Why do all world-religions come from the East?

[WayFarer]

Originally Posted by Wombat

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!...........I love it!

This is the religion we will crucify the leader thereof. This is the religion we will ban.
This is the religion we will hound and persecute. This is the religion we will round up and feed to the lions. This is the religion we will consistantly tell our people is evil and opposed to the State........

As leader of the State I desire a new "eggs in one basket" religion so I will pick the one the State has been running deadly propoganda/persecution against for decades.
...It's simple and comes with nice "do this, don't do this" rules and the people will therefore not be shocked, outraged and up in arms when I dispose of their ancestoral gods in favor of the religion we said was part of the axis of evil.

This is what they did. People were shocked and outraged and they saw their friends fed to lions. They saw people businesses and lands taken from them. They saw it was better to adapt and survive and keep their beliefs to themselves. Not to mention that they (the non-Christians) were going to get to enjoy paying for the building of his empire. That cut the (financial) throat of the competing temples (as they were not free from taxation). This coupled with old fashion Roman rule through fear tactics worked pretty well.

Originally Posted by Wombat

Alternative historical reading- The writing was already on the wall. Despite the prolonged and determined persecution of Christianity by the State it was still spreading and spreading fast. Romans, in increasingly greater numbers, chose to abandon the old gods and embrace Christianity.

Constantine, like any astute politician/leader capable of rising to the status of emperor of Rome, saw which way the wind was blowing and went, at considerable risk and against the powers that be, with the will of the people.

Not really. He saw a group he could help and could help him. He was exposed to Christianity by his mother so he knew enough of it in theory and practice to get the whole "sheep need a shepherd" thing. He was smart. Smart enough to see what wasn't working and what could... for him. He understood the symbolism that could be used and the power that that could bring. That was why he had the first "official" Bibles put together and limited the churches that they where in to help those priests coalesce their influence in order to expand his own. It was all very feudal after all and help set up the manner in which the Catholic church would run things for millennia afterwards.
Don't sell him short. He didn't just go-with-the-flow or follow-the-will-of-the-people otherwise he could have stopped at the 311 CE edict (Edict of Toleration) the tetrarchy put forth ending granting tolerance to all religions (including Christianity). But later he tested the waters of his Christian based supporters through the Edict of Milan (313) where he (and Licinius) returned confiscated Christian church properties. That was a great show of good faith that didn't cost too much to be able to put out "feelers" to see how much backing he might could expect from his Christian friends.
He was smart. Smarter than many around him and he was able to build an empire to prove it.

[C.E.O]

Originally Posted by Marble

why all major religions come form the East?

Because the west was too cold.

[Gharib]

Originally Posted by Marble

Taoism, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baha'i Faith - none of these originated in the West, the South, or the North.
Is there any scientific theory to axplain why all major religions come form the East?

why would you ask for a scientific theory about this?

in islam all nations were sent prophets, a prophet from among them. the only prophet who was sent for all humanity and not one particular nation was/is Muhamed salallahu alayhi we salam.

from the time of Abraham, don't know in years how long that is, most of the prophets were sent to his nation and their offspring. so many of the last prophets were sent to the ancestors of the modern day Jews/Israelites. however, if you look at the world map, the 'east' is essentially the middle of the earth (in terms of land) while someone in the Americas or australia was isolated by water from accessing these lands, and since most of the world population is in this middle part of the world (europe, asia, partly africa) then that would probably explain their religions being the biggest in the world.

i hope my answer is helpful.

[Marble]

Originally Posted by eselam

in islam all nations were sent prophets, a prophet from among them.

Then Jesus must cover Europe as I'm quite sure we never got any (other) prophet.

[Brother Scott]

Those do not count for me as they are offsprings of one of the major religions.

Wait. Isn't Buddhism an offspring of Hinduism? Same for Doesn't Baha'i come out of Islam? Mormonism comes out of a Christian culture, but in a lot of ways it isn't Christian, LDS is it's own thing. Scientology is wholly made up, and is gaining in popularity.

What about the Afro-Caribbean religions? They come out of the South and West. Roman Catholicism is also very Western, for all that it takes it's scriptures from the East and its rituals from the Greek Empire. The veneration of Saints is very much a Western form of Necromancy, and one finds that all the way back in the Odyssey.

The West (meaning Europe) has always had a fascination with the East. The East is where the light dawns, where Illumination comes from. The East seems much more mystical of a land than where we live. Similarly in the East, the West holds a fascination. The Mongols heard arguments from both the Buddhists (to the south) and the Christians (to the West). Christian missionaries made it all the way to China in the 7th Century, and were fairly successful.

I think it helps for a religious doctrine to come out of somewhere exotic. That's why a minor jewish preacher executed by the Romans could become a world shaking demigod to the Greeks: exotic!

[Gharib]

Originally Posted by Marble

Then Jesus must cover Europe as I'm quite sure we never got any (other) prophet.

Jesus peace be upon him was sent to the Israelites, not to Europe. and Europe was mostly christian until islam reached Spain, Turkey, and the Balkan countries.

Muslims believe that Muhamed was the Last Prophet peace and blessings be upon him. Many non-muslims also believe that he spoke the truth of being a prophet and the Qur'an being from God and not a copy of the previous scriptures, meaning it has a divine origin.

[Vintermunder]

Simple, when the roman empire took over the known world they imposed a stat religion as part of their control, that religion was Christianity (thanks Constantine...) because of that most of the pagan religions died in Europe. As for the rest of the world. Religions from everywhere else in the world don't send out missionaries to convert people by coercion or force.

[Willamena]

Originally Posted by Marble

Taoism, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baha'i Faith - none of these originated in the West, the South, or the North.
Is there any scientific theory to axplain why all major religions come form the East?

Because that's where the people came from.

[Marble]

Originally Posted by Willamena

Because that's where the people came from.

Which people, the religious people?

[9harmony]

Originally Posted by Marble

Taoism, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baha'i Faith - none of these originated in the West, the South, or the North.
Is there any scientific theory to axplain why all major religions come form the East?

Here is a presentation I put together in 2007 which addresses my understanding.