Argument From Inconsistent Revelations - Particular Examples

Particular Examples

Christians believe that Jesus is the Christian Messiah, Savior of the World and the devine Son of God; Jews and Muslims do not. Similarly, Muslims believe that the Qur'an was divinely authored, while Jews and Christians do not. There are many examples of such contrasting views, indeed, opposing fundamental beliefs (schisms) exist even within each major religion. Christianity, for example, has many subsets (denominations), not all of which are mutually compatible. Hinduism, with its conception of multiple avatars being expressions of one Supreme God, is more open to the possibility that other religions might be 'correct' for their followers, but this same principle requires the rejection of the exclusivity demanded by each of the Abrahamic religions.

Additionally, Faith-confirming events such as visions and miracles are reported within all faiths with regularity. A single deity associated with a single exclusive existing faith or sect would either have to have caused adherents to other faiths to have visionary or miraculous experiences which lead them to continue to reject the 'true' faith, or at least allowed some other agency to cause these same effects.

The problem does not arise in some theological models. In Deism, it is believed that there is a God, but presumed that there are no divinely caused revelations or miracles at all, leaving reports of such to have natural explanations. In some forms of Pantheism (where God is the Universe) and in Pandeism (where God has become the Universe), the appearance of many inconsistent divine revelations or miracles might simply result unintentionally from the divine nature of the Universe itself.

The concept of mutual exclusivity of different religions itself (as opposed to religious pluralism) is primarily associated with Abrahamic faiths; pagan religions, historically the most common forms of worship, were typically polytheistic and compatible with each other. The roots of the mutual exclusivity may be seen in the Torah, where Jews are ordered to worship the God of Israel to the exclusion of all others; however, even the Torah does not instruct its followers to deny the existence of other gods, in a stance that is now called henotheism. Later theological developments within Judaism led it to adopt the strictly monotheistic stance, where its god was declared the only one true deity in existence, and this position was inherited by Christianity and Islam.