Science and Religion Are Incompatible

According to the New Testament, Jesus fulfilled a lot of Old Testament prophecies about the Jewish Messiah. But take a closer look at these "prophecies" and you'll find many of them are vague. Take a closer look at the Old Testament, and you'll find that many of these "prophecies" aren't about the Messiah at all."How can Jews fail to accept the claims of Christ? Why don’t they believe? Are they just being stubborn? Are they hard- headed? Can’t they read? Are they stupid? Why is it that the vast majority of Jews has always rejected that Jesus is the one who was predicted—a savior sent from God in order to suffer for others, so as to bring salvation, and then be raised from the dead?The answer is actually quite simple. In the Jewish tradition, before the appearance of Christianity, there was no expectation of a suffering Messiah. But doesn’t the Bible constantly talk about the Messiah who would suffer? As it turns out, the answer is no. Since the beginning, Chris- tians have frequently cited certain passages in the Old Testament as clear prophecies of the future suffering Messiah, passages such as Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22, in which someone suffers horribly, some- times expressly for the sins of others. These passages, Christians have claimed, are clear statements about what the Messiah would be like. Jews who do not believe in Jesus, however, have always had a very effective response: the Messiah is never mentioned in these passages. You can check it out for yourself: read Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22 (I’ll quote the relevant verses later in this chapter). The term “Messiah” never occurs in them. In Jewish tradition, these passages refer not to the Messiah but to someone else (or to lots of someone elses). Before Christianity there were no Jews that we know of who anticipated a Messiah who would suffer and die for the sins of others and then be raised from the dead. What then would the Messiah be like? We know from Jewish documents written around the time of Jesus that there were various expectations of what the Messiah would be like. In none of these expectations was he anything like Jesus....That the Messiah would be a powerful warrior-king was the expectation of many Jews in Jesus’ day." [1]So, Jesus didn't really fulfill the prophecies too well.My opponent links to a website that lists "365 Jewish prophcies of their future Messiah."The first alleged "prophecy of the future Messiah" is Genesis 3:15: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring [seed] and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” If you look at the context, this is what God says to Eve after discovering that "The serpent deceived me, and I ate [the forbidden fruit]". This verse has nothing to do with the Messiah. But, let's look at which verses fulfill this "prophecy". Apparently, Luke 1:35: "The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." Also, Matthew 1:18-20: " This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly."Apparently, this is a fulfillment of prophecy...because "seed of a woman" is mentioned in Genesis 3:15 (with no reference to the Messiah) and Jesus was the "seed of a woman." Prophecy fulfilled? This website has some pretty low standards for "prophecy fulfillment."None of the prohecies my opponent lists are particularly compelling reasons to accept the outlandish claims of Christianity. He mentions Matthew 24:21 -- "For then there will be great tribulation..." Yes, there is great tribulation. Christians are being genocided in the Middle East. And a few decades ago, Jews were being genocided in Germany. Something is always going on. This is not an amazing prophecy. No reasonable person would convert to Christianity because the Bible predicts something that could be defined as "great tribulation" will be taking place somwhere in the world.Muslims see Jesus in dreams because Jesus is a prophet in Islam. I'm not surprised that Muslims have religious dreams. I'm not surprised if Hindus have dreams that involve their own religious characters, imagery and symbolism.Have you ever heard of confirmation bias? "Confirmation bias refers to a type of selective thinking whereby one tends to notice and to look for what confirms one's beliefs, and to ignore, not look for, or undervalue the relevance of what contradicts one's beliefs." [2]Christians are desperate to consider anything in the Old Testament a "prophecy" and they're even more desperate to see that "prophecy" fulfilled in the New Testament. If you care about truth, developn some reasonable standards for what is a "prophecy" about the Messiah and what is considered a "fullfillment" of that prophecy.[1] Bart D. Ehrman, "Jesus Interrupted" [2] Robert Todd Carroll, "The Skeptic's Dictionary" [online]