Jesus and Mohammed Paper

Assignment: Jesus and Mohammed Paper

Charles Goodman

HUM/130 Religions of the World

January 10, 2011

Okey Nwachukwu-Udaku

There have been many religious figures in our past and present, representing all religions of the world. The Hindu, the Buddhist, Daoism, Confucianism and Judaism all have central figures considered as divine or prophets (Fisher, 2005) and not to mention all the figures in the religions of the indigenous people of the world. Two religions that not been mentioned yet are Christianity and the Muslim religions. Out of these two religions there are two central figures that stand out alone respectfully for each of the religions they represent. Jesus of the Christian religion and Mohammed of the Islam religion. Jesus and Mohammed are arguably the most influential in the religious world today since, Christianity and Islam are the largest religions with a following of 2.1 billion and1.5 billion respectively (Adherents.com, 2007).

Common knowledge tells us that Jesus was born on December 25th of an undetermined year in the town of Bethlehem. Many followers of the Christian religion believe this date and place to be true so it has been incorporated their religious doctrine, but not all agree on either the date or the place he was born. Some scholars agree he was born in fall and some believe he was born in the spring but they all do agree he was not born on December 25th. Some say he was born in Bethlehem and some Nazareth nevertheless one thing must be kept in mind the day Jesus born is important but not as important of his creation of Christianity and the impact he made on the world today.

Mary was the mother of Jesus and was married to a carpenter by the name of Joseph. Even though Mary was a virgin, she was miraculously impregnated by a Holy Spirit and Jesus was conceived. During this era in time the Jewish people were waiting for the Messiah which was promised in the old prophecies. This Messiah would have direct...