What method does religion use to correct itself?

Iason Ouabache: What method does religion use to correct itself?
Science has many techniques to test its conclusions to see if they are correct. Does religion have similar techniques? How does religion test its claims? What do religious people do if their claims are proven to be wrong?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Wolf Myth
They just branch off into different sects.

Answer by Fireball
GOD SAYS PROVE ALL THINGS…IN OTHER WORDS PRAY AND REPENT WITH humility and get saved…TRinity is never proven wrong…millions are saved!!!

Answer by seeker of Holy God
by the word of god

we follow the word of god and what god says

we change them if they are wrong

Answer by Hobbie Horse
Wolf Myth beat me to it. It explains the thousands of different sects/cults of ‘christianity’.

Answer by Blaise Rascal
When a religion’s dogmas are questioned, the standard response is a combination of denial, insults, propaganda, censorship, and occasionally physical torture and execution.

Answer by Judy B
Silly question. Religious belief is based on faith. It does not test its claims.

Answer by One Brave Mouse
If it’s true to begin with there is no need for correction.

Answer by AndiGravity
In theory, religion uses apologetics to reconcile itself to the facts. However, this is generally a very slow and tedious process reminiscent of trying to pull out a donkey’s teeth with string and a door whilst attempting to get a giant tortoise to successfully mate with it.

ADDENDUM:

As for what religions tend to do when their claims are proven wrong, they generally first make the declaration that whatever facts indicate they are incorrect are “against God” and “an attack on the truth”. If possible, they will find some way to silence whoever is aggravating them. Historically speaking, torturing the offender until they scream “I was wrong” just to make the pain stop, trotting out the confession before the public so they will dismiss the findings of the offender, and then executing said heretic before they recover enough to say “I only said that because I was so desperate to make the torture stop” seems to be a perennial favorite.

If that doesn’t work, they spend a significant amount of time trying to selectively re-interpret the facts to support their own beliefs, and heap on a great deal of philosophical obfuscation in an attempt to make the matter at hand sound far too complex for the poor, stupid laity to ever hope to grasp (thank goodness we have educated men and women of God around to tell us what to think).

And if that too fails, they spend a very long time ignoring the situation until at long last everyone else accepts the new situation on their own, everyone else finds their own way to rationalize why the doctrine of their religion differs from the reality of the situation, and it has become nothing more than a trivial historic footnote no one will take seriously. Then, once it no longer really matters, they quietly admit that someone else was wrong about religious doctrine in a manner that allows them to continue claiming that regardless of that past error, their personal interpretation of whatever particular religious doctrine is under consideration happens to be flawless.

Answer by Captain Sarcastic – The Captain
Violence, usually.

Apostates and heretics rarely fare well…

Answer by Robert S
The whole Christian Church meets in Ecumenical Councils very few centuries.
The large major one being Vatican II; interspersed with smaller regional synods.

Basic truths of faith are often re-examined & expressed in more nuanced language.
But the greater changes come in ensuring practice expresses those truths fully.

Answer by Weedwacker7692
It doesn’t, which is one of its many problems

Answer by Paul Donelson
Most Christians use the Bible as their guide for belief. Nevertheless, this does not explain why there are so many different denominations within the Christian faith, each of them believing something a little different. But, for the most part, all Christians believe in Jesus; that God is a loving Father; that we should follow the teachings of Jesus.

Most churches have their own method of interpreting the Bible. United Methodists, for example, believe in the use of tradition, scripture, experience, and reason to establish correct belief. On top of that, they get together every four years in an international conference to clarify their beliefs and principles. They call it “Holy Conferencing,” a process that involves study, prayer, debate, and voting.

In fact, through the past 2,000 years there have been many such holy conferences wherein the beliefs of Christians have been clarified and restated in various ways.

Answer by warsofgod.com
Considering the bible, it is a collection of 66 books written by 40 authors spanning a time frame of 1400 – 1800 years. Tens of thousands of New Testament manuscripts have been uncovered dating as far back as the 2nd century and hundreds of Old Testament manuscripts have been uncovered dating as far back as 300 BC. The content and accounts recorded are cohesive and consistent.

If you want to know about the historical and grammatical science of literary interpretation, google “hermeneutics.”

Answer by marshal
Science is systematized observations and experiments on different subjects.
religion is a belief and religious people have a firm opinion of their claims

Answer by Ask the Question
Religion makes a poor attempt at this by employing apologetics.

Answer by Magpie
“How does religion test its claims?”

By declaring anyone who challenges those claims a heretic and torturing them until they either admit they were lying or die (or admit that they were lying and then die–either works)

It was a surprising effective tactic for many years.

Answer by Jim
The best way to test a religion is to hook it up to a dynameter. The one that demonstrates the power to change the human heart is the one that is proven to be correct.