Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Jainism, Baha’i - pretty much every major current religion was either started in Asia or is an offshoot of some other Asian-founded religion.
Why? Europe, Africa, and the Americas all have large populations and long histories. Why didn’t any of their people found a religion that caught on and survived?
It can’t be divine intervention. That might account for one faith but not the others.
Politics might be a factor. Christianity and Islam got brought along by military conquests. But that doesn’t explain other Asian religions that weren’t.
The construct “Asia” you are using covers half the world in area, and most of it in population. It’s purely a western European invention that the RotW has adopted for convenience at the expense of precision. There could hardly be less in common between Arabia and Japan, and having them included in the same continent is silly, really.
I don’t see Little Nemo as applying any construct other than the geographical continent, and I think it’s a fair question.
My guess would be that the Asian continent was the source of human civilization (I know Egypt is in Africa, but it has a close proximity to Asia). Religions which became entwined with civilized cultures had more political power and achieved a better distribution than hunter-gatherer cultures.
My point is that “Asia” is a European construct, and has less in common across its breadth (whether geographical, cultural or religious) than any other of the so-called continents. It isn’t even really a geographical continent as the boundary with Europe is completely artificial.
Most of Asia just kept fairly local religions, local to Asia anyway. The question really becomes why did Christianity spread to displace the religion of Rome and by way of that to displace so many other tribal aboriginal religions on other continents?
Well, as I see it, they either dominate because they originated in the places they dominate in ( inertia, basically ), or because in the case of Christianity/Islam they spread themselves by the sword. Eliminate that tendancy from those two religions and I think you’d find them much, much smaller.
I think I’m missing something. Are we counting the middle east as part of Asia? Are we also ignoring major native american religions that were destroyed through conquest, like the Aztec sun god or north american spirit worship?
I’m quite confused by the linking of Judaism and Christianity to “Asia”
All of the world’s major religions have originated in three places - the Middle East (primarily the Fertile Crescent region), the Ganges River valley and the eastern coast of China. Why is this? Why have so few adherents of other religions survive?
And, if I may add, is this connected to the fact that these three regions were the sites of the earliest appearence of human civilization?
I think you will find that the origins of religion are also the places where people first began living in cities. Most major African and European cities were established at some point after the major Eastern ones, and our first major empires were Eastern.
I think there are some interesting points when it comes to India- namely, most of the post-Hindu religions founded there have some sort of non-caste system clause. Basically, Hinduism had one thing that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and inspired them to create/believe in new religions. It also helps that Hinduism can be a rather inclusive religion so explore new options would not be as shocking as it would be if you lived in, say. 14th century France.
Well, Christianity sure didn’t have the sword before Constantine, so how did it get such prominence throughout the Empire that he opted for it as his new means of uniting the Empire.*
*To avoid another debate entirely, I’ll set aside the “In Hoc Signo Vinces” vision and a miraculous military victory as reasons.
It’s not exactly an “European” construct, but rather a “Mediterranean” construct. Asia is simply what lies east of the Mediterranean sea (and Europe what lies north of it, Africa, south of it).
I thought this was a religion thread. Turns out it’s a geography thread.
The answer seems to be that religion follows the development of civilization{s} The major civilizations that failed could not pass on their religions to future generations
Mostly, by starting there. It sure didn’t end up in the Americas or Australia before him. And considering that he fought a war or two over Christianity I don’t think that “unifying the Empire” was his motivation. Christianity is about division into the saved and unsaved, not unification.
If they weren’t spread by conquests, all major religion at least were backed by a major, very powerful civilization. Buddhism was co opted by China, and Zoroastrianism was the Persian empire religion, for instance. Some religions you list actually never really were major religions (Judaism, Baha’ism, Shinto). I don’t think Shinto had more adepts than Meso-American religions (that I would regroup as one religion for convenience, despite them varying somewhat from one city-state to another), for instance.
Of course it’s a little begging the question, because one could wonder why these religions were adopted by powerful empires to begin with (why did the Romans become christians, for instance). But as pointed out by other posters, most of the world population has been living in Asia, and almost all powerful and influential civilizations appeared in Asia too. African and American civilizations were isolated and eventually were crushed, and Europe has been a backwater, uncivilized and essentially irrelevant region for most of its history.
As we say so often, it’s not that simple. Early Christianity was very inclusive – as evidenced by its growth. Exclusive cults tended to die out. So almost anybody could become a Christian. At the same time, once you were in, there was a strong sense of group identity.
And as Rome’s influence was changing and fallling apart because of an unsustainable economic model and other stuff, Christians had developed a good organization for communication and collective action. I think they were in the right place at the right time.
Constantine’s mother was Christian. I believe there is debate over whether Constantine had any real contact with Christianity through her. But if he did, that could explain what happened later. Mommy issues.
to the extent that Christinity had achieved any popularity before Constantine, it probably had to do with the egalitarian qualities and the promise of an imminent parousia and change in order. It was a popular religion with slaves and with poor people.
And yes, Constantine adopted it it as his state religion probably because his mother was a convert. A lot of hsitorians say that Constantine’s own devotion to the religion was only for show, though – that he never really abandoned his pagan beliefs.
On the geographical issues, can we just for the sake of this thread accept the concept that Asia exists? Right or wrong, it’s been a recognized concept for a few thousand years. And Asia does include the Middle East.
I suppose I can see the argument that that’s just the way history went. Most religions are regional. Christianity happened to be an exception that caught on in Europe. Europe exported Christianity to Africa and the Americas and displaced their regional religions. Europe wasn’t as successful in controlling Asia so their regional religions survived in place.