Religious dichotomy in Asia and Africa

[petrushka.googol]

Why is it that most major religions in their original variants have persisted in Asia and Africa ?

Does this point to a socio-cultural pattern of evolution ?

[Strange]

Why is it that most major religions in their original variants have persisted in Asia and Africa ?

 

Is this true? In my time in Asia, I found that the dominant religions in most countries are Christianity, Buddhism, Hindu or Islam. (Of course, these are all Asian religions; maybe that is what you mean?)

 

These had largely displaced older, native religions. Although aspects of those had been incorporated into the "new" religion. But this appears to be identical to the situation in Europe: older, pre-Christian religions have been replaced, but aspects of those pagan ideas have been incorporated into European Christianity. The same is true in South America. So I would guess it is also, largely, true in Africa.

 

 

Does this point to a socio-cultural pattern of evolution ?

 

Do you mean, does culture develop in a similar way to biological evolution? I think there are parallels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociocultural_evolution

 

There are probably ways in which biological evolution is affected by culture, as well.

[petrushka.googol]

 

Is this true? In my time in Asia, I found that the dominant religions in most countries are Christianity, Buddhism, Hindu or Islam. (Of course, these are all Asian religions; maybe that is what you mean?)

 

These had largely displaced older, native religions. Although aspects of those had been incorporated into the "new" religion. But this appears to be identical to the situation in Europe: older, pre-Christian religions have been replaced, but aspects of those pagan ideas have been incorporated into European Christianity. The same is true in South America. So I would guess it is also, largely, true in Africa.

 

 

Do you mean, does culture develop in a similar way to biological evolution? I think there are parallels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociocultural_evolution

 

There are probably ways in which biological evolution is affected by culture, as well.

 

I imply both these assertions.

[Strange]

 

I imply both these assertions.

 

So it seems that, in most parts of the world, these Asian religions have largely displaced older native religions. Is this good or bad? I don't know. Will it have any effect on evolution? Well, it has certainly affected cultural evolution in all these places. I'm not sure how (or if) it has affected biological evolution.

[imatfaal]

Isn't denoting Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as Asian religions getting too tied up in our current politico-geographic demarkations. The Abrahamic tribes that gave birth to all three of those religions are closely connected, not to say integral, to the development of all the Mediterranean/Northern European civilisations. Their influence on the most of what we now consider to be the same continent was minimal.

 

Linking the Phonecian society founded in Biblos/Jubail in the 9th millenium BC with the Longshan culture of the Yellow River in the third millenium BC is similarly over-extending the import of the simple geographical name - Asia.

 

A large percentage of indigenous religions have been surplanted - this is very much the nature of proselytizing religion. It would be an interesting trivia question to know which city can claim to have held the same institutional religion for the longest time

[petrushka.googol]

 

So it seems that, in most parts of the world, these Asian religions have largely displaced older native religions. Is this good or bad? I don't know. Will it have any effect on evolution? Well, it has certainly affected cultural evolution in all these places. I'm not sure how (or if) it has affected biological evolution.

 

When we adhere to a religious denomination we subconsciously limit our preferred choices of kinship. Our potential mates usually (not always) follow the same or parallel faiths and this limits variation in the species. This is how I perceive cultural mores impacting genetic diversity.

[Strange]

 

When we adhere to a religious denomination we subconsciously limit our preferred choices of kinship. Our potential mates usually (not always) follow the same or parallel faiths and this limits variation in the species. This is how I perceive cultural mores impacting genetic diversity.

 

That would only affect genetic diversity if you could show there was some connection between genes and religion. As Christianity, for example, is practised on every continent around the world, that does not seem likely.

[petrushka.googol]

 

That would only affect genetic diversity if you could show there was some connection between genes and religion. As Christianity, for example, is practised on every continent around the world, that does not seem likely.

 

As a thumb rule religion and ethnicity are directly correlated. Hinduism is dominant among Indo-Aryans, Islam and Judaism among Semites, Christianity among Anglo-Saxons and Eurasians, Buddhism among the Mongoloid race. Though this is not always true, the general trend is reflected in this metric.

[Strange]

As a thumb rule religion and ethnicity are directly correlated.

 

Do you have any data to support that?

Hinduism is dominant among Indo-Aryans, Islam and Judaism among Semites, Christianity among Anglo-Saxons and Eurasians, Buddhism among the Mongoloid race.

 

Are these ethnicities?

 

Indo-Aryan and Semitic are linguistic descriptions which encompasses many ethnicities (and religions).

 

I'm not sure what Anglo-Saxon means in the modern world.

 

I'm also not sure what you mean by Eurasian: it is usually used to describe people of mixed European-Asian heritage (which rather argues against your point!) so doesn't seem to identify a single ethnic group.

 

As for Mongoloid, Wikipedia defines this as the "physical type of some or all of the populations of East Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Eastern Russia, the Arctic, the Americas, parts of the Pacific Islands, and parts of South Asia." That doesn't sound like a single ethnic group, either.

 

More generally, you are assuming some sort of relationship between genetics and ethnicity. Any evidence for that is tenuous at best.

[John Cuthber]

 

As a thumb rule religion and ethnicity are directly correlated. Hinduism is dominant among Indo-Aryans, Islam and Judaism among Semites, Christianity among Anglo-Saxons and Eurasians, Buddhism among the Mongoloid race. Though this is not always true, the general trend is reflected in this metric.

Religion, like gut flora is an excellent example of a trait that is familial, but not strictly genetic.

they both probably have cultural aspects too.

So what?

A fairly simple possible explanation of the Indian/ African origin of many of the world's religions is that India and Africa are the origin of a lot of the world's people.

Again, so what?