Religion and geography

[robvalue]

It's well known that the religion someone adopts is very likely to be the predominant religion in the area. I'm ignoring the various denominations and all that and talking about christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and so on. To me this suggests several possibilities:

1) There is only one God, but it was so inept at its communication with humans in various areas that they developed entirely different ideas about it, sometimes to the point of wanting to kill fellow confused believers. It can't or won't settle the matter.

2) There is one God, but he was quite happy to see his messages misinterpreted all over the place and was unable or unwilling to step in later to sort it out either.

3) There is one God, but it's the humans' fault that they have screwed up his interpretations so badly as to worship apparently different gods. God either can't or won't settle the matter.

4) There are several gods, with their influence felt greatest in certain areas, and very faintly in other areas.

5) There are no gods, as described so far by religion, and it's all made up. People are likely to just copy their parent's religion, or if they later have a "personal experience" it usually just happens to be confirmation of the most convenient, local religion.


Did I miss anything? My guess is that every theist goes with 3.