being similar to the rest. I'm not sure exactly what the point of this rhetorical device is; maybe to establish common ground? At any rate it does seem to be common ground between the Christians and the atheists. Which means that if that assumption is shaky, atheism and Christianity are both undermined.

Most convinced atheists seem to see religions in general as being similar in terms of origin and truth value. I think it's better to see religions as being unequal in those areas. What are the sources of theological beliefs? There's more than one...

Claimed revelations of the gods There are plenty of people who claim to have been contacted by a god. They are different from other kinds of religious thinker, and if some of them are right and some wrong, that's an example of religious inequality right there. Also, some gods are more trustworthy than others. The Roman, Norse, and Hindu gods are good examples of trustworthy gods.
Mystical experiences Some people have experienced the supernatural aspect of reality. In a mild form, I experience this all the time, but the really intense forms, the ones that affect theological theories, come only to mystics.
Natural theology Yes, there are problems with natural theology, but every religion does it, and some do it much more than others. And it's far from worthless.
Purely made-up religions Atheists often think all religions are purely made-up, but the rest of us see some religions as being obvious examples of this, and other religions (and not just our own, either) as being much less obvious. I say, that's because the less obviously made-up religions come from one of these other sources.
Mimetic drift Some religious ideas pretty clearly came from a gradual drift from other religions. Like Unitarianism, or most of the Protestant sects.

So if these origins of religious belief are different, they must have different effects on the truth of the beliefs they produce. And some of these effects must be better, more truth-producing, than others. But this implies that there's some spiritual world that these religions are true about. It also implies that if varying religions can all be true, they must worship and result from different gods--in other words it implies polytheism.

themistocles

Well, all religions have in common the fact of being based upon an unsubstantiated lie. But I don't pretend that they have no value or are equal in value in that certain religions have set an ethical standard for the world's most pervasive cultures and have historical coddling the intellectual development of mankind. However, the "based upon something which is untrue/unsubstantiated" certainly is a big strike against any religion.

philechat

I actually have no problem with those who practice religion, as long as they do not pretend the myths to be literally true. Myths and symbolism are powerful tools of art, and I think people should have the right to interpret and practice them as they see fit. The problem I have with religion has always been dogmatic pronouncements and the tribalism associated with many religious groups. The fact that many people think their myth as the One True Religion (tm) while all other religions were morally deficient in some ways.

I like many ancient (specifically Greco-Roman) Pagan works and from my knowledge the Pagans are as a group less judgmental than the Christians. They at least acknowledge that differences in belief do not necessitate moral corruption.

never been there

They get around the "we just believe in one less god than you" argument by denying that they think other faiths are "just made up." They believe other faiths are "inspired by the devil!!!" One might as well have fun and really get them offended by clearly lumping their faith in with everyone else's - pointing out parallels in ritual, etc.

-RRH-

I tend to only use the "all gods except one" thing on theists that are trying to oppose the very concept of skepticism, without realizing their own indulgence.

Well, many atheists, including myself, would argue there are occasional cross-overs, for example, between Claimed revelations of the gods and Purely made-up religions.

And I think there might also be one useful category you left out, which I will call, Mis-identified experiences. This would have some cross-over with Mystical experiences. These would be occurences which are mistakenly attributed to a spiritual realm. One possible example would be near death experiences. If they are caused by the nature of what is happening in the brain, then those who claim they are genuine visions of an afterlife must be mistaken. (I don't want to get into the dispute of whether or not they are accurate right now. But you can probably see how there is a potential for such mistakes.)

The nature of the spiritual world could very well be that it doesn't exist. Thus, the less a religion says about the spiritual world, the less it gets wrong.

True. If multiple religions are true, your idea of polytheism is more plausible than the idea that "all gods are different aspects of one god." I think it's because you acknowledge that it requires one or more deliberately deceptive gods.

Christian

Christianity is the culmination, the ultimate expression, of everything that is true about all other religions.

There are very few complete lies in the world, and many many half truths.

Respectfully,

Christian

philechat

Islam? Buddhism? Bahai? Hinduism? Deism? And the list goes on.

An assertion without evidence is no assertion at all.

emotional

The common foundational error of all religions is that intelligence existed from the beginning of time. This intelligence is called gods or a single God. Materialism is set apart from all religions in that it claims that intelligence was not present in the beginning, but evolved over time.

In the beginning was Matter/Energy, not God or gods. In the beginning were the particles, and the particles evolved into living beings, and some of the living beings conceived of gods in their minds. Materialism subsumes all religions in an all-encompassing superstructure.

emotional

All adherents of religion X say the same thing for their religion X. Nothing new here.

Materialism is not a religion, it is the truth!

Kassiana

Cool, found one more atheist who doesn't have a problem with me!