There are over 4,000 religions in the world. These sects can be categorized under six headings: Christianity (31%), Islam (24%), Hinduism (15%), Buddhism (7%), Folk Religion (6%) and Other (17%). According to Wikipedia, 63% of the world self-identify as religious; 22% as non-religious, and 11% as convinced atheists. While the number of atheists, agnostics, and other non-believers, especially those who identify as “nones” continues to increase, their overall percentage of the world population is static or in decline. The best explanation is that religious people tend to have larger families and more children.
According to the Pew Research Center, 71% of Americans self-identify as Christian, 6% as non-Christian, and 23% as “nones” — those who are atheists, agnostics, or indifferent towards religion. Christianity breaks down thusly:
- Evangelical — 25%
- Catholic — 21%
- Mainline Protestant — 15%
- Black Protestant — 7%
- Mormon — 2%
- Jehovah’s Witnesses — 1%
- Orthodox — 1%
Non-Christian religions:
- Judaism — 2%
- Islam — 1%
- Buddhism — 1%
- Hinduism — 1%
According to the Pew Research Center, non-believers (unaffiliated/”nones”):
- Atheism — 3% (this number is misleading since some religions, such as Buddhism, as atheistic)
- Agnostic — 4%
- Nothing in particular — 16%
In the United States, non-Christians are a larger demographic than Evangelicals. You wouldn’t know this based on their underrepresentation in the media and civil discourse. Worldwide, two-thirds of people self-identify as something other than Christian. Again, thanks to misrepresentation in the media, most people, especially Americans, think Christianity is statistically the largest religion in the world. It’s not, and in Western countries, Christianity continues to decline. Any numeric growth for Christianity is primarily driven by Pentecostal/Charismatic churches in South America and Africa.
Regardless of atheist hopes for a post-religion world, most people hold to some degree or other of religious belief. Granted most people are cultural believers, but when asked to name their team they will gladly do so. Whether they are willing to die or sacrifice their financial well-being for their faith is a whole other question.
Christian apologists point to the pervasive belief in God as evidence for his existence, even though they believe all other deities except theirs are false — no gods, at all. However, isn’t THE issue WHICH God is the one true God; which religion is true? Most religions make truth claims. Few religions believe all deities are the same and all roads lead to Heaven. How can we possibly determine which religion is right? You would think that if Jesus, Allah, or Jehovah are the one true God they would make that clear to everyone. Instead, we have mass confusion.
According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, there are over 200 Christian denominations in the United States and 45,000 worldwide. Each sect has its own beliefs and practices, including what is required to be a Christian. No two Christian sects/churches/pastors/congregants believe the same things, despite the Bible saying that there is one Lord, one Faith, and one Baptism. Christians can’t even agree on the basics: salvation, baptism, and communion. If Christians, who have a vested interest in being right, can’t figure out the “truth,” what hope do non-believers have of doing so?
I have concluded that all religions are right; that it is impossible for me to determine who holds the keys to the kingdom, so I have decided they all do. I have also concluded that religion is a human construct; that the Bible that Christians call the “Word of God,” is a human book written by fallible men trying to explain their view of the world, God didn’t create humans, humans created God.
But Bruce, what if after you die you find out that you were wrong about God and Christianity; that the God of the Bible is the one true God? While I have no worries about this being true, if I did find out that I was wrong, I would put the blame squarely on God. He should have made things clearer. He should have clearly stipulated “What a man must do to be saved?” Acts 16: 29-34 states:
Then he [the prison keeper] called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them [Paul and Silas] out, and [the prison keeper] said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.
Acts 2:38 says:
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Romans 10:9-13 adds:
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says:
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
And finally, James 2:17-20, 24, 26 says:
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? . . . Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only . . . For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
As you can see, none of these verses says the same thing about what is required to be saved. Faith alone? Faith plus baptism? Repentance plus baptism? Faith plus works? Household salvation? Paul, Peter, James, and Paul all preached different gospels. Which one is right? How could we possibly know which is right? All we have is an ancient religious text and religious leaders telling us what that text means. How can we possibly know if the Bible and its interpreters are right? God could — after all he is GOD, right? — clear this matter up, but no clarification or correction is forthcoming. For 2,000 years now, God has not uttered one word to the human race. He has not attempted to clear up the confusion. If our eternal destiny hangs in the balance, you would think God would make sure we know exactly what we must do to be saved. Instead, all we have is silence. Why is that?
In Luke 16, we find the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man begged Abraham to send Lazarus to his five brothers and tell them the truth. Surely, if someone came back from the dead and preached the gospel to them, they would believe, the rich man thought. Abraham told him: They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. The rich man replied: Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. Abraham said: If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
According to Abraham, God will not provide any other evidence except what is written in the Bible (particularly the Old Testament). Never mind the fact that the Bible is hopelessly convoluted and contradictory, your eternal destiny depends on you “rightly” reading and interpreting the Bible. However, the Bible also says 1 Corinthians 2:14: But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The natural [unsaved] person CANNOT receive the things of the Spirit of God. The Bible tells us the unsaved are deaf, blind, dead, and unable to hear, see, or believe the gospel. It is God alone who gives unbelievers the ability to believe. Yet, despite being powerless to believe on their own or save themselves, God will hold them accountable and send them to Hell if they don’t.
Until God shows up or releases a memo straightening this mess out, we have no hope of knowing which sect, if any, is right. We do not have sufficient evidence to make such a decision. Thus, most people will choose and practice the dominant religion of their country or tribe. Choosing a religion is akin to the choice of a favorite football or baseball team. Is it any surprise that my children and most of my grandchildren are Cincinnati Reds and Bengals fans? Of course not — Dad and Grandpa avidly roots for the Reds and Bengals. My children and grandchildren have embraced our tribe’s teams. So it is with religion.
All of this suggests to me that all religions — including Christianity — are human constructs. Once I understood this, I no longer feared being a member of the wrong sect or worshipping the wrong God. And if I am wrong? That’s on God — whomever he/she/they/it may be — not me. I have been diligent in my search for God and the “truthfulness” of the various claims made by religion. While I haven’t studied some religions as I have Christianity, I am confident that all of them are of human origin. And when it comes to Christianity itself, I am convinced that the central claims of Christianity are false and can’t be rationally sustained.
If “God” wants us to “believe,” it is on him/her/them/it to accurately and completely convey to humanity the truth. That this hasn’t happened suggests that God is either busy, on vacation, taking a shit, or, just maybe, he doesn’t exist. My money is on the latter.
My partner of forty-five years, our six children, and sixteen grandchildren have heard me say countless times “I work on information.” Sometimes, Polly or another family member will tell me something without giving me enough information to understand what they are saying. Polly will assume I know who “John” is at work. I typically smile and say, “I work on information. Who is John?” That’s how I view stories about God, Jesus, and salvation. I work on information, and so far that information has not been provided. The best I seem to get are people who say they speak for God, preachers such as Dr. David Tee, Don Camp, Revival Fires, John, and a host of other zealots. Is this the best God can provide?
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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It’s one thing for every church/religion to believe that it has a monopoly on truth and salvation. It’s another—and much worse—when they try to impose it on other people.
All of these passages are among the things that jumped out at me when I began my drive to move closer to God. Many things were impossible to reconcile, and forced odd twists in thought and logic. And the deeper i studied to try to overcome these contradictions, the more I found. My decision to the dig deeply into history to understand
Historical context only resulted in more problems. Eventually I realized it was just a jumbled pile of stories, written maybe countless authors, all with their own biases and beliefs.
Are all religions right? No, they are all wrong but Science is too over time! Still, Science is my better because it admits new ‘truths’ as they appear. Religion either lacks curiosity or is punchdrunk on its own whine…
Well, at least scientists try to find out the information that is true. So they try to go with the best facts they have. Bob and I listen to Anton Petrov, who has a science channel, mostly astronomy and cosmology, on Youtube. Every day we listen and nearly every time he puts out a video, he is pointing out all the cool new science facts being discovered, especially with the new James Webb telescope. And he is equally as frequently pointing out all the stuff that confides current theories. Pretty neat stuff, and we don’t have to hold on to any science that has been proven wrong.
I do find it amazing that one of the spiritual leaders of the world, the Dalai Lama, accepts science. And even more surprising, he accepts science over religion. “If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.” If only other religious leaders could proclaim that fact!
So my adult daughter inadvertently outed my atheism to my family (I had asked her not to, but she forgot, and since she didn’t grow up in religion doesn’t see it as a big deal). I knew that my aunt and uncle would be sad thinking that we are all hell-boubd atheists, which is why I didn’t want to tell them. They’re older and find comfort in the concept of heaven. Over the holidays, my uncle kept trying to “Pascal’s Wager” us into coming back to (in my husband’s and my cases) or to (in my kids’ case) Christianity. We were able to politely divert the subject each time it comes up. My uncle has known for years that I have become well-read on the history of Christianity and knew i had deconstructed a lot of what i had grownup with, but he never knew it was part of my deconversion. He and my aunt deconstructed a lot of their fundamentalist upbringing, but they still hold onto the notions of salvation and heaven. Personally, I think it’s kinder in their cases to leave it alone, which is why I never revealed my reasons for atheism. Their version of Christianity is pretty centered on doing good things for people, equality, being a better person – I don’t have a problem with that. And they have issues with my brother’s weird evangelical charismatic MAGA-adjacent bull crap. See, even in our own family they can’t agree on what’s “True Christianity”. It is interesting to see how many variations of Christianity there are.
If they really thought through it, Pascal’s Wager isn’t a good inducement, because it means saying the sinner’s prayer without really meaning it. No true evangelical would ever think that’s the right way to get saved.
On top of everything else, classic Christian doctrine declares that works are useless because Jesus paid it all. But saying the sinner’s prayer is a work. So the whole thing falls apart no matter how you slice it.
Christians claim that 2000 years ago, God incarnated and walked the Earth, talking to us, eating with us, healing some of us. He did that for those people at that time, they say. I ask why then would this god not do the same for the people now. Clearly his message has not gotten through. There are more nonbelievers than believers and the believers are as discordant as a group can be. How about some public appearance, healing a few amputees, etc?
I have wondered why the God of the Bible (and most other religions) who is said to have created the entire Universe including the Stars and Planets and all of the amazing plants and animals on the earth including humans, had to rely on ancient people to write his book of instructions?
This God could have easily created a plant the grew bibles that were readable in every language and also audibly spoke his instructions to all those that were unable to read.
Oh wait, I guess Steve Jobs and others who created IPads and Computers that can perform these functions are more powerful than their so called god!
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This is one of religion’s most powerful and dangerous aspects: the unwavering certainty in each and every version of each and every religion means conflict between them is inevitable.