Multiple Religions, Part 2

I think part of the solution for me with other religions that don't match my framework is fitting them into that framework anyway. For example, the covenant between God and Noah after the flood (it's in Genesis) was that God would never flood the world again. It was a promise made to Noah and his descendants. But for the writers of the Bible, those descendants included even people who were not to later become God-worshippers.

My understanding of how we can relate to other religions also depends on the religion. Islam and Judaism, for example, are similar to Christianity: we are all trying to worship the same God. (Allah just means God in Arabic). We have varying Scriptures, but share a common ancestor, Abraham (in some cases this is taken more literally than in others.)

Buddhism, on the other hand, isn't really about worshipping God at all, and has some entirely different theories about what the world really is. I might disagree with this overall concept, but still accept that they've figured out something about how people operate in developing a long and venerable meditative tradition. Who is to say that God did not create us for silent meditation?

Still, this is a difficult line to walk. I want to maintain humility when it comes to plumbing the mysteries of the divine. But at the same time it's easy to fall into a kind of mush where any set of beliefs is as good as any other. And I don't want to merely continue looking inward to my religion as if the others don't exist. And I really do believe what I believe very strongly--I try to build my life around God, which wouldn't make any sense if I didn't believe anything particular about God. This is a very perplexing problem, and I don't feel like Christianity has good answers developed for it.