This is the empirical observation I abide by. Especially the bold.
Atheists claim that five thousand years of doctrine, reconciled by opposing religions (hence Moses and Abram in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity) have been fabricated for political/other purposes long ago. The Bible is the most widely read book in the world, just after The Diary of Anne Frank.
Can Billions of people worldwide, including those that have lived and deceased centuries before - have defined their values and beliefs on a figment of the imagination devised long ago for ancient political/entertainment benefit?
The argument does not satisfy me.
It is theoretically possible that could happen... however, considering that religion is "unto God", and Christianity is "unto Christ Jesus", one can assume that of the thiestic beliefs, all but Christianity suggest that every human is who Jesus was... that man=>God, as man is, do not pass Go do not collect $200. This is of course impossible, not only because there's more than one and hypothetically only one could be true, but also because there would be no difference between one person or another if this was in fact the nature of things, essentially negating the concept of religion altogether, which is the ascension of man to God (man=>God) which reeks of being a product of the original lie, which was, be like God without God's involvement.
Only Christianity says that Jesus was this person, and that God had to reconcile us to Himself rather than the other way around. All the other views have a human-centrism, which is a nice way of saying pride or anything which begins apart from God. So again, what man would make this up? Who would think of that to such an extent to know this
would be how God sees things? and if they did, why would they have God come to earth as
Jesus? because apart from the knowledge that Jesus is God, Jesus was a very average person, yes, apart from who He actually was, all the miracles, etc.
I cannot fathomably conceive anyone inventing that, there is nothing in the human nature to do so. If you do not believe this sentiment, then answer this question (to yourself, honestly): If you were God, how would you display yourself to your creation? Would you even do so? What would it look like? Would you come as one of them? Would you serve the people around you as, basically, a nobody? Would you wash the feet of the person who was gonna rat you out? Would you let your creation murder you? and would you come back to life to bring them all back with you for no reason other than that you loved them that much.
In the words of Mark Driscoll, it's unthinkable to say Christianity is a religion, that Christianity is made-up. It's more unthinkable than coming home to find Bill Gates mowing your grass, Warren Buffett scrubbing out your toilet, and Obama doing dishes. You're like, "what's going on?" and they say "we're here to help! we're here to help. and you can murder us, bury us in the yard, and we'll come back in 3 days to finish the job." Yeah, the thing is, the unthinkable happened. God came to earth to serve mankind creation, to die because the first man and woman decided they didn't need God to live (and it turns out, they did) and then returned to life so that we could as well, solely through Him and our relationship with Him (i.e., not a bunch of religion. think of Jesus as someone who is totally awesome in every way, whatever hardship you've had, He's had it worse, and better yet he is a servant and a friend, better than anyone you know. He loves you in an unthinkable way. That's who God is.). and that's how we know it's real. It's unthinkable.