First off, apologies for resurrecting this old post, but truly the messages shared within this thread are amazingly thought-provoking. What I'm writing here is based upon my own spiritual journey - I am not God's (I am using this term so that everyone understands me) word. Thank you all for helping me evolve.

The diverse opinions laid out here are the irrefutable exposition of why not one people will ever come to a mutual agreement in terms of religion; it is indeed an eternally-bound recurring debate.

The main reasons for these continuous disagreements are Cultural and societal conditioning, the deep effect of emotions such as fear and blind faith/love, scientific ignorance as well as intellectual biases. This is extremely interesting because these same views were held by people before us, and will be held by people after us.
Humans will pray for truth, but then stay in the same paradigm because they cannot defeat their innate and basic human condition.

Everything always works out. So be it.

True enlightenment is when one destroys correlation; True enlightenment is to not be affected by basic emotions (i.e. fear of blasphemy, attachment to past or present seemingly-pure religious-connection); True enlightenment is to lose any cultural / familial / societal condition and lose every pre-conceived notion of what is and what is not ; True enlightenment is to be extremely honest with oneself; True enlightenment is trusting and having faith in your honesty and where it will lead to.

Everything will always work out.

Man does not find truth with science. Man does not find truth with prayer. Man does not find truth with meditation. Man does not find truth with contemplation. Man does not find truth with research. Man does not find truth with study. Man does not find truth with the mind. Man does not find truth with the heart. Man does not find truth with the soul.

Everything always works out; our will determines in which way it will work out.

Man finds truth with everything. Truth fills the heart with relief and frees the mind of questioning forever. This understanding proves its veracity both with feeling which can never be humanly expressed and by a materialization of and physical / spiritual expression of said-truth. Man acquires then an absolute, life-long achievement of a pure unaltered truth.

But everything always works out.

God is One. The One is God. God is all of the entities ever mentioned in scriptures that have passed and will come to pass. In truth, Man must understand that Truth will never be altered, it is and will always be the same; the truth of the Old Testament, the truth of the New Testament, the truth of the Qu'ran, the truth of the Sutras, the truth of the Tao and all of the unmentioned scriptures.

Once Man understands that, Man needs then to understand that The Tao has been altered, the Sutras have been altered, The Old Testament has been altered, the New Testament has been altered, the Qu'ran has equally been altered. Scriptures come down to different people at different times, this is why for the unexperienced eye they are seemingly different. Scriptures will furthermore never be immune to alteration, for Man is perverted.

From then on, smaller details become explicit. Man created religion. Man created then hierarchy within religion. Man created ritual. Religion is not truth and truth will never be Religion. Religion can bring Truth, as Truth is Within religion. But religion disguises Truth and mixes it with Human weaknesses (explained above).

What is immune to anything is the Truth within and that same truth we find everywhere. With or without scripture we find that same truth. And everything will always work out, and So be it.
There are levels of enlightenment or heaven - whatever you want to call it. The basics of Truth such as good-heartedness will get you there; but the deeper Man digs, the more Understanding Man will get and the closer Man will get to The Truth.

We will never have all of the answers - Even then, everything will always work out, and So be it and may understanding and faith be bestowed upon those who Believe Honestly. Beloved Men, you are going on a journey a very special journey do have a pleasant journey do.