There is an assumption in the question that Christianity is inherently correct and that there is evidence to this end. Those answers that disagree with this necessarily being the case are labelled as Answers A. Those who hold to this assumption and then provide such evidence are labelled as Answers B. Those who argue that the information provided in Answers B are problematic or insufficient are labelled as Answers C.

Answer A1

There isn't any evidence. some people decided that Jesus was the Messiah that the Jewish people had been waiting for. Jews believe that there will be world peace when the Messiah comes. The coming of Jesus did not bring this. Doesn't match. Not that he wasn't a great guy and teacher, from what we know of him.

Answer A2

While the debate over which religion is "right", there are points of agreement within all three religions. Unfortunately these points are very few. The argument below is compelling until one realizes that the claims of Christianity are in direct contradiction to the tenets of Judaism and Islam.

Both these other religions claim that there is only One God; by the analysis below, there are two Gods, Jesus and God. This is the major point of contention between the Christians and the Jews because the Jews stubbornly insist that there is only one God. Christians, on the other hand, maintain a Trinity theology which the Jews and the Muslims reject.

In the end analysis, one must read the comparable holy books and make an informed decision based on one's understanding of each book. This is a personal decision and will only be entirely satisfactory to the believer based on this personal understanding.

Answer B1

There is an overwhelming amount of evidence. Let's take the evidence of the Jews first.

In the Old Testament (the Jewish Bible), there are over 40 prophesies directly associated with the Messiah, from his birth of a virgin in Bethlehem, to his suffering - even to his alternative name 'Emmanuel' - meaning 'God with us'. They talk of his teaching, his miracles - even down to the nitty-gritty that no bones of his would be broken. Jesus fulfilled all of these prophesies - most of which were outside his control - even down to the fact that the Roman soldiers did not break his legs at his crucifixion - a common occurrence. Even the Jewish Pharisee Paul - a learned man and scholar of the great Gamaliel, who was a keeper and defender of the Jewish Law, so much that he persecuted Christians to their deaths - became a convert and was so convinced by the Christian message that he ended up founding, nurturing and writing to many of the churches in the then-known world. His writings now make up a large part of the New Testament as they are so profound. Paul was so convinced that he went to his death for his beliefs. The disciples - good Jewish people who knew and obeyed the Law, were utterly convinced by Jesus teaching - but also by his death and resurrection. They were so convinced that Jesus had come back from the dead in a glorified body (fulfilling yet another prophesy) that many of them too went to their deaths during the persecution of Christians by Rome, for what they believed.

Secondly. Let's look at Islam. In Islam, the most basic of belief is that there 'is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet". Moslems believe that Mohammed is the greatest of all God's prophets. The Jews believe that the great prophets include Moses and Elijah as well as those listed in the Old Testament like Isaiah and Jeremiah. However in Christianity, Jesus is never regarded as a prophet - he never claimed to be a prophet.

The fact is that in all the gospel accounts Jesus claimed to be God the Son - not a subservient 'son of God' but God in human form. He taught with authority, he forgave sins (only God could do that), he accepted their worship (only God could do that) and he upset the Jewish authorities because he was accused of blasphemy - he claimed on many occasions to be God in human form. However, rather than make these rash claims, he actually backed them up with miraculous deeds - healing the sick, stilling a storm at sea, feeding 5000, raising the dead and so on. His miracles were not only described by the Gospel writers - even contemporary historians knew of his reputation. The secular Roman-Jewish historian Josephus said of him:

"Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day."

Other secular writers of the day - notably Apollonius Juvenal Pliny the Younger, Appian Lucanus Plutarch, Appion of Alexandria Lucian Pompon Mela, Arrian Lysias Ptolemy, Aulus Gellius Martial Quintius Curtius, Columella Paterculus Quintellian, Damis Pausanias Seneca, Dio Christosom Persius Silius Italicus, Dion Pruseus Petronius Statius, Epictetus Phaedrus Suetonius, Hermogones Philo-Judaeus Tacitus, Justus of Tiberius Pliny the Elder Valerius Flaccus, Valerius maximus and many others all attest not only to Jesus' existence but many also to his miraculous deeds. Paul, the Romano-Jewish writer of the New Testament letters made it very clear just who Jesus was and is.

Despite the many miracles that Jesus performed, there remained one that sets the seal on why Jesus of Nazareth is regarded by the majority of people alive today as God incarnate. This miracle is of course the resurrection. We are told that in both Islam and Judaism, their prophets led good lives, they died and were buried, and their graves regarded as shrines. In the case of Jesus the gospel accounts - and some of the secular historical accounts - confirm that he was killed by the Roman guards on a Cross, but on the third day the tomb was empty. More than that, many independent witnesses attest that Jesus appeared to his them on many occasions afterwards - not as a resuscitated corpse but in a new glorified existence. On one occasion he appeared to over 500 of them gathered together. No wonder Christianity spread like wildfire across the Roman Empire. Whilst some sceptics suggest 'theories' as to why there never was a resurrection, or Jesus 'didn't die' or any other excuse, the overwhelming evidence remains that this carpenter from an obscure part of the world rose again and appeared to his followers - just as he said he would throughout his ministry. Space does not permit me to give all the evidence here but anyone interested can leave a message on my message board (johnwelsh) and I will get in touch to answer questions. Or, alternatively, read 'Who moved the Stone' by Frank Morrison which was begun as a book that set out to disprove the resurrection, but after its writing converted Morrison who realised that the evidence for Jesus Christ actually being God incarnate was so overwhelming that it had to be taken seriously.

The belief of the vast majority of Christians in the world (and hence the majority of God believers as the number of Christians far outnumbers the numbers of moslems and Jews combined) is in a Trinitarian God - One God yet in Three persons. This has caused a bone of contention between Moslems and Jews who regard the Trinity as 'three Gods'. However, however difficult to grasp, biblically the evidence is there in many, many references to the Father, Son (God's Word) and Holy Spirit right from Genesis, through the prophets, the gospels and into Revelation, and whilst the nature of God is that he (she?) is One God, there are distinct revelations of God as Father, and his Holy Spirit, and as the Son, Jesus. Neither of the other two regard their founder in such a way - as God revealed in human form through his Spirit.

Therefore, with regard to the three religions in the question, whilst Islam and Judaism both have many commendable features, they were founded by prophets who claimed to be just that and claimed to be in tune with what God was saying to them. Christianity, on the other hand, was founded by a man who claimed to BE God, and whose deeds backed up that claim, and utterly convinced ( and still convinces) billions of intelligent, discerning and wise people throughout the last 2000 years, many of whom whose lives were so changed after accepting Jesus and were so convinced by the evidence that they were willing to die for their beliefs. You can make your choice, but lets not have any nonsense of Jesus being just a 'good guy' or another 'prophet'. He didn't leave that option open to us and never intended to.

Answer C1

Whether or not Christianity is the right religion certainly debatable and should be left up to one's own conscience, but the claims called in its defense in Answers B are not well-conceived.

1) Old Testament Prophecies: There are some Old Testament prophecies that the written accounts of Jesus have him completing. However, there are few problems. (1) The birth in Bethlehem is mentioned, which only occurs in 2/4 gospels, demonstrating that the writers are intentionally trying to alter Jesus' life to make it fit the relevant prophecy. (2) There are intentionally misinterpreted prophecies, such as the prophecy of Emmanuel, which actually refers to a boy named Emmanuel who lived in Isaiah's time (700s BCE) who is born several chapters after the prophecy and has no connection to the Messiah. (3) Most importantly, there are numerous prophecies in the Old Testament explicitly attributed to the Messiah, such as there being peace all over the world, which Jesus did not actually fulfill in his lifetime; the "he will return" is a cop-out.

2) Paul: Paul was not convinced by intelligent arguments or reasoning; he had a vision on the side of the road. This does not mean that it is necessarily any less accurate, but it is certainly suspect now.

3) Die for Beliefs: There are a number of people who die for contradictory beliefs. Dying for your beliefs or being willing to die for your beliefs only speaks to the sincerity of your belief, not its correctness. Many people died in the US Civil War for the belief that slavery should be preserved.

4) Jews were Convinced: First off, people being convinced does not mean that the argument is sound. People are convinced of things for wholly irrational reasons. But even following this track, only a minority of Jews were actually convinced. If we make a rough estimate of the Jews who became part of the early Christian Church, we are talking about less than 15% of the world Jewish population. This is the reason why Peter and Paul decided to preach to the Gentiles, increase their numbers. In the 15th century a Jewish leader named Shabbetai Zevi convinced around 50% of the Jewish community that he was the Messiah. By the metric of "convincing people" Shabbetai Zevi should be the Messiah, and not Jesus.

5) Jesus claimed to do Godly Things: Jesus claimed to forgive sin, but his believers never explain how it is that you can empirically tell that sins have been forgiven. For example, if a police officer tells me that my record has been wiped clean of all past crimes, I can petition law enforcement for a copy of criminal record and verify that this has happened. There is no parallel as concerns Jesus' claims. He also claimed to be God with no evidence outside of the Gospel Accounts, which we know are suspect because of point 1.

6) Roman Records: All Roman records of Jesus, including the wonderful excerpt by Josephus Flavius, are not witness testimony or individual discoveries but are Roman reporting about what other people were saying. There is no doubt that people in Roman Judea believed in a man who performed miraculous deeds named Jesus, but none of these writers ever met him or saw information that may track to him.

7) Epistles of Paul: The Epistles actually describe a person with some characteristics that differ from the Gospels, especially since Paul never met the physical Jesus. Nearly all Biblical scholars note the difference between the "Pauline Jesus" and the "Gospel Jesus".

8) Evidence of the Resurrection: There is no evidence of the resurrection in any of the Roman Accounts; it only exists in the Christian Holy Bible and derivative records. If, as Answers B state, 500 people witnessed the resurrection, why did not one of them write it down?

9) Lives Changed After Accepting Jesus: People's lives change after accepting Judaism or Islam too. The change in a person's life has more to do with a worldview change and a new meaning for life than any validity of that worldview.

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