As I have noticed, fanatics of any religion often name themselves as “true believers”. Why so, and how to combine this? As for me, religious fanaticism gives just harm to any religion and makes it looks very bad for probable new followers. Really, how people can insult in church that somebody does sign of the Cross a little bit wrong, or no need to say about Muslim fanatics - they are small minority, but just because of them the rest of the world hates Islam from wrong thinking that all Muslims are fanatics.

However, how to determine true belief in God and fanaticism, how do you think?

What an interesting question.
I think that every person who thinks that his/her religion is the most correct is wrong by default.
As for me this is the main feature of real belief to not put yourself on the first place. And these true beliefs do it, now matter how. They put their interpretation of religion as the main and the most correct. But in most of the cases their interpretation is not correct. If we take the Islam for example, there is no rule in Koran about covering of a woman’s face. But the true beliefs can kill a women if her face is non covered. The same things can be found in others religions.
So i think that true belief is a person who never thinks that he knows everything, who leaves a place in his mind for a new knowledge, who understands the word "forgiveness" and who relay all his soul on the God.

What an excellent discussion topic!

I think true belief in God is different for every person, and I agree with Doctor who in a sense. I think true belief comes from having your beliefs questioned and tested and realizing that you truly do believe in God on those specific terms. If you can do this in a specific religion, then well done! If you struggle to buy into a certain set of religious beliefs, it doesn't necessarily mean you don't believe in God. People are far too hung up on labels.

I think if you believe in God through a rigorous set of beliefs and believe that you need to cover your face (Islam), or your head (Jewish males), or wear a skirt into church (Russian Orthodox) or anything else that crops up in various religions, and you feel that this brings you closer to God, then yes you are a true believer. But then you have to take all of it on board, and open your heart and mind to others. In my experience, I've found the truest believers are ones who have really formulated their own way of believing in a faith. On their own terms. That way, even when questioned about it, they'll reply with their own set of beliefs. Whether that involves 'religious' things or not is irrelevant for true belief in God, I think.

Fanatics can be true believers too, the main problem is what they're doing is often wrong in the eyes of society in general (rightfully so!). That distinction is often a fine line, and depends on whether the 'fanaticism' is genuine and coming out of truly examining the beliefs, or if the person is merely following what they've always been told is 'right' or jumping on a bandwagon (a lot of terrorist organizations 'jumped on board' Islamic terrorism after 9/11 - before that they were just regular terror cells trying to fight for nationalistic freedom etc.)

True belief is intimate spiritual act, recognition of certain ethic values. True belief is a part of a person based on spiritual experience and understanding of reality. If person is sane then true belief is only a part of his many-sided personality. Maybe it is the most important side, but only a side.
Fanatic doesn’t hear or see anything not corresponding to his opinion. You can show any evidences and proofs that you are right but fanatic will never agree with you if it is against his convictions.
True belief is not blind. It is based in experience and personal comprehension. You can talk and dispute with believer and he may understand his mistake. He can judge his opinion and can try to understand the idea which is totally out of his conviction. That’s why orthodox schools teach not only Orthodoxy but Catholicism, atheism , sects etc.
However fanatic religious and sects teach its belief based on fear, emotions, authority of the leader. And such an authority is the ultimate truth. They cannot see anything further.

Hello!I think we wouldn’t find a n universal answer for this question and the reason is hide even in the word “believe”
What does it mean to believe? From what do consist our believes? And finally who really creates them?
I think that to believe means to have trust in something, to have a positive opinion about a thing o a person and surely to respect the things and persons you believe in.
So from what consists our believes? Our believes are our principles, our emotions and our feelings. They are personal, so they differ from a person to another one. Being personal, we can say that we and only we create them, but is it true? In our world exist a lot of manipulations everywhere we go. At home we are influenced by TV programs, by the music we listen to, by the book we read and by the internet site we surf.
If we speak about our believes in God, the situation will remain the same. It is very hard to not be influenced by religious manipulators and to save your own believes, your own feelings and your own emotions.
I think the world would be better if everyone believe in what he really wants to believe!

Hello! I think that a true belief in Gog is a sentiment of concordance between your body and soul. I mean that it is the situation when you know you do good things and the things you believe in.
Our believes should be natural to us. There are a lot of people who are trying to respect religious traditions, but they don’t feel these concordance. They are doing what they should do according to some rules, but not according to their soul. In this case they lose their freedom and become dependent on that people who tell them these rules. I think it is a big mistake. Nobody knows and nobony even can know what is a true belief in God, because we are all the same people who were born at the earth and who never will know the truth about such things.
In another situation, when we do the things we believe in, we feel freedom and pleasure from our actions. We know that we are doing good or what we suppose to be good (because good and bad actions are relative and the same action can be good for one person and bad for another).
So let’s do the things we believe in!