Why Do Billions Believe in Other Religions? A Perspective on Faith and Truth

Itzik asks: “Other religions have billions of followers. How do you explain that?”

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Hello Itzik, and thank you for your question.

The desire to believe comes from the soul. God created within human beings a genuine spiritual need to recognize Him and serve Him, which is why people naturally tend toward religion. When there is demand for something, like weight loss for example, there will always be those who exploit that need for profit, fame, or honor. The same is true with religion. Billions of people have come to believe the claims of false prophets because of their spiritual longing for guidance from above.

Around the world, we find countless contradictory stories about individuals who claimed divine revelation and founded religions, often demanding that people believe their accounts blindly. If the story is compelling enough, that inner spiritual need can persuade people to accept it. However, someone who seeks truth will choose to use the intellect God gave them and will quickly understand that the claim of a single individual is not sufficient.

Does Popular Belief Prove Truth?

To illustrate, imagine someone named Shimon who tells you that God appeared to him last night in a cave, took him on a flying carpet to Persia, and gave him laws such as: you must eat five heads of garlic every morning, and you must never step on carpets because they are meant for flying.

Would you believe Shimon and follow his instructions? Most likely not.

Now imagine that billions of people believed this story. You would say to them, “People can lie,” and they would respond, “I believe Shimon didn’t lie.” You would say again, “People can hallucinate,” and they would respond, “I believe Shimon didn’t hallucinate.”

Throughout history, there have been many individuals who made similar claims about gods revealing themselves privately, taking them on journeys, and delivering commandments through them. As Shlomo HaMelech said, “The simple believe everything” (Mishlei 14:15).

Clearly, the number of believers does not validate claims that are based on blind faith. In the past, most people worshipped idols and believed the world was flat. Popular belief does not make something true.

What Makes the Torah Unique

When we examine the religions of the world and ask which of them claims a mass revelation of God, we find, surprisingly, that there is only one: the Torah of Israel.

Judaism is unique in claiming that God revealed Himself before an entire nation at Mount Sinai, that an entire people witnessed miracles on a national scale during the Exodus from Egypt, including the ten plagues, the splitting of the sea, forty years of open miracles in the desert, the pillar of fire and cloud that accompanied them, manna descending from heaven, Miriam’s well, the fall of the walls of Jericho at the sound of the shofar, and more.

The Torah stands up to rational examination because it is based on the testimony of an entire nation that witnessed these events. For this reason, we know that the Torah is true and are not troubled by the existence of large religions that are based on belief in the claims of a single individual.