I provided a description of God in my last Metaphysical Monday post. Do the three major Western religions meet the test?
I have always described Judaism as a relatively logical religion that springs from a supremely illogical premise–that the Jews are God’s chosen people. Judaism thus fails the universality principle. It also fails the unchanging principle because its version of God, like the pagan gods, is perpetually intervening in the affairs of mankind.
Christianity is even worse. Because it grafts the Old Testament on to its central message in an effort to establish its historical bona fides, it fails the universality and unchanging principles. In addition, it flunks the immortality test as a result of the death of the son of God. Islam at least passes that test, but it too is tied to a particular time, place, and people; like the other two, for example, it attaches no importance to the great civilizations outside of the Middle East, so its God is neither universal nor unchanging.
What about the religions of Asia? I will discuss them in my next Metaphysical Monday post.