There is a Universal Good that is lensed through the serial iterations of the Holy Books. It is again lensed through the inculcations of serial priests., imams, rabbis, whatever. It is again lensed through the exigencies of one's personal experience and relative "knowledge."

Is there truth in the Holy books? Insofar as they word what is Truth in ones heart already there, yes. But because of the parochial nature of enculturations, those Truths are attributed, necessarily, in the minds of the faithful, to the most common religious denominator of their environment. And it stays that way, unless deeply examined. The result is that many, either through lack of motivation or just sheer habit never look to the roots of their beliefs, other than to verify them in the paradigm they have beforehand adopted. This adoption is most often at a pre verbal, pre cognative level. Of course, then, the paradigm appears to be to the believer as fundamental truth.

So the actual Universals are cloaked in parochial clothings of whatever kind. And those clothings become the reality of the believer, as they soon become attached to and mistaken for the sense of Self. But they themselves are no more Self than software is the actual nature of a computer, or better, the electricity that runs it. The lack of deep examination of one's beliefs, political, social, and religious, results in the insistence that the thoughts in one's head have a one/one correspondence to the Truth, or Reality. Nothing could be farther from the Truth of Reality. In fact, these unexamined beliefs breed violence, the violence we have thrown up in our face each day, if we are even slightly aware of what is going on around us.

This is why it is said that the unexamined life isn't worth living. Because it is a life of sleep in the illusion of having a handle on Reality. But the fact is that Reality isn't accessed through acquisition. It is accessed through discovery. And that discovery is done as interior work and is ultimately free of the paradigms of the structures of uses as a defense against what in fact simply IS. It is discovered in the inner reaches of one's own self, in solitude and silence. It is where the Minotaur lives, where the Fair Maiden is rescued from, where the dragon is slain.

And that all plays out in one's own being, in the reaches where no priest, no politician, no banker, no psychologist, no friend, no one, holds our hand. Even if they might encourage us, however accurately or delusionally. None of them know our own Truth. They can't. And therein is the failure of organized religions, and the triumph of inquiry, self inquiry, which necessarily is the deepest and most honest form of prayer, which can ultimately lead to a salvation unimagined in the rote ceremonies of faiths, however sincere and emotionalized, and no matter of the intellectualize about the truth of the lineage and form. Ultimately, none of that is Self, only trappings.

I can be noted that a deep study of the origins of one's religion ultimately yields the realization that one's perception of its history is but a fiction, loosely based on events and meanings most often presented as self verification of the faith one practices. The depths of history don't bear out what the popularized story is, in any case. That is why study of the Holy books is almost exclusively done as an inside job, not as a remote viewing, such as an alien sent here to study human phenomenon might have. Too many simple questions, such as might be asked by such a being, lead to aggravation, frustration, and the horror of facing that one is only a trained believer, not a "Selfonaut."

And Mark 4:33,34 offer a clue for christianists. But the best one is to look deeply into the actual implications that one is made in the image and likeness of God. If this is true, the blueprint is inside, not in a book. In fact, the book and thoughts about it may be a barrier to the cleansing mirror of self that requires deep scrutiny in the greatest of humility and honesty. God never bears the mantle of a religion. And Divinity won't even bear the illusion of separation. And therein lies the root of the Great Commandments and the Golden Rule. And knowing that prompted someone to inscribe "Gnothi Seauton" over the door of a Temple. "Know ThySelf." Sage advice, if there ever was such. The mirror ultimately reflects no form, and who that IS, and what it isn't, will perhaps have you laughing and weeping in gratitude!