Belief (God, religion and faith)

Knowing God

If God exists, how would we know anything about his character? And how would we know if we could get to know him, and if so, how?

• God (show me a sign) – can we ever know God?
• Where in the world is God? – 5 key questions that religions must answer
• Choosing my religion – which of them fit the facts?

Religions

Information on the beliefs of the major world religions – who started them and when, and how their teachings and practices compare.

• 10 facts about 12 major religions – basic facts about the big 12.
• Summary of world religions – more information about the 8 biggest world religions.
• Are all religions the same? – what are the facts?
• Buddhism – information about the only world religion without a God or gods
• What christians believe – understanding the world’s most-believed religion
• Could a good God send people to hell? – hell is a horrible idea – could it possibly be just? And does the Bible teach it?
• Is there life after death? – most of us would like to live on after we die, but have we any good reason to believe we can?
• How many christians are converts? – what does the available data tell us?

Jesus

Reliable information about Jesus, whether he was a real person, what we can know about him, and how we should understand him.

• Was Jesus a real person? – what unbiased historians can tell us
• Quotes on Jesus as a historical person. Historians and their conclusions.
• Jesus in history – you may be surprised what the historians have concluded
• Who was Jesus? (Summary) – a summary of what the gospels tell us about Jesus
• Who was Jesus? – a more detailed look at what the gospels tell us about Jesus
• Did Jesus really perform miracles? – what do secular historians conclude?
• Jesus – son of God? – did Jesus claim to be divine?
• Was Jesus raised from the dead? – the historical facts, and the arguments for and against.
• Historical Jesus references – scholars used in preparing material on Jesus
• Does the Turin Shroud really show an image of Jesus? – a summary of all the research and arguments.

Sceptical explanations for Jesus

Some say Jesus wasn’t a historical person – the stories are legends, copied from other legends in the pagan world of the day. But the experts say this isn’t true.

• Egyptian god Horus and Jesus . Who was the Egyptian god Horus, and how is he similar to Jesus?
• Jesus and Mithras? – parallels between Christianity and Mithraism?
• Was Jesus a copy of pagan gods? – separating fact from fiction.

The Bible

Information on the Bible and how to read it, based on the best scholars. I’ve tried to be objective.

• Reading the Bible with an open mind – how can we avoid the pitfalls of a biased understanding of the Bible, and work out how we should read it?

The New Testament as history

The evidence that the New Testament contains sufficiently reliable historical information, preserved well enough for us to be confident of our knowledge of Jesus.

• Are the gospels historical? – how historians evaluate the New Testament as history
• The reliability of the New Testament text – how much has the New Testament been changed since it was first written?
• Who wrote the New Testament? Does it matter? – does the New Testament contain forgeries, or books that shouldn’t be there?
• Which historians should we trust? – finding our way through the different opinions
• Archaeology and John’s gospel – discoveries tells us about John’s accuracy
• New Testament errors? A quick look at some of the most commonly-mentioned problems.
• Were Bethlehem and Nazareth real places? – what does the archaeology tell us?

Difficulties with the Old Testament

This section considers some of the issues that are seen to cast doubt on the accuracy of the Old Testament, but may in fact indicate different ways to understand it.

• Can we believe the Old Testament? – a summary of the views of historians and archaeologists.
• Does archaeology show the Old Testament is true? The answer depends on which parts we are talking about. Here are the facts.
• Did Moses really lead 2 million people across the Red Sea and into Canaan? – what are the conclusions of historians?
• Did God really order the slaughter of the Canaanites? – the Bible and archaeology both throw doubt on the Bible story of the conquest of Canaan by Joshua.
• Did the walls of Jericho really fall down? – The Bible story says the walls of Jericho fell down without the Israelites touching them, but could that be true?

Photos: MorgueFile – Mosque, monks, white church, idol, priest, Buddha, Hindu goddess, menorah.

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