So I mostly agree with you, except the understanding that most gods must not be real is axiomatically true, based on the beliefs of those religions. Almost every religion claims they believe in the one true god(s), so either all the other aren’t real or theirs is wrong and not real. That leaves mostly only one pantheon remaining at most, with maybe a few other that aren’t exclusive.
Its not a belief that most religions most be wrong, and odds are whatever religion any particular person believes is wrong based on how many competing religions have existed.
This is separate to a statement on a god though, only religions. There is no way to make a reasonable argument on the existence (or lack thereof) of a god. You can rule out particular beliefs, but never the concept itself.
So I mostly agree with you, except the understanding that most gods must not be real is axiomatically true, based on the beliefs of those religions. Almost every religion claims they believe in the one true god(s), so either all the other aren’t real or theirs is wrong and not real. That leaves mostly only one pantheon remaining at most, with maybe a few other that aren’t exclusive.
This feels like a very monotheism-centric argument to me. AFAIK it’s mostly (or only?) the Abrahamic religions that take such an exclusionary view, and I wouldn’t call them “almost every” religion since, although people fight over minor divisions, broadly speaking there’s only three of them. The rest of the world’s religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, shinto, African religions, native American religions, etc.) surely add up to more categories than that.
I’m no theologian, but I would expect polytheistic pantheons not being exclusive to be the rule, not the exception.
And finally, even if we’re just talking about Judaism vs. Christianity vs. Islam, each of their "one true God"s is the same entity anyway so they aren’t nearly as mutually exclusive as their followers would like to pretend.
Others may not be explicitly exclusionary, but they are implicitly. You can’t really take the Greek pantheon and mythos and also the Hindu one. Almost every religion has an origin myth about how the world was created, which you really can’t have two versions of that. Religions typically don’t mesh together well.
With that said, religions tend to evolve and engulf neighbor’s beliefs into their own. This doesn’t mean they weren’t exclusive, rather that religion is malleable because it’s made up and not based on fact.
So I mostly agree with you, except the understanding that most gods must not be real is axiomatically true, based on the beliefs of those religions. Almost every religion claims they believe in the one true god(s), so either all the other aren’t real or theirs is wrong and not real. That leaves mostly only one pantheon remaining at most, with maybe a few other that aren’t exclusive.
Its not a belief that most religions most be wrong, and odds are whatever religion any particular person believes is wrong based on how many competing religions have existed.
This is separate to a statement on a god though, only religions. There is no way to make a reasonable argument on the existence (or lack thereof) of a god. You can rule out particular beliefs, but never the concept itself.
This feels like a very monotheism-centric argument to me. AFAIK it’s mostly (or only?) the Abrahamic religions that take such an exclusionary view, and I wouldn’t call them “almost every” religion since, although people fight over minor divisions, broadly speaking there’s only three of them. The rest of the world’s religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, shinto, African religions, native American religions, etc.) surely add up to more categories than that.
I’m no theologian, but I would expect polytheistic pantheons not being exclusive to be the rule, not the exception.
And finally, even if we’re just talking about Judaism vs. Christianity vs. Islam, each of their "one true God"s is the same entity anyway so they aren’t nearly as mutually exclusive as their followers would like to pretend.
Others may not be explicitly exclusionary, but they are implicitly. You can’t really take the Greek pantheon and mythos and also the Hindu one. Almost every religion has an origin myth about how the world was created, which you really can’t have two versions of that. Religions typically don’t mesh together well.
With that said, religions tend to evolve and engulf neighbor’s beliefs into their own. This doesn’t mean they weren’t exclusive, rather that religion is malleable because it’s made up and not based on fact.