Gene Burton...regarding your first post- That is rather a "straw man" argument. No one I know suggests that anyone died horribly in defense of a belief that they KNEW was false, or had made up THEMSELVES! But many have died for beliefs that someone else made up!(Witness Jonestown, or those who committed suicide when that comet was approaching several years ago). There are strange cults today that people are willing to die for....

And I don't see that "fabrication" necessarily means intentional fabrication. It might well be a partial truth that began with a historical figure, embroidered by much re-telling and wishful thinking. (Note that MANY people today believe that Jews stayed home from the World Trade Center on 9/11..etc..despite obvious evidence to the contrary.)

The truth or falsity of the world's major religions is simply too complex and lost in history to be proven one way or another...so, for my part, I am reduced to evaluating them by their deeds, logic, whether they claim absolute 'truth'.....and whether they insist that *I* listen to them, too! At least the Muslims don't have missionaries knocking at my door!