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Which god? The argument you make could also be made for all people following all the religions aside from the one whose god actually exists. The religions can't

Which god? The argument you make could also be made for all people following all the religions aside from the one whose god actually exists. The religions can't all be right, if in fact even one is right. So sheer quantity of believers doesn't work for making a point.

macns 10y ago
I have used an argument like this and the answer I got(which left me dumbfounded) was like "Everyone believes in some sort of divine power or entity or whatever and the other religions just got their wrong." They're basically saying that sheer quantity of believers in anything proves that their God exists!
- michaelmior 10y ago
  The statement as quoted does not make the argument you claim it does. Perhaps the person who were speaking with elaborated in order to make that point though. Coming from a Christian perspective however, I would agree in general people have evidence to believe in God. I don't intend the quote from the Bible below to serve as an sort of evidence. This would not be a logical line of reasoning for someone who does not believe in the truth of the Bible. However, it may serve to further clarify my position. "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." -- Romans 1:20
michaelmior 10y ago
Fair point although I wasn't intending to argue that number of believers is any sort of proof. In any case, at least Christianity and Islam each have over one billion believers globally.
- jamesrcole 10y ago
  > I wasn't intending to argue that number of believers is any sort of proof. It definitely doesn't provide any proof, but I didn't say that. I said "sheer quantity of believers doesn't work for making a point", as in, how can the number of people in any way support the validity of any beliefs held by those people? There's plenty of concrete historical evidence that beliefs held by many many people turned out to be wrong. It's basically the story of science. I.e. we have clear evidence that the fact that a lot of people hold a belief does not mean anything about the truth of that belief. > In any case, at least Christianity and Islam each have over one billion believers globally. But that illustrates my original point.

macns 10y ago

I have used an argument like this and the answer I got(which left me dumbfounded) was like "Everyone believes in some sort of divine power or entity or whatever and the other religions just got their wrong." They're basically saying that sheer quantity of believers in anything proves that their God exists!

michaelmior 10y ago
The statement as quoted does not make the argument you claim it does. Perhaps the person who were speaking with elaborated in order to make that point though. Coming from a Christian perspective however, I would agree in general people have evidence to believe in God. I don't intend the quote from the Bible below to serve as an sort of evidence. This would not be a logical line of reasoning for someone who does not believe in the truth of the Bible. However, it may serve to further clarify my position. "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." -- Romans 1:20

michaelmior 10y ago

Fair point although I wasn't intending to argue that number of believers is any sort of proof. In any case, at least Christianity and Islam each have over one billion believers globally.

jamesrcole 10y ago
> I wasn't intending to argue that number of believers is any sort of proof. It definitely doesn't provide any proof, but I didn't say that. I said "sheer quantity of believers doesn't work for making a point", as in, how can the number of people in any way support the validity of any beliefs held by those people? There's plenty of concrete historical evidence that beliefs held by many many people turned out to be wrong. It's basically the story of science. I.e. we have clear evidence that the fact that a lot of people hold a belief does not mean anything about the truth of that belief. > In any case, at least Christianity and Islam each have over one billion believers globally. But that illustrates my original point.