Religion is not correct

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Rachel Adams

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Does "this religion is not correct" sound natural? Can I use "...but I think that for many reasons this religion is wrong in many ways?"

"I was born in a Christian country, but I think that for many reasons this religion is not correct."
 

Rachel Adams

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No. Religion –like politics – is too broad a concept to be labelled correct or incorrect.
Is the second version correct?

"I was born in a Christian country, but I think that this religion is wrong in many ways."
 

emsr2d2

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No, a religion can't be described sweepingly as wrong either. We recommend steering clear of sweeping generalisations about religion.
A diplomatic version might be something like "I was born in a predominantly Christian country, but there are some aspects of Christianity that I consider to be flawed".
 

probus

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No, a religion can't be described sweepingly as wrong either. We recommend steering clear of sweeping generalisations about religion.

There is one thing that all religions have in common. They all claim that they and they alone are true and correct, and all other religions are false. I've always thought that claim was the principal defining characteristic of a religion.
 

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Is the second version correct?

"I was born in a Christian country, but I think that this religion is wrong in many ways."

I don't see any grammatical issues with this statement. In fact, you often hear people of one particular religion describing another religion as 'wrong'. It may be a broad generalization, but it's still (unfortunately) a natural utterance.

Heck, you even hear various denominations of the same religion asserting that other denominations are 'wrong' in their beliefs about X!

My qualm is that it's not 100% clear that it's Christianity (or whichever religion) you believe is wrong with 'this religion". In context, if you were only discussing Christianity, than it might be clearer.

Perhaps something like "Even though I was born in a Christian country, I still think Christianity is wrong in many ways."
 

Tdol

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Are you talking from a perspective of no faith or a preference for another faith? (Please remember to keep the discussion to language rather than which religion is better than another)
 

Rachel Adams

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Are you talking from a perspective of no faith or a preference for another faith? (Please remember to keep the discussion to language rather than which religion is better than another)
I am not talking about which religion is better. I am interested if my sentence is grammatically correct.
 

emsr2d2

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I am not talking about which religion is better. I am interested if my sentence is grammatically correct.
We can't answer that question without knowing whether you're saying as a Christian that you think there are some things wrong with Christianity, or if you're saying it as a non-Christian.
 

Tdol

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I am not talking about which religion is better. I am interested if my sentence is grammatically correct.
It's OK, though I don't think that assessing a religion is confined to those who were born in a country where the religion is practised.
 

Rachel Adams

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We can't answer that question without knowing whether you're saying as a Christian that you think there are some things wrong with Christianity, or if you're saying it as a non-Christian.
I am Christian.
 

Tdol

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So, are you are saying there are problems with your religion or that it is simply wrong on everything?
 

Rachel Adams

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So, are you are saying there are problems with your religion or that it is simply wrong on everything?

It's definitely wrong on most things.
 

Skrej

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I still think (and as others have also commented), that you need to clarify whether your opinion on the "wrongness" of such-and-such religion is from the prospective of a member of that faith, or an outside observer.

Since you said it's a case of the former, then perhaps something like this:
Even as a Christian/Muslim/Buddhist myself, I think that there are things wrong about Christianity/Islam/Buddism."

You could also say something like "I disagree with aspects of Christianity/Islam/Buddhism even though I am Christian/Muslim/Buddhist .

If you want to add a quantifier, you could add 'a few/some/many' in front of 'aspects' or 'things'.
 
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