Religious belief is usually based on three categories of information. Revelation, Tradition and Reason.
Revelation refers to scripture. For Christians this would be the Bible. For Jews it would be various parts of what is called the Old Testament. For Muslims it would be the Koran. Various offshoots of Christianity would have added books such as the Book of Mormon. Jews would add the Talmud or the writings of different Rabbis and scholars. Muslims would add the vast Hadith. When you get to the pagan world there are also written and spoken sources of information which are believed to come from supernatural sources.
Tradition comes from the organizations that support the different religions. Christians would look to the church, however they define it. Jews have different rabbinical traditions that are believed to give insight and some would put the Talmud here instead of under revelation. Islam seems to have no official “church” but they have a system of ideas taught by different religious leaders. The split between Shia and Sunni would be an example of this tradition. Buddhists have their gurus and sects. The list could go on.
Reason means the tendency of people to think and work things out for themselves. There are copious books on all subjects. In our literate society we read, argue and come to conclusions. Even people who don’t do much reading or thinking have opinions.
That is an overview. Next I will try to look at the different ways that these three are put together by the large branches of Christianity.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.