Help: How do I know that your God is the one, true God?

[Kir Komrik]

Hi all,
I'm new here and have just read up on the policies and finished my signature, etc. I hope I've done everything correctly so far.
I would like to believe in an almighty power but the problem is that in my research I've found so many gods out there. Coming from a family that has been explicitly atheist for generations, I'm starting from scratch and am looking at all religions.
I am sincerely curious to know how would I know, for instance, that your god is the one, true God?
Thank you.

[TheTruth101]

First and foremost, if the OP is new to the religion, he should first be estalbished with the guidence of proper concept of Christianity. Meaning, if he is a new convert, then he has to see the light before he establishes him to seek the deeper darker truth. The way the christianity is formed today is exactly for this matter, to see the brighter things of life, and to enhance ones own life. It is inevitable that we run from distress and fear, and as a stepping stone, it is critical for a new convert to asses the main churches that are today to know that love is held within the concept of christianity.


In response to Danmark;

One has to assert the idea that a form of worship at a church is the same thing as worshipping in a group of 2 or even 3 people at home. Now that you mentioned the fear of eternity is attending church and worshipping God for eternity, I want to give you a little insight.

As I am pretty aware that you know of the Bible, I will rather talk in meaningful terms under christianity.

We as humans are born sinners, when we establish Kingship within heaven, what does that mean? It typically means we are made one with God, and that we become sin-free.

So to answer your question, the heaven is in your heart. Whatever you feel joy for, it is accepted in heavens. Though we claim that the lust of the heart is wrong, it is evidently clear if you consider my prior post in another section why Christ said that. It was to go against basic nature of human drive, thus sacrificing and in midst, earning your spot in the kingdom of God.

If all is included to be in Heaven, you are made free of all sins for eternity. You have the freedom to be one with the Spirit, meaning nature. If one is infact invisible and is within you, then you are granted the freedom and access to go from beggining of time of gazillions of souls. Meaning you can live the time on a given subject. To make it more frank, you can go back and forward in time to sleeping with gazzalions of girls at any given time whom were created upon earth.
Time being forward meaning you can create on your will of beauty if past given subjects do not fit your need.

If you like enjoying watching volcanoes erupt, you infact can go back in time of its eruption and see it first hand.

The concept of one being rid of sins comes from the fundamental point of gaining freedom. Surely, if one is indeed required to worship God EVEN in heaven, then the theology fails miserably.

Hope you get the post.

[Danmark]

First and foremost, if the OP is new to the religion, he should first be estalbished with the guidence of proper concept of Christianity. Meaning, if he is a new convert, then he has to see the light before he establishes him to seek the deeper darker truth. The way the christianity is formed today is exactly for this matter, to see the brighter things of life, and to enhance ones own life. It is inevitable that we run from distress and fear, and as a stepping stone, it is critical for a new convert to asses the main churches that are today to know that love is held within the concept of christianity.


In response to Danmark;

One has to assert the idea that a form of worship at a church is the same thing as worshipping in a group of 2 or even 3 people at home. Now that you mentioned the fear of eternity is attending church and worshipping God for eternity, I want to give you a little insight.

As I am pretty aware that you know of the Bible, I will rather talk in meaningful terms under christianity.

We as humans are born sinners, when we establish Kingship within heaven, what does that mean? It typically means we are made one with God, and that we become sin-free.

So to answer your question, the heaven is in your heart. Whatever you feel joy for, it is accepted in heavens. Though we claim that the lust of the heart is wrong, it is evidently clear if you consider my prior post in another section why Christ said that. It was to go against basic nature of human drive, thus sacrificing and in midst, earning your spot in the kingdom of God.

If all is included to be in Heaven, you are made free of all sins for eternity. Plus you have the freedom to be one with the Spirit, meaning nature. If one is infact invisible and is within you, then you are granted the freedom and access to go from beggining of time of gazillions of souls. Meaning you can live the time on a given subject. To make it more frank, you can go back to sleeping with gazzalions of girls at any given time which was created upon earth.

If you like enjoying watching volcanoes erupt, you infact can go back in time of its eruption and see it first hand.

The concept of one being rid of sins comes from the fundamental point of gaining freedom. Surely, if one is indeed required to worship God EVEN in heaven, then the theology fails miserably.

Hope you get the post.

I'm pleased to see you managed to work 'eruption' right in there next to sleeping with gazzalions of girls, [BTW, what is a 'gazzalion?' Is it some kind of big cat that stalks the Gaza Strip?]

At any rate it's a relief to know that when I get to heaven I can finally stop worshipping God.

[Kir Komrik]

I will answer this is a way a mainstream Christian accepts the formula of divinity found within the teachings of Jesus Christ.

First, you should note that although there are many other religions you infact can be blessed from, you have to include the fact that none of the charismatic leaders of those riligious principals have died in your name.

Second, you have to asses the situation as to how deep the religious views go within its doctrine, and as you do your research, you will come to a conclusion that the Bible is still under examinations from people all over the world that hold doctrinal degrees and are quite capable of doing hard pressed research.

Three, you have to know that without a given subject from a diety in representation of its deity, us as human beings cannot comprehed God. Therefore, this goes as far as how much "depth" there is to know to a doctrine.

Four, once one has mastered the doctrine of religious subject, one's journey to knowledge ends. If the journey ends, it's simply just not fun.

Five, with the amount of information that is within the Bible, you wil find that many of the scriptures can be expressed and solved in variety of ways given the situation and the life the person is undertaking.


Six, you will find that Christians are the only ones that are gifted with a "Tongue". The tongue is in reference to a spiritual blessing because when one speaks it for the first time, one is under heavy hypnotism through God in midst of praying. Many cry while in recievment of the tongue. It is a language that only the soul of your body knows, it is a connection between your soul and God. Hence, you will be at a blank state when speaking in togue. This is the biggest spiritual evidence that Christianity speaks a higher talks with God.


Seven, one of the reason within my set of beliefs that this religion is the true religions is due to several reasons. One being the Bible has the most depth out of all religious literature done today. Two, Jesus performed miracles that were not given to humans, hence creation. Meaning bringing one from the dead back to life. Three, and not at the least, he died in my name. He had my back, so I'm going to have his for eternity.


Eight, the main formula of the christianity doctrine consists of accepting Jesus Christ, who came in flesh from God, who died for your name and your sins, and have been resuurected and sits one with God currently. If you belive that he was real, and at the time of his death and the reasoning of his death was solely under the impression that he indeed died for the beggining and the end of mankind's earthly immoral behaviors, then you can infact get yourself baptized at a local church and start attending as a christian.

Its simple as that.

But how does any of that tell me which god is The One, True God?

[Kir Komrik]

First and foremost, if the OP is new to the religion, he should first be estalbished with the guidence of proper concept of Christianity. Meaning, if he is a new convert, then he has to see the light before he establishes him to seek the deeper darker truth.

Well, not exactly. Before I can be a convert I have to know to what I am converting. First I have to know if the god you're speaking of is The One, True God. There are thousands of gods out there. A lifetime isn't long enough to study and experience all of them. I need some way to know which one is the real McCoy out of the plethora of imposters first.

[Kir Komrik]

About Insufficient Justification

Controlled studies show that, though it may be surprising, belief is generated by simply expressing it as fact; provided it is done in a particular manner. This is why “witnessing� is so popular in most religions; it is a deliberate tool for brainwashing and that is why it is so strongly encouraged.

In many of the studies performed on this phenomenon, a boring, monotonous and trying experience is “sold� using an insufficient justification. This concept is tricky and not at first obvious. But numerous studies have shown it to be true. It is essentially a defensive mechanism used to protect one’s conscience from discomfort or shock when a person is forced or otherwise compelled to act against their conscience. When a person is compelled to lie but given little or no justification for doing so, we tend more strongly to just believe the lie – conveniently sidestepping the guilt of lying, and we tell what we now “believe� to be true. It makes no difference how blatant the falsity of the claim is. But when given much greater justification for lying we correctly tend not to believe the lie when compelled to tell it. This is likely because the conscience is not disturbed or shocked since the individual can justify the lie. This is an utterly fascinating trick used by the creators of religion to brainwash:

… It exploits the very thing that sociopaths and narcissists lack; a conscience.

It is one’s conscience that tends to cause them to do this. Whoever came up with this knew how to run a con job and understood the psychology of a mark. And this is a tell-tell feature of religion; this tendency to observe exploitation of a person’s conscience, sense of compassion and empathy in order to gain their submission and compliance; to make them docile and malleable. It is precisely what persons in positions of power would dream of as a weapon for controlling large populations. This motif will keep coming up throughout this work.

Because it involves compelling others to lie, it is often associated with authority figures since those are the people often vested in a need to gain consensus to a fiction. So the con artists of religion long ago promoted this idea of “bearing witness� and extolled it as an adherent’s sacred duty to perfrom as often as possible. All they were doing was compelling their adherent’s to tell lies with insufficient justification. Over time these lies solidify into hardened belief systems.

Hindu sacred books represent Krishna, their Saviour and Redeemer, as in constant strife against the evil spirit. He surmounts extraordinary dangers ; strews his way with miracles ; raising the dead, healing the sick, restoring the maimed, the deaf and the blind ; everywhere supporting the weak against the strong, the oppressed against the powerful. The people crowded his way and adored him as a GOD, and these miracles were the evidences of his divinity for centuries before the time of Jesus.

The learned Orientalist, Thomas Maurice, after speaking of the miracles performed by Krishna, says :

"In regard to the numerous miracles wrought by Krishna, it should be remembered that miracles are never wanting to the decoration of an Indian romance; they are, in fact, the life and soul of the vast machine; nor is it at all a subject of wonder that the dead should be raised to life in a history expressly intended, like all other sacred fables of Indian fabrication, for the propagation and support of the whimsical doctrine of the Metempsychosis."

To speak thus of the miracles of Christ Jesus, would, of course, be heresy although what applies to the miracles of Crishna apply to those of Jesus we, therefore, find this gentleman branding as "mfidd" a learned French orientalist who was guilty of doing this thing.

I want to ask you about a Hindu God. Perhaps he is The One, True God? Of course, the "God" is Vishnu, or Hari whose emissary was Krishna. Krishna was the "full avatar of Vishnu" meaning he was the corporeal manifestation of Vishnu on Earth, the incarnation of God.

Its not terribly long but long enough that I need to introduce him before I go further, so I'll put this in one post as a prelude.

Hindu sacred books represent Krishna,

their Savior and Redeemer, as in constant strife against the evil spirit.

He surmounts extraordinary dangers;
fills his journeys on his way with miracles ;
raising the dead,
healing the sick,
restoring the maimed,
the deaf and the blind ;
everywhere supporting the weak against the strong,
the oppressed against the powerful.

The people always crowded about him wherever he went and adored him as a God, and these miracles were the evidences of his divinity for centuries before the time of Jesus The Christ, the only begotten son of YHWH.

The learned Thomas Maurice, speaking of Krishna, tells us that he passed his innocent hours at the home of his foster-father, in rural diversions, his divine origin not being suspected, until repeated miracles soon discovered his celestial origin; and Sir William Jones speaks of his:

... raising the dead, and

saving multitudes by his miraculous powers.

To enumerate the miracles of Krishna would be useless and tedious; we shall therefore mention but a few, of which the Hindu sacred books are teeming.
When Krishna was born, his life was sought by the reigning monarch, Kansa, who had the infant Savior and his father and mother locked in a dungeon, guarded, and barred by seven iron doors. While in this dungeon the father heard a secret voice distinctly utter these words : " Son of Yadu, take up this child and carry it to Gokool, to the house of Nanda." Vasudeva, struck with astonishment, answered : " How shall I obey this injunction, thus vigilantly guarded and barred by seven iron doors that prohibit all egress ?" The unknown voice replied : " The doors shall open of themselves to let thee pass, and behold, I have caused a deep slumber to fall upon thy guards, which shall continue till thy journey be accomplished."
Vasudeva immediately felt his chains miraculously loosened, and, taking up the child in his arms, hurried with it through all the doors, the guards being buried in profound sleep. When he came to the river Yumna, which he was obliged to cross to get to Gokool, the waters:

immediately rose up to kiss the child s feet, and then respectfully retired on each side to make way for its transportation, so that Vasudeva passed dry-shod to the opposite shore.
!!
When Krishna came to a certain man's estate, one of his first miracles was the cure of a leper.

A passionate Brahman, having received a slight insult from a certain Rajah, on going out of his doors, uttered this curse : " That he should, from head to foot, be covered with boils and leprosy ;" which being fulfilled in an instant upon the unfortunate king, he prayed to Krishna to deliver him from his evil. At first, Krishna did not heed his request, but finally he appeared to him, asking what his request was? He replied, "To be freed from my distemper."
The Savior then cured him of his distemper.

Krishna was one day walking with his ... disciples, when

"they met a poor cripple or lame woman, having a vessel filled with spices, sweet-scented oils, sandal- wood, saffron, civet and other perfumes. Krishna stopped where he was and she made a certain sign with her finger on his forehead, casting the rest upon his head. Krishna asking her what it was she would request of him, the woman replied, nothing but the use of my limbs. Krishna, then, setting his foot upon hers, and taking her by the hand, raised her from the ground, and

... not only restored her limbs, but renewed her age, so that, instead of a wrinkled, tawny skin, she received a fresh and fair one in an instant.

At her request, Krishna and his company lodged in her house."

Oh, I'm sure he did.

On another occasion, Krishna having requested a learned Brahman to ask of him whatever boon he most desired, the Brahman said, "Above all things, I desire to have my two dead sons restored to life." Krishna assured him that this should be done, and

... immediately the two young men were restored to life and brought to their father.

The learned Orientalist, Thomas Maurice, after speaking of the miracles performed by Krishna, wrote :

In regard to the numerous miracles wrought by Krishna, it should be remembered that miracles are never wanting to the decoration of an Indian romance; they are, in fact, the life and soul of the vast machine; nor is it at all a subject of wonder that the dead should be raised to life in a history expressly intended, like all other sacred fables of Indian fabrication, for the propagation and support of the whimsical doctrine of the Metempsychosis.

Is it more likely that the re-telling of miracles was based on Insufficient Justification or is it more likely the re-telling of the miracles was based on the fact that Hari Krishna is The One, True God and yours is not?

Performing the Inductive Substitution
Matthew 9:6-8
English Standard Version (ESV)

6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins�—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.� 7 And he rose and went home. 8 When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

Matthew 28:1-20
English Standard Version (ESV)

The Resurrection

28 Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he[a] lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.� 8 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!� And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.�

The Report of the Guard

11 While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers 13 and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.� 15 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.

The Great Commission

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.�

Luke 1:34-35
English Standard Version (ESV)

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?�
35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

Matthew 28:5-6
English Standard Version (ESV)

5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he[a] lay.
Mary turned to Jesus and said,
"They have no more wine."
"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." (John 2:3-5, NIV)
Nearby were six stone jars filled with water used for ceremonial washing. Jews cleansed their hands, cups, and vessels with water before meals.
Each large pot held from 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told the servants to fill the jars with water. He ordered them to draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet, who was in charge of food and drink. The master was unaware of Jesus' turning the water in the jars into wine.

The steward was astounded. He took the bride and groom aside and complimented them. Most couples served the best wine first, he said, then brought out cheaper wine after the guests had too much to drink and would not notice. "You have saved the best till now," he told them (John 2:10, NIV).

By this miraculous sign, Jesus revealed his glory as the Son of God. His amazed disciples put their faith in him.

After feeding the 5000, Jesus sends his disciples ahead of him in a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. Several hours later in the night, the disciples encounter a storm. Jesus comes to them, walking on the water. This terrifies the disciples who think they are seeing a ghost. Jesus tells them in verse 27, "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."

Peter replies, "Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water." So Jesus invites Peter to come. Peter gets out of the boat and begins walking on the water toward Jesus. But when Peter takes his eyes off Jesus and sees the wind and waves, he begins to sink. Peter cries out to the Lord and Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and catches Peter. As they climb into the boat together, the storm ceases. Then the disciples worship Jesus, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

While going about his ministry, Jesus Christ received some terrible news. John the Baptist, his friend, kinsman, and the prophet who proclaimed him as the Messiah, had been beheaded by Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee and Perea.

Jesus' 12 disciples had just returned from a missionary journey he had sent them on. After they told him all they had done and taught, he took them with him in a boat on the Sea of Galilee to a remote place, for rest and prayer.

Great crowds of people in the area heard that Jesus was near. They ran to see him, bringing their sick friends and relatives. When the boat landed, Jesus saw all the men, women and children and had compassion on them. He taught them about the Kingdom of God and healed those who were sick.

Looking at the crowd, which numbered about 5,000 men, not counting women and children, Jesus asked his disciple Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" (John 6:5, NIV) Jesus knew what he was going to do, but he asked Philip to test him. Philip replied that even eight months' wages would not be enough to give each person even one bite of bread.

Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, had more faith in Jesus. He brought forward a young boy who had five small loaves of barley bread and two small fish. Even so, Andrew wondered how that could help.

Jesus ordered the crowd to sit down in groups of fifty. He took the five loaves, looked up to heaven, gave thanks to God his Father, and passed them to his disciples to be distributed. He did the same with the two fish.

Everyone—men, women and children—ate as much as they wanted! Jesus miraculously multiplied the loaves and fishes so there was more than enough. Then he told his disciples to gather the leftovers so nothing was wasted. They collected enough to fill 12 baskets.

The crowd was so overwhelmed by this miracle that they understood Jesus was the prophet who had been promised. Knowing they would want to force him to become their king, Jesus fled from them.

Is it more likely that the miracles of Jesus of Nazareth were believed because of Insufficient Justification or because YHWH is The One, True God?

[Kir Komrik]

About the Need for Closure

The need for closure is a recognized psychological trait that comes in varying degrees amongst individuals in the general population. Those with a high need for closure tend to be outwardly observed as people with strong opinions, or who are strongly opinionated. By reaching a certain conclusion on an issue, one can have emotional closure. And whenever there is a void of fact people tend to fill it with certainty, regardless of how silly the conclusion may be. Furthermore, the order in which people receive information also affects how they rate the value of the object to which that information pertains. If received in order of increasing negativity, the final rating is more positive. If presented in order of increasing favorability, the final rating is more negative. The greater one’s tendency to need closure the more the person latches on to the first pieces of information and the value it assigns. This is called the Primacy Effect.

There are specific conditions under which this is more likely to occur; an important observation for religious contexts. If little is known of the object being ranked or valued, this tendency to rank according to the order in which information about the object is given is greater. This is a fancy version of “first impressions count the most� (because they are “first� impressions, the information about the object –in this example the person - is limited).

The need for closure in making value judgements can be augmented by placing a time pressure on the individual, forcing them to make a decision quickly. Loud noise can also cause this. In these cases people will experience a greater tendency to latch on to the information received first. The tendency to base conclusions on earlier information will be augmented in environments where there is:
• Ambiguity
• Uncertainty
• Time pressure
• Audible Noise
• Peer accountability for the value assigned
Persons with low Primacy are almost completely immune to the Primacy Effect. But here is the big takeaway; persons with a high need for closure can be satisfied by simply saying “nobody knows� the answer, and that is okay. This dramatically reverses the observed behavior rendering the person with a high need for closure virtually identical to those with a low Primacy vis-à-vis some given example or trial.

One of the most important things a grieving person needs to do is get past the trauma of loss and move on with their lives. This is usually called “closure�. There is a genuine and very real need of human beings for this. There is a “Need for Closure�.

The need for closure is a recognized psychological phenomenon that comes in varying degrees amongst individuals in the general population. Those with a high need for closure tend to be outwardly observed as people with strong opinions, or who are strongly opinionated. You see this in everyday life in heated political debates, blog participants who cannot accept the obvious, religious debates and virtually any discussion involving strong opinions and a participant bearing them. The good thing about this, and the compliment to those like this, is that by reaching a certain conclusion on an issue and sticking to it, one can have emotional closure. And whenever there is a void of fact people will tend to fill it with certainty, regardless of how silly the conclusion may be.

In the seminal study “Primacy Effect in Personality Impression Formation� by Norman H. Anderson and Alfred A. Barrios, something called the Primacy Effect was studied in which the personality traits of individuals were rated by others. Each trait was offered by one of six acquaintances of the subject being observed. In other words, participants were given six choices, no more, no less, of personality traits they could ascribe to a given individual they observed. The participants had no direct personal knowledge of the sujbect being observed. They were asked to rank each one of these traits on an 8-point scale of weakest to strongest.

It was scored thusly:

4 Highly Favorable
3 Considerabley Favorable
2 Moderately Favorable
1 Slightly Favorable
-1 Slightly Unfavorable
-2 Moderately Unfavorable
-3 Considerably Unfavorable
-4 Highly Unfavorable

In addition, the persons asked to do the rankings were a group of six people who were acquaintances of the subject being observed. The six traits were smart, Artistic, Sentimental, Cool, Faultfinding and Awkward". In this first trial, because there is an equal number of good and bad traits, one would expect an average ranking of around 1.38, which is what they got.

If we run another trial with another subject to observe and then reverse the word list, like this, "Awkward, Faultfinding, Cool, Sentimental, Artistic and smart" …
In other words, if we just reverse the order in which these adjectives are supplied to the observers (the order in which information is presented), they rank quite differently, yielding an statistically significant lower average ranking (in this trial, -0.72). This is because people tend to base final conclusions on the earliest information, regardless of type or kind.

The difference in these scores, 1.38 - 0.72 = 2.10, is called the Primacy Effect and it is well-studied. These results have been shown to be consistent over numerous studies of varying methodologies, all of them showing that:

When people attempt to render judgments under uncertain conditions a natural tendency is to experience greater influence from the information that comes along earlier rather than later. In other words, if "God" has the answer now and science doesn't, people tend to accept the "God" answer.

One of the common methodologies was to use the example of running trials with hiring managers at a corporation in which potential candidates for a job were to be ranked by the hiring manager as to their likelihood of success in their role at the company; a scale running from 1 to 10 with 10 being the most likely to succeed. The hiring managers are given tape recordings of the candidate which demonstrate the candidates handling of situations in various business conditions. As in the other studies, though presented to the hiring managers as being in "random" order, in fact the recordings are given to one group in ascending order of favorability and to the other group in descending order of favorability. The results have consistently shown an astonishing psychology around this:
Hiring managers were told this ranking scheme was still in the experimental stage and you weren't sure how valid their results will turn out to be: uncertainty was added regarding the applicability of their findings.

For reasons of "professional ethics" the hiring manager would not be allowed to find out how accurate their conclusions turned out to be: uncertainty was added regarding the falsifiability of their findings.
These two conditions set up the following overarching condition:
You could make these judgments (predictions of future performance) with little or no accountability because none of the other participants - or anyone else - would know how you ranked candidates. Because of these very liberal conditions one should expect a high Primacy Effect, and that is what they got, getting a Primacy Score of 7.5 on a 1 to 10 scale.

Then in follow-on sessions the opposite tact is taken: the hiring managers are told that their answers will be extremely important to the entire industry and will be believed and taken seriously everywhere. They are also told that they will be held to strict account for their answers and all will know how they responded. Finally, your predictions will be tested against measured results taken over time to see how accurate your prediction was. As expected, this caused the Primacy Effect to drop to 4.9 because now the hiring managers had strong motivation to come up with good predictions.

In a third series of trials the hiring managers are given time limits; that is, time pressure is applied for them to provide their predictions. It was generally set up as considerable pressure. When done the Primacy Effect increased because of the clinical term a "Need for Coginitive Closure", in this case forced by a time constraint. Psychologists call this seizing and freezing in which a subject will offer up the first prediction or answer that comes mind to avoid the ambiguity and uncertainty other predictions might cause.

There are specific conditions under which the Primacy Effect is more likely to occur; an important observation for religious contexts. If little is known of the object being ranked or valued (death), the Primacy Effect increases. When there is a lack of accountability (life after death is not falsifiable) the Primacy Effect increases. Where there is uncertainty about the applicability of any one theory of death, the Primacy Effect increases. Where one can provide an answer sooner than any other answer, the Primacy Effect increases. In other words, the tendency to grasp for the simplest, "God did it" answer, regardless of its real or believed validity, increases.

The need for closure in making value judgements can be augmented by placing a time pressure on the individual, forcing them to make a decision quickly. Loud noise can also cause this. In these cases people will experience a greater tendency to latch on to the information received first. The tendency to base conclusions on earlier information will be augmented in environments where there is:

• Ambiguity
• Uncertainty
• Time pressure
• Audible Noise
• Peer accountability for the value assigned

Psychologists discovered that the Primacy Effect has a basis in personality: those with a low “Primacy� were virtually immune to the Primacy Effect and those with high “Primacy� were strongly influenced by it.

In other words, there is probably no other condition and topic imaginable that would drive the Primacy Effect more so than would all the issues related to death and mortality. It is best expositor of the Primacy Effect. For death there is great uncertainty, no accountability for claims made about it (cannot be falsified), time pressure and considerable ambiguity (unknowns).

Therefore, human beings are strongly inclined to accept the existence of a god as the quick, first up, single answer that solves all the ambiguity and mystery of death and ensures eternal life in many cases. And if one's "God" can do this, then there god is presumably The One, True God.

Is it more likely that the authors of the inscriptions in the Pyramid Texts were experiencing a Need for Closure or that King Osiris’ God is The One, True God?

A final note regards something academics call “Normative Influence�; which refers to the fact that people tend to follow the herd. From total strangers in a riot to the modeling of behavior between lovers or parent and child, normative influence is a hereditary trait that is ubiquitous amongst human beings and varies in intensity in like manner as the emotional bond between the individuals involved increases. For deconversion its relevance lies in the effect normative influence can have on the adherent when considering abandoning their religion. For this reason, the adherent must be removed from their social network and “managed� in a new one. The deconverter should take care to create a social support structure for adherents in this regard. This topic is taken up in more detail later.

Utterance 219 of the Pyramid Texts, circa 2500 BCE regarding the Egyptian King Osiris and his death
167:

"Atum, this your son is here, Osiris, whom you have preserved alive. He lives! He lives! This Unas lives! He is not dead, this Unas is not dead! He is not gone down, this Unas is not gone down! He has not been judged, this Unas has not been judged! He judges, this Unas judges!

168: Shu, this your son is here, Osiris, whom you have preserved alive. He lives! He lives! This Unas lives! He is not dead, this Unas is not dead! He is not gone down, this Unas is not gone down! He has not been judged, this Unas has not been judged! He judges, this Unas judges!

169: Tefnut, this your son is here, Osiris, whom you have preserved alive. He lives! He lives! This Unas lives! He is not dead, this Unas is not dead! He is not gone down, this Unas is not gone down! He has not been judged, this Unas has not been judged! He judges, this Unas judges!

170: Geb, this your son is here, Osiris, whom you have preserved alive. He lives! He lives! This Unas lives! He is not dead, this Unas is not dead! He is not gone down, this Unas is not gone down! He has not been judged, this Unas has not been judged! He judges, this Unas judges!

171: Nut, this your son is here, Osiris, whom you have preserved alive. He lives! He lives! This Unas lives! He is not dead, this Unas is not dead! He is not gone down, this Unas is not gone down! He has not been judged, this Unas has not been judged! He judges, this Unas judges!

172: Isis, this your brother is here, Osiris, whom you have preserved alive. He lives! He lives! This Unas lives! He is not dead, this Unas is not dead! He is not gone down, this Unas is not gone down! He has not been judged, this Unas has not been judged! He judges, this Unas judges!

173: Seth, this your brother is here, Osiris, whom has been preserved alive, and who lives that he may punish you. He lives! This Unas lives! He is not dead, this Unas is not dead! He is not gone down, this Unas is not gone down! He has not been judged, this Unas has not been judged! He judges, this Unas judges!

174: Nephthys, this your brother is here, Osiris, whom you have preserved alive. He lives! He lives! This Unas lives! He is not dead, this Unas is not dead! He is not gone down, this Unas is not gone down! He has not been judged, this Unas has not been judged! He judges, this Unas judges!

175: Thoth, this your brother is here, Osiris, whom has been preserved alive, and who lives that he may punish you. He lives! He lives! This Unas lives! He is not dead, this Unas is not dead! He is not gone down, this Unas is not gone down! He has not been judged, this Unas has not been judged! He judges, this Unas judges!

176: Horus, this your father is here, Osiris, whom you have preserved alive. He lives! He lives! This Unas lives! He is not dead, this Unas is not dead! He is not gone down, this Unas is not gone down! He has not been judged, this Unas has not been judged! He judges, this Unas judges!

177: Great Ennead, this Osiris is here, whom you have preserved alive. He lives! He lives! This Unas lives! He is not dead, this Unas is not dead! He is not gone down, this Unas is not gone down! He has not been judged, this Unas has not been judged! He judges, this Unas judges!

178: Little Ennead, this Osiris is here, whom you have preserved alive. He lives! He lives! This Unas lives! He is not dead, this Unas is not dead! He is not gone down, this Unas is not gone down! He has not been judged, this Unas has not been judged! He judges, this Unas judges!

Performing the substitution of the YHWH narrative

The New Birth

Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.� 3Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.�

Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?�
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.�

Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?� Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.

If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? “No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

“For YHWH so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. [John 3:16]

For YHWH did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of YHWH. “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21“But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in YHWH.�

Is it more likely that the belief in eternal salvation through the man Jesus of Nazareth was due to a Need for Closure or is it more likely that YHWH is The One, True God?

[TheTruth101]

Ask me direct questions you need answered inorder for you to believe that God Yahweh and Christ is the truth. I think it might be faster that way.

[TheTruth101]

Sorry to say, I didn't have time to read all the post, I just read the original post and decided to answer. As I have scrolled throgh the pages of posts, many have indeed attempted to prove their own views and points, however I do not belive any of them suits your belt.

I will try to answer your question in with one simple answer. The truth of the Gods are, that infact it is one, and thats the end of it.

All the religios that you see are created upon 1 universal creator, therefore all the religions that you encounter or have heard of through this thread comes down to the question of, are you ready to accept God? in my mind.

God is an unkown entity, therefore under explanation, you cannot know the full aspect of God , let alone one being a false over another, it makes no sense whatsoever that there are more than one God's who share balances of power yet not show the world on a daily basis of the power of the Gods.

The theory began before the time of Abarahm, they infact belived that there were many and variety of Gods that are not to be seen, or hidden.

This concept failed mserably because under the notion the the universe is in order and everything of nature runs as smoothly as it is, it makes no sense as to how there can be more than one God.

It is evident to belive that all religions fall under One Creator.

Consider the Tree of knowledge. The Soil which the Tree sits on being the grounds for the spiritual, meaning God. Branches itself being the religions, and the leaves being the number of faithfuls that choose the religions that they are pleased with.

In reference to the thread, the one true God is nature itself. Every religion in current or past or future era will be involved throgh one God.

So you can relax and seek the religions that you want to be involved with. Meaning that fits your characteristics more. A prime example would be the Koran vs. the Bible. Bible is designed divinely and has many contradictions and parables to fit a broader audience and many situations. The Koran on the other hand are more precise and direct to the point. It's easier to understand, not as much thinking, and gives a precise guidence as to the situation given by examples.

So, the truth of it is, we are under one God. And no one will goto hell for choosing one religion over another. It's all in 1 God's doing for people to draw closer to him. Like many people that live today have many different likes and dislikes, God gave us many different religions to asses the situation.

[Zetesis Apistia]

Hi all,
I'm new here and have just read up on the policies and finished my signature, etc. I hope I've done everything correctly so far.
I would like to believe in an almighty power but the problem is that in my research I've found so many gods out there. Coming from a family that has been explicitly atheist for generations, I'm starting from scratch and am looking at all religions.
I am sincerely curious to know how would I know, for instance, that your god is the one, true God?
Thank you.

The true God can only be confirmed through experience. All other beliefs are speculative.

Hey Zetesis Apistia,
Okay, so, if it can only be answered through experience what experience could I have whereby I would know which god is The One, True God?

A paradigm shift.

[arian]

First and foremost, if the OP is new to the religion, he should first be estalbished with the guidence of proper concept of Christianity. Meaning, if he is a new convert, then he has to see the light before he establishes him to seek the deeper darker truth.

Well, not exactly. Before I can be a convert I have to know to what I am converting. First I have to know if the god you're speaking of is The One, True God. There are thousands of gods out there. A lifetime isn't long enough to study and experience all of them. I need some way to know which one is the real McCoy out of the plethora of imposters first.

My God of the Bible 'is the One True God', and if you were me, you would know that. But since you are not me, nor do we know who you are (you could be typing this here debate from a nude Gentleman's Club waiting for your next table-dance?), no one can really tell you how YOU WOULD KNOW the One True God?

Here, please answer me this: "How would I know that your answer of '4' to a mathematical question is the right answer? There are thousands, and even millions of mathematical questions out there, how would I know that yours is the right one?" ... huh, .... how would I know that?