“Religions do not teach that they are the Only Way.”
“People interpret their religions to mean that.”
Are you kidding me?
You must be.....
"Nobody gets to the Father except through me"
...to name just one example.
No, the religions themselves, say that.
You are correct. The religions say that but the reason they say that is because God wanted the people reading the scriptures of those religions to go to God through the Messenger/Prophet who revealed those scriptures; and in the dispensation of Jesus Christ that was Jesus. Jesus was “the Way” that God wanted people to use back then...
But later Muhammad was “the Way” and now Baha’u’llah is “the Way.” There is a good reason why God wants us to use the newest Way in every new age. One reason is because the older religions become corrupted by man over time...
“This is the Day when the loved ones of God should keep their eyes directed towards His Manifestation, and fasten them upon whatsoever that Manifestation may be pleased to reveal. Certain traditions of bygone ages rest on no foundations whatever, while the notions entertained by past generations, and which they have recorded in their books, have, for the most part, been influenced by the desires of a corrupt inclination. Thou dost witness how most of the commentaries and interpretations of the words of God, now current amongst men, are devoid of truth. Their falsity hath, in some cases, been exposed when the intervening veils were rent asunder. They themselves have acknowledged their failure in apprehending the meaning of any of the words of God.” Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 171-172
The other reason is because the
new religion has a
new remedy that humanity needs for the particular problems that exist in the new age.
“The All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind. He perceiveth the disease, and prescribeth, in His unerring wisdom, the remedy. Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that which a subsequent age may require. Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 213
Then this god amuses himself with sowing confusion by revealing mutually exclusive religions that contradict one another.
No, the great religions do not contradict each other at all. They all have the same spiritual teachings because the
fundamental basis which comprises all spiritual things does not change over time. It is established in all the prophetic cycles and it is renewed in every age; religion teaches faith, knowledge, certitude, justice, piety, righteousness, trustworthiness, love of God, benevolence, purity, detachment, humility, meekness, patience and constancy. It shows mercy to the poor, defends the oppressed, gives to the wretched and uplifts the fallen......
Religions build upon each other, like successive chapters in a book, each one leading up to the next. They only
appear to contradict each other because man has corrupted the true meaning of the scriptures over time, as noted above.
It is the man-made doctrines and dogmas that contradict each other, but you cannot blame God for that, since humans have free will and they mess things up every chance they get.