Religion can be defined as a set of beliefs that answer the ultimate questions: What is humanity's primary problem? What happens after death? What is ultimate reality?

But there are many different religions. Some recognize a deity. Others believe in nothingness. Some worship many gods.

With the exception of Satanic religion(s), every religion in the world has not only some but a lot of true morality.

But the moral codes of the world's great religions are not nearly as different as their theologies!

You can even find many of the values Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount in Plato, Confucius or Buddha, though not in the same context of a historical "kingdom of God."

It is tempting to identify religion with morality and minimize the theological differences.

Consider the following statements:
(A) There are many chairs in the living room.
(B) There is only one chair in the living room.
(C) The living room is one big chair.
(D) There are no chairs in the living room.

Categorically, each statement is incompatible with the others.

It is impossible for all of statements (1)-(4) to be true at the same time.

So we are left with the conclusion that either one statement accurately describes a true state of affairs or none of the statements describe a true state of affairs.

In this context, we can see how one religion may be excluded (or contradicted) by another religion.

For example:

(A) Hinduism's sacred text, the Upanishads, seems to indicate that more than one God exists.

(B) Islam states that there is only one God (as does Christianity and Judaism).

(C) The New Age Movement and other sects of Hinduism affirm that everything is God (pantheism).

(D) In the same vein, atheism is the view that there is no god at all.

But each declaration from each religion cannot all be true simultaneously.

Of course someone may suggest "But Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all affirm monotheism." This is true, but when the ontological status of God is advanced by each respective religion then severe incompatibilities result.

The following are very brief overviews of the world's great religions.

(Note: this is NOT religious bashing in the least. It is merely pointing out the "theological" differences!)

Judaism - The religious system held by the Jews. Its teachings come from the OT, especially from the law of Moses as found from Exodus 20 through Deuteronomy; but also from the traditions of the elders (Mark 7:3-13), some of which our Jesus condemned.

The principal elements of Judaism include circumcision, a strict monotheism, an abhorrence of idolatry, and Sabbath-keeping.

Most Jews reject the deity of the Messiah because they feel it is idolatry to worship a mere man as God, and that such a belief is a Gentile invention.

The Jews feel that Jesus, "...practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy." [Sanhedrin 43a; cf. t. Sanh. 10:11; y. Sanh. 7:12; Tg. Esther 7:9]

The relation between Christianity and Judaism is in a class by itself. For Christians accept everything in traditional (biblical) Judaism, and regard it as not only true but divinely inspired.

Ironically, this makes Jews and Christians disagree, more clearly and adamantly than any other two kinds of believer can, over the center of Christianity, Christ.

When Christians and Hindus disagree about God, they mean different things by "God." But when Jews and Christians disagree about whether Jesus is God, they mean the same "God."

Islam (meaning "submission to God") was founded by Mohammed (A.D. 570-632).

An orphan, given to mysticism (some historians think he was an epileptic), Mohammed's character was a mixture of generosity and cruelty, religious zeal and sensuality.

He was the recipient of a series of "visions and revelations" which were purportedly an extension of the prophecies of the Old and New Testaments, with which he was superficially familiar.

These collected writings, 114 "Suras" in all, became the Koran, the sacred book of the Moslems.

Islam says that Jesus was just a prophet and not the only way to God.

Salvation and heaven are earned by the Moslem through belief in one God (Allah), angels, the Koran, the prophets (of whom Mohammed was the last and greatest) the Final judgment and God's decrees, and through the faithful practice of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, recital of the creed ("No God but Allah and Mohammed his prophet"), and once in a lifetime, the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Allah is not a father, has no son (though he had three daughters, Al-Uzza, al-lat, and manah, represented among the idols of the Kaaba).

He is not a trinity, but a single and unknowable entity.

Allah destroys rather than saves sinners, has compassion on only the righteous, does not deal in grace but only rewards good deeds, and has no just and righteous way to redeem the lost, as does the God of the Bible

Christianity says that there is a personal God and that the only way to Him is through Jesus. Jesus was God's son, he is part of a trinity and bestows grace on all who will receive.

Hinduism has been from ancient times the national religion of India. It is extremely diversified in time and space, and generalisations are difficult.

Most of it was originally brought into India by the Indo-Aryans, and was essentially identical with the theistic polytheism of the early Greeks and other ancient peoples.

These beliefs were gradually written down as the four Vedas (Veda means "knowledge," and has the same root as the English "wisdom").

Hinduism sees ultimate Reality, Brahman, as an impersonal force that is beyond all distinction.

Much later, additional scriptures were appended, known as the Brahmanas and Upanishads.

These became more and more philosophical, and eventually incorporated the two doctrines known as:

(1) Karma - Most Hindus believe humanity's primary problem is that individuals are ignorant of their divine nature, and have attached themselves to the desires of their separate selves, and so become subject to the law of karma.

Karma is the balancing between good and bad actions within an individual soul. Its consequences are inevitable and inescapable, without any possibility of forgiveness.

(2) Samsara (reincarnation) - Achieving good karma increases the chances of breaking the ever-revolving wheel of life, death, and rebirth (reincarnation)

The only release from these endless cycles is the attainment of nirvana, which in effect means that a person must realize that the concept of the individual self is an illusion and only the undifferentiated oneness of Brahman is real.

This "realization" is reached by either by good works, transcendental philosophic understanding, or ritualistic devotion to the gods.

For most Hindus, the latter is followed and India is a land of multitudes of gods and goddesses, temples and rituals.

Hinduism believes that:
A) This body is ultimately only an appearance
B) We must all work out our karma, or moral fate; and
C) After death everyone except a fully enlightened mystic must go through many more reincarnations.

For these reasons, you would not be swift to rescue a dying derelict from the gutter, because:

A) Bodily death is not very important
B) You may be interferring with the person's karma or fated learning experience through this suffering and dying, and
C) Death is not terribly tragic because it is not final - we go round again and may get other chances through reincarnation.

If you are a Christian, you would act like a good Samaritan because you believe that:
A) The body is real and good and important
B) We are not fated but free (or both fated and free), and
C) We live only once, so life is incalcuably precious.

Also...

Jesus tells us to love God
Hindus tell us we are God.

Buddhism was founded by Gautama (B.C. 563-480) partially in reaction to the popular Hinduism of his day.

He received what he called "enlightenment" at age 35, attaining a foretaste of nirvana and rapidly won great numbers of disciples.

Eventually Hinduism won out in India, however, and Buddhism has been stronger in other lands.

Buddhism is built on the Four Noble Truths:

(1) Life is full of pain and suffering.

(2) Suffering is caused by the desire or thirst for pleasure, existence, and prosperity.

(3) Suffering can be overcome by eliminating these desires.

(4) Desire can be eliminated by the eightfold path (of right beliefs, aspirations, speech, conduct, means of livelihood, endeavours, mindfulness, and meditation), a system of therapy for the purpose of helping individuals develop habits that will release them from restrictions caused by ignorance and craving.

Buddha taught that nirvana could be achieved by the eightfold path.

There have of course been many offshoots of Buddhism, different in different countries.

The popular practice of Buddhism often is polytheistic and animistic.

The heart of a Buddhist's faith is that no individual has a soul.

To achieve the spiritual goal of Buddhism is to arrive at Nirvana (means literally "to extinguish"). True enlightenment, free from the cycle of death and rebirth (reincarnation) according to Buddhism, comes when a person believes he or she has no soul.

When a person reaches a state of nothingness, the nonexistence of self, there will be no more suffering or pain to endure, no more deaths to experience, and no more illusions.

Buddhists believe that ultimate reality is an impersonal Void or Emptiness, sunyata.

In order to find permanence, individuals must disappear into the Void, which means ceasing to exist as an individual.

The moral precepts of Buddhism, similar to some of the Ten Commandments, are called sila. They include abstaining from lying, killing any form of life, stealing, sexually immoral behavior, and taking intoxicants.

When a person sins or breaks moral precepts, there can be no forgiveness because there is no forgiver, only an impersonal Void.

No two men ever astounded their contemporaries so much that the question they evoked was not "Who is he?" but "What is he?". They were Jesus and Buddha.

The answers these two men gave were exactly opposite:

Buddhism is pantheistic and says there is no personal God and everyone can reach Godlikeness on his own.

Buddha said unequivocally that he was mere man, not a god - almost as if he foresaw attempts to worship him.

Jesus, on the other hand, claimed in many ways to be divine.

Jesus kept pointing to himself, saying "Come unto me."

Buddha said, "Look not to me; look to my 'dharma' (doctrine)."

Buddha also said, "Be ye lamps unto yourselves."

Jesus said, "I am the light of the world."

Jesus tells us to love our neighbor.

Buddha tells us that we are our neighbor.

Confucianism is named after the Chinese practical philosopher Confucius (B.C. 551-478).

It is primarily an ethical system, rather than religious, and is silent, if not actually sceptical, toward the existence of God and a future life.

The Analects of Confucius were collected by his disciples and form the guide book most used by Confucianists, although various other semi-sacred writings are attributed to him.

He did teach ancestor worship and at least condoned the religious polytheism of the people, though probably he himself was strictly a humanist.

Later, in many areas of Confucianism, he was himself deified and worshipped.

Animism is a sort of generic term for a great variety of religious beliefs, ancient and modern, centering in the worship of nature and the spirit beings who control the various processes of nature.

Though it has no scriptures (except in the form of ancient traditions handed down in each tribe) and no common center or acknowledged founder, it nevertheless is essentially the same religion the world around, whether among the tribes in Africa, the Indians of the Americas, the natives of the South Pacific, the aboriginal tribes of Asia.

In essence it is not much different from the polytheistic religions of antiquity, from the spirit and ancestor worship of the modern eastern religions, nor from the widespread spiritism and other occult religions found even in Christian countries today.

New Age - The name "New Age" comes from astrology, which predicts the coming age of harmony and peace. It is a mystical religion whose God is man.

The New Age philosophy has many facets. According to a person's taste in spirituality, he or she can pick and choose from a wide variety of practices and teachings.

New Age philosophy believes that God exists within each individual person, and the way to salvation lies within them.

The central truth of the New Age Movement is that everything is fundamentally divine because everything flows from the divine Oneness that is the essential Reality beneath all things.

The Ultimate Reality of the New Age Movement is a Cosmic Mind, also known as the Universal Self. All New Age practices are in some way focused on getting in touch with the Mind of the universe.

All is divine. Everything is connected to an emanation from the divine Oneness. Yoga, meditation, and other mind-expanding techniques are part of the process to that Oneness.

The goal of different New Age methods and beliefs is to try to achieve this central truth.

People are encouraged to get in touch with their spirit guides who are able to assist them along their path of spiritual transformation and perfections. This is called channeling.

The ultimate goal in the New Age Movement is for each person to relinquish all attachment and identification with his or her individual self and become merged into the Universal Self, which is Ultimate Reality.

The universe and all contained in it are one unified whole. All is one.

The New Age Movement holds that each person projects his or her own reality. Individuals are on their own. There is no loving, forgiving God who saves them.

Mormonism began with Joseph Smith Jr. who was born on Dec. 23, 1805, in Vermont.

Joseph Smith Jr. stated that he was disturbed by all the different denominations of Christianity and wondered which was true. In 1820, when he was 14, he went into the woods to pray concerning this and allegedly God the Father and Jesus appeared to him and told him not to join any of the denominational churches.

Three years later, on Sept. 21, 1823, when he was 17 years old, an angel called Moroni, who was supposed to be the son of Mormon, the leader of the people called the Nephites who had lived in the Americas, appeared to him and told him that he had been chosen to translate the book of Mormon which was compiled by Moroni's father around the 4th century.

The book was written on golden plates hidden near where Joseph was then living in Palmyra, New York.

Joseph Smith said that on Sept. 22, 1827 he received the plates and the angel Moroni instructed him to begin the translation process. The translation was finally published in 1830 as the Book of Mormon.

Mormonism teaches that God used to be a man on another planet and that he became a god by following the laws and ordinances of his god on his home planet.

In his present god-state, he rules our world. He has a body of flesh and bones and, according to Mormonism, he has a wife, a goddess wife. Since they are both exalted persons, they each possess physical bodies.

In their exalted states as deities, they have sexual relations and produces spirit children that grow and mature in the spiritual realm.

The first spirit born was Jesus. Afterwards were born the devil (Jesus' brother) and all other spirit creatures.

After the spirit children are born to god and his goddess wife in heaven, they come down and entered into the bodies of human babies that are being born on earth.

All people were, according to Mormonism, born in heaven first and then on earth where they are to grow, learn, and return to god.

In the Mormon plan of salvation there needed to be a savior: Jesus. But Jesus was a spirit in heaven. For him to be born on earth, god the father came down and had sexual relations with Mary, his spirit daughter, to produce the body of Jesus.

Jesus, then, was born, got married, and had children. He died on the cross and paid for sins not on the cross only, but in the garden of Gethsemane before he went to the cross.

Mormon men and women have the potential of becoming gods.

Jehovah's Witnesses - Charles T. Russell (1852-1916) founded Zion's Watch Tower-now The Watchtower-in 1879 and Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society in 1884 (later renamed).

Russell penned six volumes titled Studies in Scriptures (originally Millennial Dawn), which appeared between 1886 and 1904.

By the time of his death in 1916, the legal and doctrinal foundation of the Society had been established.

"Judge" Joseph F. Rutherford (1869-1942), the second president-under whose leadership the name "Jehovah's Witnesses" was taken in 1931-was a prolific writer.

In addition to his speaking and editorial work, and the publication of dozens of booklets, he wrote an average of one new book each year.

JW's believe that Jesus Christ was a perfect man, and that He is a person distinct from God the Father.

However, they also teach that before His earthly life, Jesus was a spirit creature, Michael the archangel, who was created by God and became the Messiah at His baptism.

According to Jehovah's Witnesses, Jesus is a mighty one, although not almighty as Jehovah God is.

According to John 1:1 in their Bible, The New World Translation, Christ is "a god" but not "the God." They teach that Jesus "was and is and always will be beneath Jehovah" and that "Christ and God are not coequal"

Other Christian doctrines that they deny:
*Theistic attributes of God
*Triune nature of God (Trinity)
*Personality of the Holy Spirit
*Two natures of Christ (God-human)
*Justification by faith
*Sufficiency of Christ's Atonement
*Christ's bodily resurrection
*Eternal conscious punishmen
*Immortal Soul
*Continuity of the church

The Unique Historical Basis for Christianity:

Alone among all the religions of mankind, Christianity (including its Old Testament foundations) is based upon historical acts and facts.

Other religions are centred in the ethical and religious teachings of their founders, but Christianity is built on the great events of creation and redemption.

For example the Moslem faith is based on the teachings of Mohammed, Buddhism is based on the teachings of Buddha, Confucianism on those of Confucius, and so on.

Christianity, however, is founded not on what Jesus taught, but on who He is and what He did! His teachings indeed were wonderful. "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46).

But it is not His teachings, but Christ Himself, who provides salvation.

This unique feature of Biblical Christianity is a strong evidence of its truth.

Since all other religions are based upon the teachings of men, there is necessarily a strong subjective element in all of them.

No matter how intelligent or compassionate a man Mohammed may have been, or Zoroaster, or Buddha, he was still a man, beset by the same physical and mental limitations as other men.

His teachings may have been ever so brilliant and satisfying, but the only assurance of their reliability is their personal appeal to us.

Thus, such religions are subjective religions, both in their origin and in their acceptance by individual followers.

Christianity, on the other hand, is based on objective facts, not subjective pressures.

Its truth or falsity stands on the validity of the great facts of creation, fall, redemption and resurrection, the historical records of which are subject to examination by the ordinary criteria of objective investigation.

Thus, Christianity is the one and only religion which offers even the possibility of objective certainty concerning the question of its validity.

Would you like to review a page?

I. Jesus claimed divinity
11A. He meant it literally
11111. It is True------------------------------------------He is Lord
11112. It is False
111111a. He knew it was false-------------------------He was a Liar
111111b. He didn't know it was false------------------He was a Lunatic
11B. He meant it non-literally, mystically-------------He was a Guru

II. Jesus never claimed divinity--------------------------He is a Myth

III. Jesus died
11A. Jesus rose-------------------------------------------He is Lord
11B. Jesus didn't rise
11111. The apostles were deceived--------------------He was an Hallucination
11112. The gospel writers were myth-makers-------He is a Myth
11113. The apostles were deceivers-------------------He is a Conspiracy

IV. Jesus didn't die----------------------------------------It was a case of Swoon

Here is a list of the gazillions of OT prophecies that Jesus fulfilled.

Do you still need more evidence?

Here is a quick note on "miracles".

Are you still not sure?

Review the evidences page.

Review the claims of divinity page.

My favorite sites .

Here's my version of the crucifixion .

Contact me via e-mail.