[snip]
Who was taking the notes? How do we know if there was a lot or a little to the thing told in the explantion? Doesn't the language of the explanation limit it by definition?
My instinct is that if there is a real god or God, words would be useless to describe his/her/its nature. Throw some words around it and you have a religion.
My test is -- are there common threads in all the words thrown related to god? I'd say, yes, in a few basics. So maybe there is a God.
In reality, less is more. But ritual, theatricality, dogma, bigotry, and even defensiveness seem to evolve. All evolved religions seem to have these characteristics, given enough time from the prophet.
I like the less is more aspect. If there is a long story with lots of explanation or rules, I call it traditional religion. We can kill for that. If there is a lot of words dancing around the lesser small subjects that have no story, I might listen.