Five Oceans or One?

“A set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, involving the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs”. Isn’t the above statement too complicated to be understood? That’s what religion is-Complicated.
It all started with masses striving to find links with which they may form groups, and be together. Couple this effort with the concept of god. The intention was right but it resulted in an entangled cobweb of misunderstood facts and prejudiced opinions. If I may, I’d like to elucidate with an analogy. The abstraction of religion has evolved over time. This evolution has been similar to the course a river takes.
The river starts with a single rigid glacier- white, pure and serene…high and unapproachable. Religion starts with rigid texts from rigid minds- considered pious and pure…complicated and incomprehensible. Just as glaciers are features that a common man may admire from a distance and hail those who ascend on them, religion too is an idea that an ordinary believer may follow and not explore. The origin of both the river and religion is on a difficult ‘terrain’.
In its early lap a river bursts its way through the valleys, spreads the gushing sound in the quiet surroundings and instil a sense of lively motion around its channel. Religion, too, spreads rapidly when it’s young. The number of men it influences initially may be less but the magnitude of this influence is considerable. The development of this new thought stream infuses a fresh dynamism in its adherents. But, along with this new lease of life ,that a river spreads where ever it goes, it erodes whatever comes in its way. It collides with rocks and forms dangerous rapids that shriek and express the mood of the river. The brainchild of religion too may contradict existing voices lead to controversies that make noise. After this potent phase the river calms down. It enters the plains and has a lesser velocity.
Its reach widens and spreads as it forms distributaries. The river now becomes accessible, productive and symbiotic with other creatures. It’s now navigable, irrigates, gives drinking water and hence becomes a part of people’s lives. Similarly, after the vehement chapter, religion becomes mature and mellows down. It is now accepted by a lot more people and reaches out to the common man. Religion now becomes a part of a man’s identity.
But the identity of the river is now diminished once it forms distributaries. Its unidirectional flow is lost. Nile becomes Damietta and Rosetta. Likewise the identity of religion is lost when sub sects are formed. It looses the agenda, objective and direction. A follower of Islam becomes Shi’a, Sunni or Zaidi. A Christian becomes a protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican or a Baptist. At this stage the flow of religion is completely confused and aimless. The soul and purpose of the hypothesis of religion is absent. More than a tradition it’s a trend. Finally all distributaries fall in a deep, vast and endless water body called the ocean. All streams have the same end, no matter from where they originated. Coming from different glaciers, they all aggregate to form the same salty water body making waves… Though their content is same pole to pole, still we name five oceans. Though their quintessence is perpetual and coequal, still we name countless religions.
Though the theory of religion has grown, evolved and matured, still we find aberrations within this perception. There are lines of discrimination drawn within this thought on the basis of flimsy assumptions.
If all religions endorse the idea of goodness then why do we need a god to be worshipped? Gods, who are religion specific; who speak in different languages and accept prayers in different languages.
Why can’t we consider the soul of all religions as divine- instead of the bending in front clay models and stone statues? Why can’t we be just humans- instead of Christian, Hindu or Jewish?
Why cant there exist only one religion- the religion of goodness, truth and honesty?
Why five oceans. And not one?