Choose my religion

[prosellis]

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Just to clarify...I'm looking for criteria that MIGHT imply greater credibility.

For example...one of our resident fundies has mentioned that the bible was written by lots of people, so it's more likely to be true than the quran. And the pali canon, presumably, more reliable still [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. So one criteria could be the number of contributors to the canon.

Other brainstorm ideas i can think of quickly: age of religion, consistency of doctrine over time, pacificsm, reliance on repeatable experience, even if subjective or drug-induced, average iq of followers vs. control group of non-followers...

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Am I crazy for thinking Hindu fits these requirements pretty well:
Really old, religious works with lots of authorship, pretty pacifist like (except for the whole sutti thing), and plenty of really well educated followers. I don't know the average IQ, but India pumps out doctors and programmers etc. like Macdonald's puts out hamburgers.

[AlexM]

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Bane

[Praxis101]

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Let's say I've decided to become religious, but haven't decided on a religion. I'd like to pick the religion that is most likely to be true, or alternatively, that contains the most truthful content. Since 'religion' is a bit vague...I think I'll restrict myself to those systems of knowledge widely accepted to be religions.

What criteria do I use to determine which religion has the highest 'truth content'? All criteria must be phrased so as to be applicable across religions.

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Firstly, I agree that the number of authors is significant. In addition, the credibility of said author's should also play a role in your decision.

In our age, I think science, philosophy, and math are amongst the most rationally-credible institutions: they should all play a role in choosing a religion. I think philology might also be amongst the most important field of endeavors, as well - for reasons of interpretation, perspective, meaning, etc.

I'd speculate that rational individuals, of any age, search for these things when contemplating religion.

Nietzsche - all of his work, really. I'm going to begin researching a bit more seriously and try to re-phrase things, cite more precisely, etc.

I'm curious, as I've never looked into it before: are there any Nietzschian (Nietzsche would not have liked me to use this word, but oh well) philosophers on SMP? I made a Nietzsche-type review in TL;DR, but it didn't really generate interest...

Any interest on SMP about Nietzsche?