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[Dynamo]

Is there any specific, evidence-based reason you have for choosing YHWH over other gods, or is it because you were born and raised in a Christian part of the world? I mean, what is your opinion on the Book of Mormon, or Calvinism, or Islam? Religious people are very capable of seeing the blatant fallacy in other religions, but then they cannot apply that exact same reasoning to their own. I've never understood that.

[jimwalton]

When I look at the various cosmological, ontological, teleological, and axiological arguments for the existence of God, they make sense to me, so I firmly believe that theism makes more sense than atheism.

Weighing and comparing the major religions of the world, there seem to be only two that really rise to the top: Christianity and Hinduism. Islam (and many others) are just cults, or distortions, of Christianity. Buddhism (and others) is just a cult of Hinduism. Confucianism is really a philosophy of lifestyle, not a religion per se. When I weigh Christianity and Hinduism, Christianity seems to far outweigh Hinduism in its realistic portrayal of God, reality, salvation, life, and death.

The Book of Mormon has huge problems of believability in that NONE of it, not a single shred, has been corroborated by history. Anybody can say anything they want, but if it flies straight in the face of evidence, it's more than suspect to me. Another one of Mormonism’s greatest weaknesses lies in the fallibility and contradictions of its prophets. They say they believe in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, but passages from the Bible are contradicted by the revelations of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and later prophets. And new revelations can contradict and replace older revelations. In my opinion, it's not a rational belief system.

Calvinism is a particular interpretation of Christian theology. I agree with some of Calvin's points, but not all. My brother, by contrast, is a Calvinist. No matter. It's just different interpretations, but not a different religion or belief system.

Islam? As I mentioned before, Islam is the greatest of the Christian heresies (to use a phrase from C.S. Lewis). Mohammad took Christianity and changed it, removing Jesus from deity, and putting Mohammad as its greatest prophet. But it still has Abraham, Moses, etc.

One of the things about Islam that doesn't make sense to me is the radical transcendence of Allah: the distance between man and God is impossible to cross. Repetition and submission are the rule, not any kind of a relationship. And there is no certainty of heaven for the common person. It is all "the will of God," they say. One's destiny is left at the mercy of an unknown and unknowable will. Zacharias says, "When relationship is swallowed up by rules, political power and enforcement become the means of containment."

Islam is a religion of the Book, as opposed to Christianity, which focuses on the person of Jesus. But how does one hold that the written text is perfect (which it is not; there are textual variants)? Also, Jesus didn't come to give a certain group of people ethnic worth. That's Islam. Jesus loved the world and came to save the world.

Does Christianity have its issues and problems? Everything does. Anything can be argued against.