Question

_{What is meaning equivalence and how does it help us understand why there are thousands of}

_religions?

Answer 1

Equivalence

The relationship between 2 or more items that allows one to replace the other.

Well, how many religions are there?   First, we should restrict this question to religions that exist today, and exclude all the religions that came and went (and are now lost) during first 190,000 years of Homo sapiens. And, of course, we acknowledge that estimates vary. But none of the estimates are small. So now: There are dozens of major religions (varying between a couple dozen and four or five dozen). By “major” I mean religions with at least half a million adherents or so. These religions differ significantly from each other in doctrine, in the deities or sacred beings they worship or acknowledge, and in how anything supernatural is perceived.