“There Are So Many Religions Argument” from Skeptics
By Dan Tsouloufis
I saw a recent post in social media that sought to address the “there are so many religions” argument, which skeptics of Christianity often bring up.
One way that I address this argument is by appealing to the nature of ‘trust’. All of us at some point have to trust people. For example, as a student, you walk into a new class and see so many people. Can I trust my classmates? Can I trust my teacher? Or, as a new employee who walks into the office for the first time. Can I trust my new coworkers? Can I trust my boss? Everyone, in all walks of life, has to learn how to deal with strangers as well as meet new people, in many different situations. We rarely determine from the outset that because there are SO MANY new people, we’ll simply choose to trust none of them due to being overwhelmed by the situation. We don’t typically act that way or have that mindset.
However, many skeptics of God and religion curiously approach things differently. They’ll say that there are just SO MANY religions out there, therefore they can’t choose any of them. Yet, isn’t that a copout? I’m not saying it’s easy, just as meeting new people for the first time isn’t easy – whether in the classroom, or at a new job, or at a new church. But typically, we don’t choose at the outset to trust NO ONE in our new sphere. Instead, we take the time to get to know the new people, to learn a little bit about them, and to eventually discern their ‘trustworthiness’.
As such, skeptics can (and should) utilize the same approach when it comes to God and religion. It takes time, patience, reason, and discernment in order to establish ‘trustworthiness’. Yet people do this every day in countless situations. So why the different mindset when it comes to God and religion? Clearly, for many of these skeptics, there is much more inherent resistance to God than simply claiming there are too many religions out there. There is, more likely, a deeper spiritual issue behind their resistance.
This is just one example of how to address this common argument from skeptics.
