Is God really . . .

 Okay, if there is only one god (or pantheon), then why is the message so different between the religions?

I'm glad you asked.  Is the message really that different? Sure, the modern versions of each religion seem to be drastically different from one another. But let's look back at the messages of the founders of each religion; before the dogma and before later people expounded on the original message. Let's look at the truly illuminated soul and what they had to say.

Without exception, they all say that what is important is loving one another. What matters is the awareness of the universality of everything. Their messages are to bring people together. They all chastise ego-centric behavior and encourage compassion. What every great religious founder asks of their followers is to love compassionately and to act on that behavior.

So why is the theology so different? Have you ever tried to explain sex to someone? Would you describe it the same way to a five year old as you would to a 15 year old or a 35 year old? Would the analogies be the same? First off, we cater the description to the audience; not just their age, but their understanding. Examples would be based off of common cultural knowledge. If you are describing god to a child versus an adult, you would use different examples. The same goes for different cultures.

Since the goal of the teacher is to get the point across to the learner, the examples that best convey a meaning is one that the learner understands. So it goes with describing god. Different cultures use different examples. When foreign cultures hear the example, they apply their own cultural understanding of the example, which may contradict the original culture's understanding, and interpret based on what they know of the example used.

Even the examples used by someone two thousand years ago may no longer be good examples for today. If we want to know the true meaning of what was taught two thousand years ago, we need to understand the culture of that area at that time. Only then, can we glean the original speaker's intent and meaning.