**We can find that each religion boils down to similar - if not the same - fundamental principles and values.** Religions exist as vessels for the recognition or worship of higher powers, often with underlying explanatory and preaching roles within knowledge and society. Someone once told me that what distinguishes science from religion, is that if the human race were to begin from a clean slate, science would not change and religion, however, would. In response to this, I argued that religion will simply not be reincarnated in the same _form_, i.e., with the very same phenomena, mythologies, and frameworks. But the underlying principles that we interpret in the religions that exist today would remain; they would merely be manifest in alternative gospels and texts and messengers, but the fundamental values that religion serves to teach us will reappear. Just as how we may rediscover the sciences in a novel order, possibly through different experiments and new angles, we would rediscover the fundamentals of spirituality and positive, purposeful living through novel religious vessels. This anecdote is intended to introduce the idea of viewing religion not as a literal collection of specific deities, rituals, symbols, and texts, but as individual avenues to the inculcation of highly degenerate value systems. Though, for example, Hinduism varies from the Abrahamic religions by a chasm, the metaphorical value of Hindu mythology is highly compatible with the principles that Islam, Christianity, and Judaism encourage in their followers. - Most simply, each religion preaches the surrendering of one's existence to the almighty, an act of deference to the higher powers at work in the world (whether they be a single God, several deities, or merely the natural world) that inspires _humility_ and dampens the development of an over-active ego - The Seven Deadly Sins in Christianity overlap with Hinduism's recognition of 6 Enemes of the Mind, the Arishadvargas. Sloth, the seventh Deadly Sin, is recognised as a trait elsewhere in the doctrine. - Generosity, compassion, and charity are key practices within Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and Judaism (to name a common few). These religions may refer to this practice in differing manners and forms of scripture, but the art of giving itself is a crucial component in each. The ideals we must live by and the behaviours we must grow beyond are critical elements of what each religion aims to imbibe in its followers, and these notions are compatible across religions.

There's commonality between religions because the humans that invented them were flawed, mortal, anxious critters. There's no truth in any religion that isn't better acquirable in some other way. Looking for "truth" in a religious book (Bible, Quran, etc) is a deliberate act of cherrypicking. Knock it off.

**Believing that there is a common truth to all religions implies that they are all essentially talking about the same thing. This doesn't hold, not only because rampant [religious conflicts] (https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/religion_and_conflict%20) throughout history show certain religious groups perceiving the others as heathens, but sacred texts and ideas held at the apex of some institutions completely contradict those of others.** - It's important to consider that the doctrines at the heart of many prominent religions are not considered to be merely adornments that mask any one essential truth. The things that are considered central religious tenets are hugely inconsistent between different groups. - For example - [Christianity] (https://www.history.com/topics/religion/history-of-christianity), with its God as being present in the Holy Trinity, cannot logically be seen to boil down to the same thing as [Hinduism] (https://www.dummies.com/religion/hinduism/hindu-gods-and-goddesses/), which claims that there are 33 Gods. Even [what a 'God' consists of] (https://www.qcc.cuny.edu/socialsciences/ppecorino/phil_of_religion_text/CHAPTER_1_OVERVIEW/Attributes_of_God.htm) is something that varies among different groups. - Perhaps more important than this - a central part of all religions is [absolutism] (https://www.britannica.com/topic/absolutism-political-system). The belief that their way is the only right way; again, this is not a decorative principle, but an essential component of the religion. And it's one that has led to horrific religious [violence] (https://cvir.st-andrews.ac.uk/articles/10.15664/jtr.1153/).

**Although religions may share general principles of characteristics, individual religions are too different from one another to the extent that a commonality among all religion is not feasible to find.** There is no scholarly consensus on the definition of a religion; what is widely accepted, however, is that religions are a spiritual practice that ordains a certain metaphysical worldview, mode of ethical thinking that is predicated on some version of theism (or deism). Despite these common characteristics, individual religions are simply too different from one another, to the extent that it is impossible to find one single detail on which every single religion agree. Some examples may be: * The nature of God: the monotheism/polytheism dichotomy alone is sufficient to rule out the notion that all religions have the same principle on God. Even if we stick to one side, individual religions still present drastically different views on God. For example, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all strictly monotheistic religions. However, the Christian notion of trinity is rejected by the other two and is, perhaps, unique to every religion in the world. The God in Judaism is much more anthropomorphic than that of Islam. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_bush) * Ethics: even on matters of moral judgments, religions still cannot agree on every single point. For example, Islam considers worshipping polytheistic gods to be the greatest and unforgivable sin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirk_(Islam)), yet Christianity considers blasphemy against the holy spirit to be unforgivable. Islam and Christianity celebrates proselytism, while Judaism forbids it. * Eschatology: eschatology refers to a religion's views on the end of the world. Even on this topic, no religions can completely agree on everything. For example, Islam sees the increase in polytheism as a sign that the Day of Judgment is coming, while Christianity and Judaism do not. All in all, religions are too different from one another on every detail to the extent that we cannot find a similarity among all of them concerning any specific aspect.