Posted by fschmidt on
URL: https://mikraite.arkian.net/Why-Religions-Fail-tp2257p2740.html

umit wrote

going by "which societies are/were successful" is just not a good criterium because first of all, like I stated, there are enough examples of successful societies in the present time and in the past who are pretty successful in life, even though they have the wrong religion.
second of all, the word "successful" is too fuzzy...you should make that S M A R T (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timed).

We could get into a long debate here, but I don't see much point.  The "examples of successful societies" just ignores the time lag.  It takes several generations before immorality causes decline.  And fuzziness doesn't bother me much because I have no problem saying "I don't know" when I lack sufficiently clear evidence.  I am interested in data where there are big differences, and I generally ignore small issues.

So I do not see different religions...I see only one religion, and the older versions of that one religion.

The religions are quite close in their message but there are small differences.  For example the Quran acknowledges that the Israelites were supposed to keep shabbat but Muslims don't have this requirement.  There are also small differences in writing style of each scripture, and I think this is intentional since the style of each scripture is optimized for its intended audience.

This topic I have discussed at length in my local mosque, and of course there is no resolution.  Muslims believe that the last scripture is meant for everyone, and I think God provided a variety of scriptures to address different kinds of people.  But neither position can be objectively proven.