Contradictions Among Major Religions

1. Christianity

Core claims:

One God in three persons (Trinity).
Jesus is the incarnate Son of God, fully divine and human.
Salvation through faith in Christ’s atoning death on the cross and resurrection.
Resurrection of the dead: souls go to eternal heaven or hell.
Scripture (the Bible) is divinely inspired and uniquely authoritative.

Contradictions:

Islam and Judaism deny the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus.
Hinduism and Buddhism reject sin and atonement theology.
Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism teach reincarnation, not resurrection.
Science and other religious creation stories contradict the Genesis creation timeline.

2. Islam

Core claims:

Absolute monotheism: Allah has no partners or equals.
Muhammad is the final prophet; the Qur’an is the final revelation.
Salvation through submission to Allah and good deeds.
Denies Jesus’s divinity and crucifixion (claims he was raised to heaven).
Afterlife: resurrection, judgment, paradise or hell.

Contradictions:

Christianity affirms Jesus’s crucifixion and divinity.
Judaism rejects Muhammad as a prophet.
Hinduism and Buddhism reject a single creator God.
Zoroastrianism and Baháʼí accept different revelations.

3. Judaism

Core claims:

One God (YHWH), creator and sustainer of all.
God revealed the Torah to Moses; Israel is His chosen people.
Awaiting a future human Messiah (not yet arrived).
The afterlife is ambiguous or metaphorical in traditional Judaism.

Contradictions:

Christianity and Islam claim new covenants that supersede Judaism.
Hinduism and Buddhism deny creation ex nihilo by a personal God.
Sikhism and Baháʼí include prophets outside Jewish tradition.

4. Jainism

Core claims:

The universe is eternal; no creator God.
Souls are eternal and bound by karma.
Liberation through nonviolence and detachment.
Reincarnation until the soul attains perfect purity.

Contradictions:

Monotheistic religions claim a creator deity; Jainism denies one.
Rejects divine grace, atonement, and prophecy - key in Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam).
Jain cosmology contradicts linear creation-and-end-time narratives.

5. Buddhism

Core claims:

No creator God; the cosmos is beginningless.
Life is suffering; liberation ends rebirth.
Morality and mindfulness purify the mind; no permanent soul.

Contradictions:

The denial of an eternal soul contradicts Hinduism’s doctrine.
Rejects divine revelation, creator God, and heaven/hell as eternal states.
Incompatible with Abrahamic resurrection or judgment beliefs.

6. Hinduism

Core claims:

Brahman: the ultimate, formless reality; gods are manifestations.
Cyclic creation and destruction of the universe.
Reincarnation and karma govern all beings. People are born into castes.
Liberation through good karma, devotion, knowledge, and discipline.

Contradictions:

Contradicts Abrahamic linear time and single creation.
Conflicts with monotheistic rejection of polytheism.
Karma and reincarnation oppose ideas of divine judgment or eternal hell.

7. Sikhism

Core claims:

One formless, eternal God.
Founded by Guru Nanak. The Sikh scripture is the Guru Granth Sahib.
Rejects ritualism, caste, and idolatry.
Stresses ethical living, meditation on God’s name, and equality.

Contradictions:

Rejects both polytheism (Hinduism) and incarnation (Christianity).
Denies Muhammad and Jesus as final or unique revelations.
Rejects karmic fatalism, yet accepts reincarnation - unlike Abrahamic faiths.

8. Zoroastrianism

Core claims:

Ahura Mazda is the supreme creator and source of all good.
Angra Mainyu is the spirit of evil - cosmic dualism.
Human free choice determines alignment with good or evil.
Afterlife judgment; eventual restoration of creation.

Contradictions:

Abrahamic monotheism denies any co-eternal evil being.
Hinduism’s cyclical cosmology differs from Zoroastrian linear eschatology.
Buddhism and Jainism reject moral dualism as metaphysical reality.

9. Baháʼí Faith

Core claims:

One God reveals truth progressively through messengers (Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Baháʼu’lláh, etc.).
All religions share one divine source; unity of humanity is the goal.
Science and religion are complementary.

Contradictions:

Christianity, Islam, and Judaism reject new revelation after their prophets.
Buddhism and Jainism do not affirm a personal God or revelation model.
Baháʼí universalism contradicts exclusivist truth-claims of others.

10. Daoism (also translated as Taoism)

Core claims:

The Dao is the natural, ineffable cosmic principle underlying all.
Harmony through wu-wei (non-forcing action) and balance (yin-yang).
No personal creator God; immortality and transcendence sought through harmony.

Contradictions:

Denies personal God of Abrahamic religions.
Rejects moral absolutism - emphasizes balance rather than divine command.
Contradicts the karma/rebirth model of Buddhism and Hinduism.

11. Shintō

Core claims:

Indigenous Japanese religion centered on kami (spirits of nature, ancestors, forces).
No creator god; the world is inherently good.
Ritual purity and harmony with nature are central.

Contradictions:

Polytheism and animism contradict monotheism.
No doctrine of sin or salvation, unlike Abrahamic faiths.
Rejects karma/rebirth system of Buddhism, though often blended in Japan.

12. Animism (Global Indigenous Traditions)

Core claims:

Everything (animals, plants, rivers, mountains) has a spirit or life-force.
The world is a web of relationships; rituals maintain balance with spirits.
Often lacks a supreme creator but recognizes local deities or ancestors.

Contradictions:

Conflicts with monotheistic exclusivity (one God only).
Contradicts non-theistic worldviews (e.g., secular humanism, Buddhism).
Challenges doctrines separating humans from nature or spirit from matter.

Each religion provides a different - often mutually exclusive - account of:

The origin of the universe (created once vs. eternally cycling)
The nature of God (one, many, or none)
The human condition (sin, ignorance, karma, illusion)
The path to salvation/liberation (faith, works, enlightenment, devotion)
The afterlife (heaven/hell, rebirth, none, or ancestral spirit world)

What Science Tells Us

Origin and Age of the Universe

Evidence: Cosmic microwave background radiation, galactic redshift, and abundance of light elements.

Conclusion: The universe began with the Big Bang about 13.8 billion years ago.

No evidence supports a six-day creation by the Biblical God or the claim by Biblical literalists that the universe is 6,000 years old.

Age of the Solar System and Earth

Meteorite dating, radiometric isotopes, and lunar samples show:

Solar system: ≈4.57 billion years old

Earth: ≈4.54 billion years old

Evolution of Life

Evidence: Fossil record, DNA homology, comparative anatomy, observed natural selection.

Conclusion: All life evolved through common descent over billions of years.

First single-celled life: ~3.8 billion years ago

Humans share ~98.8% of DNA with chimpanzees.

No scientific evidence supports independent, instantaneous creation of species.

At least 99.9% of all the species that have evolved on Earth so far have gone extinct due to five mass extinctions.

Consciousness and the Soul

Findings: Neural activity correlates with every measurable aspect of thought, memory, and emotion.

Brain injuries, anesthesia, and neuroimaging all show consciousness depends on the physical brain.

No reproducible evidence exists for an immaterial, detachable soul.

Reincarnation and Resurrection

Claims of past-life memory or bodily resurrection lack empirical confirmation.

Rigorous investigations (e.g., by Ian Stevenson, Jim Tucker) remain anecdotal and inconclusive.

No verified mechanism allows the reanimation or transmigration of consciousness after death.

Summary

Every major religion offers mutually exclusive explanations of the universe’s origin, purpose, and future.

Science, using observation, testing, and revision, provides a consistent and independently verifiable picture:

Universe: 13.8 billion years old

Earth: 4.54 billion years old

Life evolved gradually through natural processes

Consciousness arises from neurological activities, not supernatural souls.

Therefore, while religious faiths differ irreconcilably in beliefs, scientific cosmology and biology converge on a single evidence-based worldview - one that continues to expand through discovery rather than divine decree. Hence, my worldview is scientific, secular and vegan. What is your worldview? How do you justify your worldview?