Religion is a cultural phenomena and if you want to understand it, you have to examine it as such. My favorite book on understanding Western culture is, The Five Stages of Greek Religion, by Gilbert Murray;

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30250/30250-h/30250-h.htm

A couple of thoughts to consider;

Logically a spiritual absolute would be the essence of sentience, from which we rise, not an ideal of wisdom and judgement, from which we fell. The light shining through the film, than the images on it.

Ideals are not absolutes and assuming them to be makes it a war of all against all.

Remember democracy and republicanism originated in pantheistic cultures, as that was part of how multiculturalism was understood by the Ancients. They viewed monotheism as monoculture. One people, one rule, one god. The Romans adopted Christianity as a convenient amalgamation of monotheism and pantheism, as a way to validate the Empire and shed remnants of the Republic. Rule by the Big Guy. No questions allowed.

Here are a couple of essays I wrote;

https://medium.com/predict/peeling-the-paradigm-1ceab7e774b0

https://medium.com/@johnbrodixmerrymanjr/the-cliffs-edge-2b382ae2a73