French Prometheus

So are the Veda, Gilgamesh and the Iliad.

The Canon of the Bible wasn't fixed overnight. It took centuries to decide which book was inspired and which was apocryphal. Most mythologies describe the beginning of time and the "history" that followed (creation of man and all).

Early Judaism was polytheistic too. It took time for YHWH to become the main god worshipped by the Jews and eventually the only God.

Some brands of Christianity aren't strictly monotheistic despite their followers' claim. Trinitarianism is as much polytheistic as Hinduism. Both consider than there's a unique divine essense but that it manifests into several persons.

French Prometheus

Even if we stick to the NT, Jesus also asked his followers to slaughter his enemies and he condoned the beating of slaves by their masters.

Dharma

And someone did bring up a good point that Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and Shintoism are much older, they are still around and their spiritual concepts and practices have been quite influential. They seem to be around due to them being strongly rooted in "ancestral" traditions and culture. I knew a fundi Chinese Christian, and even he never called his ancestors "pagan infidels"...

Most eastern Asiatics understand that the "God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" is not our god, but their tribal ancestral god, so it really doesn't pinch us that their tribal God Yahweh didn't "choose" us...but for some reason it seems Europeans, Egyptians and others didn't have this simple understanding.

The more interesting question is why Egyptian, Sumerian and European Gods/culture got whipped? What historical and political circumstances led to their demise? Interesting question. I really think you have to hate yourself and be insecure to convert to a "foreign" religion...these cultures were at their lowest and least defined when this cultural apocalypse happened.

I remember reading that the Greeks themselves felt their own Gods didn't care. :huh:

funinspace

If this is the better question, then Islam should be tossed in as well. Since it's 600 years younger and will most probably become the religion with the most followers within 20 years. I'll agree with others, it's theology of near (said because of the trinity) monotheism probably helped it along as much as anything. That and the fact it became the state religion of the Roman Empire are probably the 2 largest factors. Christianity is on a major decline in much of Europe. It has barely made any inroads in areas with alternate faith systems with any sophistication (aka Asia, the Middle East, India). It's only holding steady in the US, with many very heretical branches and new age offshoots. Only in the third world has it gained in strength in the last 100 years. I'd say "enlightenment" has taken a very heavy toll on this faith system, and the fruits of this are still emerging and young.

Corwyn

Isn't astrology like 5000 years old? The egyptians practiced it and it basic tenants and methods have changed FAR less than xianity.
According to your OP this would make it a far more valid religion than anything else on the planet.

French Prometheus

Most of these peoples didn't actually have a choice. Christianity and Islam are intrinsically intolerant because they're universalists. They strived to eliminate non-Abrahamic religions as soon as they came to power.

French Prometheus

It's not a religion per se as it doesn't posit the existence of any deity. "Modern" astrology is derived from ancient Babylonian astrology.

Rick Sumner

Christianity is, I think, simply the product of being at the right place at the right time. As for Judaism, a tenet of that belief that differs from it's antiquitous contemporaries is that their God controls everything.

Most religions decided, upon defeat, that the opposing gods were stronger. Judaism decided that the opposing armies were but YHVH's pawns. And thus the key element in the death of most antiquitous religions was superceded.

Regards,
Rick Sumner

freigeister

The question is really why Christianity is still a considerable force today. To answer this question, we must look at its historical development. Christianity grew from Judaism, which at the time of Christ was attracting considerable interest in the Greco-Roman world, where spiritual malaise was spreading. Judaism seemed to offer a way out of the malaise, and then Christianity seemed to fit the bill perfectly. The interminable wrangling over the nature of Christ, however, seriously weakened Mediterranean civilization. Mohammed initiated what has been called the Southern Reformation, and his successors almost wiped out trinitarianism. Trinitarianism survived in Constantinople and along the rivers of Europe, gaining strength and establishing the medieval order. The ultimate destruction of trinitarianism began with the rebirth of thought in the Renaissance, and the death throes continue to this day. The destruction of trinitarianism has resulted in a general spiritual malaise, not unlike the one that afflicted the Greco-Roman world 2000 years ago. IMO, the way out of this malaise is to conduct a thorough scientific investigation of the fundamentals of Christianity, strip away the superstitious mumbo-jumbo, and establish a new spiritual order on the basis of a non-supernaturalist interpretation of both Christ and Mosaic Judaism. The bottom line is that people do require a spiritual foundation for their lives, and if they are not offered a good one, they will take a bad one. It is therefore incumbent upon thinking people to formulate a good one. To this end, I cannot recommend highly enough the book Our Christ by Constantin Brunner.

John Kesler

There is no single factor, but if I had to choose one word to account for Christianity's success it would be this: interpretation, or more accurately, reinterpretation. In the Bible we see this phenomena in everything from Daniel's reinterpretation of Jeremiah's "seventy years" (Jeremiah 25:12) as seventy "weeks of years" (Daniel 9:2,24) to Paul's declaration that those who are Christ's are the real "seed of Abraham" (Galatians 3:29).

Many Christians aren't fazed by scientific discoveries which undermine a literal reading of Genesis. Instead, they believe that God chose to create the world via a "big bang," people via evolution, etc. As long as Christianity adapts as needed, it will continue to be successful.