The demon defeater

 

If you believe in a revealed religion (and many religions are of that nature), how do you *know* you´re not being tricked by demons? We could call this "the demon defeater". For instance, many Christians would argue that the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith was duped by demons. But how do you know *your* religion isn´t the result of demonic trickery?

Apparently, some Jews (half-jokingly perhaps) consider the archangel Gabriel to be a herald of misfortune. After all, when he showed himself to Mary, the end result was Christianity, which persecutes the Jews. And when he appeared to Muhammed, the result was Islam, which also persecutes the Jews. Maybe Gabriel was a demon? 

"But Jesus fulfilled all the OT prophecies". First, he probably didn´t. Second, maybe that´s part of the deception. How would you know? I´m sure demons can stage a couple of miracles here and there, and even make a dead man rise. So what´s the objective criterion for knowing that one revealed religion is true and the others are phoney? It can´t be the miracle-claims, since they may be faked by demons. Nor can it be the revelation itself (obviously). 

The only criterion I can think of is that it makes people more moral and/or spiritual. But even assuming that everyone agrees on what these terms mean, the number of sinners and saints in each religion seem to be about equal. If saints predominate, I suppose all religions would be "true". That is, some form of religious pluralism would be the bottom line. If sinners predominate (which seems to be the case), all religions would be "false". Then, agnosticism - at least towards the really existing revealed religions - would be called for. 

And if really heinous sinners are everywhere dominant, maybe they are all demonic...