And our survey says..!
WaAlaikum Salaam, Brother,
It's an interesting question you've posed. My first response is that there are no universal standards, rather a series of understandings that each individual chooses to make.
Many people have chosen to approach this question from many different perspectives, which is why I think that we have so many faiths across this world that hold so many devout followers. For an example, from the perspective of the athiest, he/she will percieve that there is no "Higher Power" or God because they have not experienced any significant proof to support that. This person will use their own understanding of science to support their claim, and use the verbal standard of, "Well if there is a God, let Him show Himself or Herself to me now, here! Let It pick up my mug, so that I may have proof!" When the mug doesn't move, this is percieved as evidence to disprove God's existance. When the athiest reads the Bible or Qu'ran, he/she will find perceived contradictions to the "real world" as further support of their disbelief: "If God is so loving, when then does He let people get raped and murdered horrifically" or "If Allah commands you not to kill yourself, why then do you hold suicide-bombers in your ranks?" I believe that these people are blinded by their own presumptions, their own understandings and education; Unable or unwilling to concider this universe beyond their own perceptions.
My own standards have been quite different, of course. =) I started by looking around me in this world and finding those people who I thought seemed to have the most admirable traits. At age 7, I decided that I would become a Christian and hold Jesus as my rolemodel, because he succeeded in this early standard where my teachers, parents, sports icons, movie stars had failed. As I got older, I used the standard of "you judge a tree by its fruit", as taught by Jesus in the Bible. This allowed me to experience the perception that people who believe in God All-Mighty are better off in most respects than those who believe in nothing, or in whatever. I could see the better attitude, coping skills, outlook on life/death of believers compared to disbelievers - So I continued on the path of belief.
As my comprehension skills improved with age, I started to take into greater concideration the consequences for each message, sermon, belief system of the various faiths. I started to judge between what makes sense and what doesn't, what is within the realm of possiblity and what is not. Later on, I began to test my understanding through prayer, practice, and conversation. Alhamdulilah, I experienced having prayers answered in direct as well as indirect ways, learned from different life experiences, and percieved that I was on the right track.
In my late teens, I began to look very carefully at the world around me, and just how that all fits within my own percieved standards of my Christian faith. I concidered the history of various peoples, how they succeeded or failed, and why - and understood that God had a reason for each consequence, sometimes obscure but that didn't hold me back. By this point, I had developed Faith and Trust, and would pray and think about all sorts of issues, often being inspired to understand in a certain way.
Once the fundamental frame-work of all this was in place, experience became my guiding light. My conscience was very strong, and I could sense when things were on the right tracks or not. I relied on feelings of guilt, pleasure, connection, anxiety to hone my spiritual skills. If I made a mistake or sinned, I would appologize or repent, and work from a different angle so that I would overcome that blunder. Trial and error came into heavy influence.
Shortly before reverting to Islam, I was using all of these skills that I had developed since age 7 and was searching for the purist understanding: That perfect faith and truth and knowledge that miraculously allowed Jesus to walk on water. I began examining closely my own Chrstian understandings and looking hard for inconsistancies, for hypocracy in my church, for mistakes in translations and into the history of that faith and that of the Bible. Forcing myself to concider the doctrines with a critical eye, I began to see more and more flaws in what I was doing. I would cry and yell and whisper and sing for God to help guide me, I would take extensive walks so that I could pray out in the wilderness alone with God...
Sometime around then, the Lebanon Crisis of '06 erupted, and Isreal bombed that beautiful country back to the stone age over 2 kidnapped soldiers. The response was so disproportionate, so disgusting, that I was compelled to look into the history of the Middle East. That's when I discovered a connection and respect for Islamic teachings, when I started in a new direction and explored Islamic content (especially here at TTI), and when God guided me to embrace Islam: The purist understanding that I had longed to experience. Muhammad PBUH is the finest rolemodel I have ever come across, the Qu'ran holds so much more in so much less than the Bible - and there are no inconsistancies. Everything makes sense. Even the percieved conflicts have reasonable explanations, Alhamdulilah, for those with Faith. I love everything about purist Islam, and am constantly humbled to be even a microfraction of a part of this perspective, experience, way of life.
I know that this response may not be in the format you were looking for brother (point form?), but this is the best way I knew how to express what I would call "standards" for the validity of religions. I've made bold what I concider keywords that might qualify as my own percieved standards. I leave you in the capable hands of my Lord and your Lord, the Lord of all that is true and has benefit: Allah SWT.
Asalaamu Alaikum