Introduction

This is not some vague, sanitized, pseudo-intellectual comparison with a “unbiased” view. Instead, a number of very important points are made, and the religions/worldviews are compared on that basis. A strong conclusion is made, and you will find ample references to verify the points I have made.

Foundational Wisdom

Truth

You cannot begin to consider which religion is true (if any) before first knowing that there are things which are absolutely true. If you believe that there is no absolute truth, I must ask you one thing: is that absolutely true? “I can’t be sure I really know anything,” you might say. But do you know that? These are not mere word games but prove that we understand what is and what cannot be, whether we like it or not.

All Religions Cannot Be Valid at Once

All religions cannot be equally valid, for they claim different things. If you are making the claim that they are equal, it is because you are ignorant or are belittling believers by assuming they make no serious claims about the way things are.

There Are Dense Atheists Too

There are slow atheists, unintelligent Christians, and ignorant Buddhists. The knowledge or intelligence of some believers does not determine the truth of the religion.

You Don't Have to Look into Countless Religions

There are not, in fact, countless vastly different religions in the world. Those claiming to be Christians, Muslims, and Catholics are over half of the world's population. Hindus, atheists, agnostics, and Buddhists make up most of the remainder. The rest are 'folk religions' and outliers (such as Jewish believers and Sikhs). You only have to look into their basic beliefs to see whether they are worth further investigation. Try our Beliefs page.

Scientism

There is a popular belief nowadays that all truth comes from science. If that’s true, is that a scientific truth? No, obviously not. So you see that this idea comes from idolizing science, not sound thinking. Many things are true but cannot be proven by science. In fact, science relies on many things which must be true for it to be useful, e.g., math and the laws of logic.

The Scientific Consensus Does Not Determine Truth

The godless man says that God is not real, normally because of a belief in evolution and the Big Bang. However, these popular theories are not actually rock solid,¹² despite the perception that they are. There are also multiple proofs of God’s existence in the world around us and ourselves,³ besides miracles we must take into account.⁴

A Worldview Should Not Ignore Major Parts of Reality

Atheism ignores massive lines of evidence and aspects of reality, then points the finger at the religious, claiming that they are crazy for expecting their worldview to address these things. For example, why does consciousness exist? It is not physical. Why are we morally obligated to do things? If morality is just a set of feelings tuned by evolution, we might as well do what we like. What began the universe? If all matter came from a single point, something incredible caused this event.

A Good God Would Be Fair

The argument that there are too many religions for one to be true is often used to say that it would be unfair and unreasonable to expect people to find the true religion (if that matters to God). Therefore, God must not exist. However, this argument makes several unreasonable assumptions:

1. God does not judge fairly. But of course, if it would be too hard for some to find Him due to circumstances, would we not expect God (who must be smarter than us) to judge accordingly?
2. God does not provide extra help to those in difficult circumstances. There is an interesting phenomenon taking place right now: many Muslims are having dreams about Jesus Christ. Coincidence?
3. There is not a religion that stands apart enough to be spotted by all. If you do not think Christianity stands apart, you know very little about it. For starters, how many focus on the creator of the Universe, rather than worshipping material things (the Sun, the Moon, etc.) or gods who are really more like superheroes?

Belief In Truth

Hinduism and Buddhism don’t even try to prove themselves oftentimes. Some will say that there are many paths to God, or to enlightenment; others will say that it is silly to talk of proofs, as though their religion is above that sort of thing. Hinduism is also blatantly mythological. New gods pop up, and older ones fall out of fashion. There are groups in these religions that would disagree though.

As for atheism, if our reasoning abilities came about randomly, we cannot trust them at all. Therefore, atheism undermines our ability to understand truth (but we clearly understand it, so atheism is undermined).

Atheism, Buddhism, and Hinduism can therefore be dismissed, though they will come up again.

Creation, Morals, and the Soul

Only a few religions that are still practiced address three great questions: How was everything created? What causes us to know the difference between good and evil? What will happen to my soul when I die?

• Creation demands an explanation. Everything which is made has a cause, and complex, information-rich things do not come from anything but intelligence, so the universe and the life in it require an intelligent cause. Moreover, because of the nature of time, we can know that the universe had a beginning.⁵
• Morals demand a law-giver, or they are not binding. I’m other words, if it is really wrong for a King to rape and humiliate his slaves, it is only because there is some law he is subject to - and that must come from a higher authority than him.
• Consciousness, reason, and free will prove that we have a soul, since none of these are properties of matter or matter in themselves. (There is no area of the brain that is happiness; the experience itself is not physical.) And since the soul is separate from the body, it is valid to ask what will happen to us upon death.

Atheism can never explain the creation of matter,⁶ nor can it justify true morals⁷ in principle, nor can religions with no supreme God, including Buddhism. Hinduism may address them in some of its forms, but there are many different beliefs within Hinduism.

Any worldview which says that nothing other than physical stuff exists cannot acknowledge consciousness either, which is clear inner evidence of us being more than our bodies.⁸

Significant religions that address these questions satisfactorily are Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, Sikhism, and Judaism—four of which claim the Old Testament is God's word.

Coherence

Do all religions make coherent claims? In other words, do they all say things that make sense? Certainly not. For example, Muslims believe that the Quran is true, but it says the Bible is true and incorruptible… and the Bible contradicts core Muslim beliefs. Atheists do not believe God tells us what is right and wrong, but they normally believe everyone ought to do good, especially to animals.

Every worldview is accused of contradictions and incoherence by the others, but we have to be careful not to jump to conclusions. If there is a reasonable possible explanation for what is said to be a contradiction, ignore it. Take the parts of the Bible where there are different accounts of the Jesus’s resurrection. One says there was an angel present, and the other that there were two angels. I’m the same way, my friend Jim and I might easily tell a story of running into our friend John and his wife in two different ways: I could mention that we saw John, and Jim could mention that we saw John and his wife. Neither is a lie or wrong.

Determining the coherence of every aspect of a worldview can require a lot more investigation than reading a few articles.

Miracles

Those who believe in the supernatural must ask what proof there is that God really supports their worldview. Great miracles are an excellent way he can show his endorsement, and records of them are conspicuously lacking in Islam (no miracle other than the “beauty of the Quran”).

Only a few religions make serious claims about historical miracles, and of them, there is no disputing that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus massively outweighs the others, but that is saying little. Even Romans and unbelieving Jews noted down facts that help make a strong case for Jesus’s resurrection, as you can see in Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus.

Religions With One God

Most religions throughout history have involved many gods, and these gods are extremely immoral—often more evil than most people. They are also easily fooled. Pagans believe at the same time that a god can create humans in all of our intricate complexity and also not anticipate traps prepared by other gods and humans. They also often believe that they are at the mercy of petty, cruel gods, and therefore have no basis for believing that we owe righteous behavior to anybody, ultimately, yet we know because we believe in good and evil that there must be a good God.

To assume there is more than one being which has existed before time (something must have) and can create souls and stars is odd. It is natural to believe that only one being would have supreme power.

The major religions that believe in one God are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, in order of appearance, so let’s see which is true.

Most Jews today believe Jesus wasn't the Messiah prophesied about in the Law and the Prophets (the Old Testament of the Bible), but Christians believe he is. (There are Jews who believe in Jesus, normally called Messianic Jews.) Muslims affirm Jesus is the Messiah, but not the Son of God (only a prophet). They also believe that Muhammad was another prophet—the last prophet.

You may not believe the Bible, but a quick look at some major prophecies (Isaiah 52:13–Isaiah 53; Psalm 22) and then a read of the Bible would show you clearly that Jesus is the Messiah. On the other hand, Muhammad is clearly an antichrist by New Testament standards for many reasons. (Muslims say he is not the Som of God.) Therefore, Christianity is a continuation of the Jewish Faith, but Islam is not a continuation of Christianity. Ipso facto, Christianity is true.

Footnotes

1. Evolution - Case Closed?. ↩

2. The Big Bang. ↩

3. Proofs of God’s Existence. ↩

4. Supernatural Events. ↩

5. To learn why the universe cannot be eternal, see Is the Universe Eternal?. ↩

6. To learn why morality should be trusted and must have a source beyond ourselves and the universe, see The Moral Argument. ↩

7. The Design Argument. ↩

8. For an explanation of consciousness and how it is non-physical, see The Argument From Reason. ↩