People have been debating whether God exists, and whose religion is the true one, since the beginning of recorded history. As long as there are humans scattered across this planet there will be religions, and they will differ from tribe to tribe. What gets missed is how similar they are. Each one tells its own version of history. Each one has miracles. There is always a bad guy. And in my view, each one misses the few things that would make it truly useful to mankind, the way an instruction book is useful.
So what is missing? A rock-solid religion would state its top rules up front, somewhere between one and fifty of them, and make clear that the rules are the rules and cannot be broken even slightly. Starting with: thou shall not kill. No exceptions. Here I would allow one clarification, because we must eat and breathe. Plants and animals are both alive, but plants are not sentient, and they are the purest food source we have, about as close to absorbing solar energy directly as our bodies can get. The next few rules would be absolute instructions on how to care for the earth.
After that, the rules of character. Developing ourselves to prepare for receiving the deepest inner self. Purifying the body. Service work. Protecting the innocent and the weak. Caring humanely for criminals. Feeding the hungry. And honoring the people who choose to live with deep integrity.
The compassionate religions emphasize non-harm. And of course, like any set of teachings, all of them are subject to interpretation, because there are people behind them, people with different belief systems and different motivations.
I want to acknowledge that religious belief is a central part of some people's meditation practice, and those practitioners will want to include their God. It is not my place to debate this. It would be foolish to try, because no one knows what is true.
So let us just say this. If you bring religion and prayer into your meditation, remember what the work is. Clear the mind. Find relief from anxiety. If we achieve that, and the center of our aim was to draw closer to our idea of God, then we will have achieved that too. A settled mind is a better place to meet God than an anxious one.
That is really all I have to contribute to this subject.