There are so many religions; they can't all be right, so why trust any of them?

Why this is a serious question

Anyone who has travelled or had friends from other faiths has felt this. Sincere, intelligent, kind people believe very different things about God. And it is true that geography and upbringing shape belief. A child born in Riyadh is more likely to be Muslim, and one born in Rome more likely to be Catholic. It can feel unfair, even absurd, to say one of these groups simply has it right.

Disagreement doesn't mean no one is right

People disagree about history, medicine, politics and physics, yet we don't conclude that there is no truth in those fields. Disagreement is a reason to investigate carefully, not to stop looking. In fact, religions agree on a surprising amount: that there is more to reality than matter, that morality is real, and that human beings are not as they should be. They differ on what is ultimately true and how to put things right, and those differences can be examined.

The accident-of-birth argument cuts every way

It's true that upbringing shapes belief. But that applies to secular people too. Someone raised in a secular, modern Western city is far more likely to be skeptical of religion. If accident of birth undermines religious belief, it undermines the belief that all religions are equally human inventions as well. So the argument doesn't tell us who is right. It tells us everyone should examine what they were handed.

Isn't it arrogant to think you're right?

The view that "all religions are equally true" or "all are equally false" is also a claim to know better than most believers on earth. Every position about religion excludes some others. The philosopher John Hick proposed that all religions are partial glimpses of one Reality, but even that view tells Christians, Muslims and Buddhists that they're wrong about what they think they believe. Arrogance is about attitude, not about holding a view. You can hold a conviction humbly and respectfully.

How can we compare religions?

Some religions make claims that can be checked. Christianity is unusual here because it stakes everything on a historical event. The apostle Paul wrote that if Christ has not been raised, Christian faith is futile (1 Corinthians 15). That means it can be tested by looking at the evidence for Jesus's life, death and resurrection. That case is laid out on Is Christianity true? Other good tests include internal consistency, how well a worldview explains the world, and whether it can be lived honestly.

What about people who never hear?

Many people's real worry is about fairness: what happens to those born into other faiths? Christians have answered this in different ways, but most agree that God judges people fairly by the light they had, and that God's love is not less than ours. See Hell is incompatible with a loving God for more.

A fair concession

The variety of religions should humble everyone. No one has perfect, unbiased access to the truth.

The bottom line

Many religions don't prove none is true. They show that the question matters to almost everyone, and that it's worth looking carefully at the evidence for each, starting with the one whose central claim is a checkable event in history.