If God Is One, Why Are There So Many Religions, Sects & Denominations in the World?

By Precilla

If God is one, have you ever wondered why ‘He’ hasn’t arranged for there to be just one religion to exist in ‘His’ world? Surely, you might think, that would have made things so much more convenient for us human beings. At the very least, it might have saved us not just a little confusion about and agony over which of the dozens of religions, each of which claims to be true, if any, is really and truly true? Additionally, it might have spared human beings the scourge of hate and conflict in the name of God between votaries of different religions that has been such a pervasive feature of humankind’s history.

God being all-powerful, it would obviously have been very easy for ‘Him’ to arrange for there to be just a single religion to exist in all the world if ‘He’ liked to. Also, being all-compassionate, you might think ‘His’ compassion for us could easily have led ‘Him’ to do so if that would have spared us much confusion and conflict. But, clearly, ‘He’ didn’t wish so, as the immense plurality of religions, and within many of them, the plurality also of sects and denominations, indicates.

A basic feature of the religious scene of humankind is the fact there are a vast number of religions, sects and denominations in the world, each of which is unique and distinct and all which contradict each other in one or more major ways. Now, assuming that God does indeed exist, and assuming also that nothing can exist in the world unless it is permitted to by God, it is obvious that this plurality of religions, sects and denominations exists because God permits it to. This is a point that most theists, even the literally hundreds of millions of them who fervently believe that their particular religion alone is agreeable to God, will likely concede. But going further, it is also possible that this plurality of religions, sects and denominations exists not simply because God passively permits it to exist but because God actually actively wills it to exist. Now, not all theists, especially those who imagine and claim that their particular religion, sect or denomination alone is agreeable to God, might agree to this suggestion, but even so, the possibility of this being true cannot be ruled out ipso facto.

Theists probably have different ways of trying to make sense of why the One God has permitted the existence of so many religions, sects and denominations if 'He' has not actually arranged for it. Here is a tentative hypothesis in this regard:

God has assumed the form of the entire universe, including all the many different objects and beings (including human beings) that the universe contains. God has done this in order to experience what it means to be the universe, including all the objects and beings in it. As part of this, God wants to experience what it means to be person A following religion 1, person B following religion 2, person C following religion 3, and so on. For this purpose, God has arranged for religions 1, 2, 3 (and so on) to exist and for person A, B and C (and so on), who are actually manifestations of ‘Him’ in human form, to follow these religions respectively. Through the body-mind mechanisms of persons A, B, C (and so on), God experiences what it means to be a follower of religions 1, 2, 3 (and so on). It is this that accounts for the diversity of religions among human beings. The same logic holds also for the many different sects and denominations within many of these religions (This logic also explains the existence of all non-religious ideologies—God wants to experience what it means to be a votary of these ideologies through the body-mind complexes of the human votaries of these ideologies whose forms ‘He’ assumes).

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If the above tentative hypothesis is true, then it is not that the One God has passively permitted or even actively arranged for human beings as creatures separate from ‘Him’ to follow many different religions, sects and denominations and that this is why so many religions, sects and denominations exist. Rather, according to this theory, the reason why so many religions, sects and denominations exists is that God ‘Himself’ has chosen to follow these different religions, sects and denominations in the form of the human body-mind complexes that 'He' manifests ‘Himself’ as because ‘He’ wants to experience what it means to follow these religions, sects and denominations through them. Now, if one were to ask why God would want to do something like that, perhaps the only sensible answer would be: “God alone knows”.