This was a friends major as a history major at UCLA while I was college age. He eventually got a Master's degree in History specializing in Buddhism and Sanskrit there at UCLA.
Because of this we had many long conversations regarding philosophy and comparative religion during those years and after.
My conclusion was that basically at core all religions are exactly the same in that they all tend to believe in some variation of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". And because of this this is why God showed me personally how there are heavens for every kind religion on earth. And not only that there are heavens for all truly kind and helpful persons to themselves and others on earth as well.
So, what I took away from all this reading and discussions with my friend regarding comparative religion was they were basically all completely the same thing except for cultural nuances and cultural norms thrown in.
So, in the end the world became a much more integrated place for me to live where I didn't feel so culturally separated from other countries and groups as I had before. Because in the end all culture is based on religion in some way worldwide if you study Cultural Anthropology like I did. So, if you study the nature of cultures they all came up first from shamanic tribal religions, then often into more formal religions like Bramanism which then brought Buddhism and then all the other variations.
Then if you look at the western world you see Judaism (The Old Testament) brought eventually first Christianity and then Islam about 700 years later or so. And these two basic systems are the basis of all really large civilizations on earth if you see it this way.
And then other places like the U.S. and all North America and parts of Africa, South America and Asia Tribal religions still exist today that are shamanistic in nature.
So, it all depended on what was happening in different parts of the world how cultures developed. And this development had mostly to do with farming. Where people stopped being hunter gatherers and started farming and living in one place more this was where Bramanism and Judaism tended to start creating culture wherever that was and civilizations got larger and larger.
OF course the further back you go (more than 5000 or 10,000 years this all gets much more complex but basically if you study civilization and religions what I'm saying is basically true here.
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