Religion's Experience of God:

 

  I would say that the big three are based on "books" written by men under the claim of being inspired by god.  I don't judge anyone's beliefs about god since I understand them to be experience based.  I think we can agree that human beings do not experience anything in the same way.  Like the poem, "The Elephant and the Blind Men".....each touches a different part and describes what he feels: ie. one touches the side and says the elephant is like a wall.  The "holy books" of religion are descriptions of human experiences of the intangible force we call "god".  My own life experiences have taught me to trust my internal experience over anyone else's experience.  And while I may find verses in the holy books that reinforce my experience, I don't need a religion or it's holy book to define me or mine.  There is a verse in the Christian bible (Letters of John) which helps me tell others about my experience and that is:  "God is love, and he (she) who abides in love abides in God and God in him (her)"   I believe that these books as you said so clearly were written for men by men.  I think religions and their practices give men the assurance that their experience is real.  I think women, in general, experience on an intuitive level (why there are so many women among the religious mystics) and why the rubrics etc., invented by men hold little attraction for women.  Many years ago, the idea of "god is dead" presented a real problem (I believe) for the traditional believer of any religion.  It wasn't so much that god was dead but that god needs to be described by the experiences of many people through time.  God is an evolving concept so those religious people who deny evolution are denying (in my opinion) the presence of god at the heart of the universe.  It's a concept that is no longer rigid or fixed and that can be experienced by any of us without making it a challenge to anyone's beliefs.  Find god or not....it doesn't matter.  What matters is how you live your life inside the reality of your experience.