Q; Why so many different religions?
A: According to the dictionary, truth is something that's consistent with fact or reality. This implies that something that's true always has been true, and always will be true. And we know that that isn't true.
Throughout history, ideas that were once believed to be true have been proven to be wrong. Everyone used to know that the earth was flat. Only a few people questioned this obvious "fact." Later we learned that the earth was round. We know it's a perfect sphere. Except that it isn't. The earth is an oblate spheroid, or in simpler language, it bulges around the equator meaning that it's slightly oblong.
We used to believe that the earth was at the center of the universe, and that the sun traveled around the earth. Now we know that this isn't true and that in our universe the planets orbit the sun. Except that subjectively the earth IS at the center of the universe.
Sometimes, false truths are revealed overnight; at other times, it can take centuries. It depends on how well accepted an existing truth is, and how hard it is to test it.
Truth is not the same as fact. It can only be discovered by removing everything that can't be true and seeing what is left. If truth could be found in facts, then everyone who looked at those same facts would understand the same truths. However we know that people looking at the same facts come up with different truths to explain what the facts mean.
But this doesn't stop people from believing that they have found the better and more accurate truth and everyone else is wrong. And that is why there are so many different religions!
We often choose to join up with people who share the same basic assumptions and so the same interpretations of truth. This truth then becomes an absolute truth for that group of people. And this means that everyone else's truth is a falsehood, misconception or lie. It's easy to see how this applies to religious beliefs. Each religion has its own assumptions that create realities for its adherents.
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Religions