What is more rational to believe?

Who knows? All holy texts describe miracles, and they're all mutually exclusive. So somebody is making **** up, and a lot of people believe it.

I will take the number 1 over the fairy tale of item 2. As for Lord of the Rings... JRR Tolkien was a very devout Christian and if you read the accounts of C.S. Lewis's conversion Tolkien is the man that led Lewis to faith in Christ! If you see great minds like the Quantum Physicist John Polkinghorne, Alister MacGrath and C.S. Lewis looking at it and then concluding that God exists then perhaps you should notice that the fairy tale is number 2.

Here is how William D. Phillips, awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics, describes his church, "So many of my colleagues are Christians that I can't walk across my church's fellowship hall without tripping over a dozen physicists."

You have "Ernst Boris Chain, Nobel Prize in medicine, saying that "The principle of [divine] purpose ... stares the biologist in the face wherever he looks ... . The probability for such an event as the origin of DNA molecules to have occurred by sheer chance is just too small to be seriously considered ."

Perhaps the truth is in what you dismiss. Jesus died and rose and 11 men went from hiding to preaching everywhere and dying for their faith, you have Saul that hated Christians and was arresting them suddenly preaching Jesus as the son of God and Savior and going to his death pronouncing that. I have seen the changes in people, the things that have happened in my life...1 is the only reasonable answer and you even botched up that description. If you read the Bible you might learn that the main benefit is that man is incapable of gaining salvation without Jesus's death and resurrection. Just read any paper today, gunman kills 4, suicide bomber...there is no hope other than God and his son Jesus! The love, forgiveness and salvation is only found there, no other place!

May you find what is real and true.

Todd

"Truth is absolute and knowable and must be searched for diligently, but many will try to hide it, deny it or muddy it." - Bai Leung.

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell

Interesting. You give two options but those two options are solely your perspective and I don't buy into either one. So, I pick number 3.

A loving God created the universe and humanity with a goal in mind. After life on a beautiful earth these people would become his bride for all eternity. Those not wishing to be a part of this scenario would not be forced to do so because they have a free will. But during this time on earth God would impart many things in His people that would inspire them and help them along with life.

Number 1. There IS A GOD, He is the Omnipotent, the Alpha and the Omega. There would never be any such human, let alone 300+ that could interweave a tale that would even come close to being the story of Jesus Christ and the life he lived. READ THE BIBLE. Look at all the nuances throughout each book and then compare all the prophecies and such throughout history, then come back to me with an answer.

Shouldn't the creator care for its creation much like how a parent cares for its offspring, that doesn't seem like to big of a leap. Assuming that wouldn't God's decent to the physical realm need to mired in prophetic expectation, otherwise how would we recognize the Creators presence from that of a deranged man.

If #1 is thesis and #2 is antithesis, wouldn't professor Hegel say the truth is somewhere in the synthesis between the two, or the non-existant #3?

There are a number of problems with the first tale, starting with the erroneous translation of a Greek word meaning "young woman" into "virgin". But the real problem is that it asks us to believe that god created Jesus for the purpose of convincing god to remit sins. Which is just as silly as it sounds.

Indeed, it is easier to believe the second one, but faith is what it is. In religion, we are meant to believe what we are told to believe. Whether what we are told is true or not, I'll not be the judge, but know this: Worship gives people meaning in their lives. Believing in a higher power makes people feel like their lives are important, and worthwhile. But, whether religion is right or wrong, it does present a sense of morals that each person should strive to follow to the best of their ability. I believe that even if I worship the wrong God, or even if there isn't a God, upholding these morals with honor and obedience will grant me the title of "A good person". If this title grants me a spot in this elusive Heaven, great, that's what i hope for. But, if I work hard for naught, so be it, for it is my fate. In the begining of my life, i didn't choose it, it was "forced" upon me, but I chose to continue worshipping, and that will determine my fate.

2.

As you have stated the two concepts, quite naturally the second sounds definitely more rational than the first!

Although I don't think #2 is how it actually happened, #1 is total nonsense, so #2 wins by default.