I say they are similar in the experience but different in the interpretation and the methods of what pleases their GOD. I also believe that most religions manipulate “GOD’s will” to fit their political agenda “in the name of GOD.” For me, only the source matters, the original Word of GOD in the original language of the Bible, Hebrew. Everything else is only human interpretations and self-interest manipulations.
Some argue that religious experiences cannot be trusted because they contradict each other: some describe a revelation or encounter with the Jewish GOD, others with the Christian, Muslim, or Hindu GOD. It is not possible for all of them to be real; at least some of them are hallucinations. And since some of those experiences are hallucinations, it is quite possible that they are all hallucinations and none of them are real.
I will answer this critique: First, there are not only differences but also many common similarities between religious experiences, and if the differences are a reason to reject them, then the similarity is a
reason to accept them.
Secondly, the critique assumes that not all of those experiences are real. But the difficulty in accepting them all as true is that such an understanding raises theological difficulties. But theological difficulties can be discussed in the theological field, and the present discussion concerns the epistemological (cognitive) plane, which should be approached with as few prejudices as possible.
If there is much evidence of religious experiences that seem credible and there is no particular reason to doubt them, it makes sense to conclude that they do express an actual reality, which can be discussed, and the difficulties it raises, later on the theological level.
On this level, one can say for example that revelation itself is real but man interprets it according to his religious concepts, or that the transcendent deity “dresses” in tangible images appropriate to the person receiving it, or perhaps that deity itself has different aspects and each religion has a core of truth directed to one.
