Caladan
Agnostic Pantheist
Different historical personae who rose to prominent status in tradition and history have emerged out of certain social conditions and environment, great deal of the major ones of these personae, did not necessarily came to compete but came to complete, or to bring already existing religious concepts, ideals, and ideas to their respective culture and beyond.
competition is simply a factor in the nature of our world and of human society, just like competition manifests in politics, its also manifested in religion, there are religions that actively seek to expand their influence or to legitimize themselves via conversion. generally speaking, I think its essential to study the various individuals credited with great social impact of the religious sense, without any obligation to apply exclusivity only to one of these individuals or the religion based on that individual, nor do I believe that Infallibility should lightly be applied to all the material we are dealing with.
I think religions are meant to evolve into co existence, many religions are rooted in certain cultures and civilizations, and the strife of competition should easily be avoided by transcending above the lesser religious need to justify an absolutism beyond a certain cultural experience. for example, Islam has a natural place in Arabic culture, a natural understanding rooted in cultural tradition, while Christianity has been rooted throughout Europe and the west, of course there are many overlapping areas beyond this simplified division. and historically the 2 religions, together with Judaism have interacted on various geographic locations, with certain cultures even moving through history from one of those religion to the other, depending on conquests.
When religions become more humanaized so to speak, when absolute dogmas lose zealous following, perhaps the trend of competition between religions will cool off, as people will not have to justify the exclusive truth of their tradition and be less threatened with the fact that reality is filled with many concepts, beliefs, dogmas.
on some levels, there is a battle of ideas, but when you realize how dynamic ideas are, including hopefully your own, you may question the need to push forward your idea on a personal crusade to vanquish all other ideas.
