"Religion as a point of view"

Over at St. Maximos' Hut, Andy Morriss has a post on, well, "religion as a point of view."  Here is a bit:

The central claim of most religions (perhaps even all) is, however, that they embody the ultimate truth and that their truth claim is stronger than the scientific method. That is, each religion makes a truth claim that is incompatible with the rest - either Jesus is the Messiah or He isn't. If He is, Christianity is true and other religions are not. If He isn't, Christianity is not true and (perhaps) some other religion is.

This seems to me to put a limit on what we can learn from playing anthropologist and comparing and contrasting religions. If, for instance, Christianity is true, then "how Muslims react to American law" is a much less interesting question in religious terms. Similarly, if Islam is true, then how Christians react to American law is less interesting.

Western academic study of religion seems to me to be often premised on a neutral disbelief of all religions (save science). Once the idea that a religion might be true and the others false enters the picture, the typical academic approach seems less useful.

Thoughts?