Why do the major religions seem to originate from the Middle East?

Question

Do Middle Easterners have the best imaginations?

I count India as the Middle East in this question. I was going to type South West Asia but I couldn't be bothered.

Answer 1

Best educated guess: Ancient people disseminated from Africa into the Near East. Agriculture originated there (Fertile crescent and so on) and they prayed to "gods" for better harvests. This is the short version. Want to know more? Take some courses in Anthrpology/archaeology/paleontology, like I did! I paid a LOT for that education & I'm tired of giving it away. Some others might, though.

Answer 2

Because of people's ignorance about the universality of religions.

Religions are a primitive attempt of all people to explain away all the questions they don't have the ability to answer. And they are not smart enough to realize that saying "God did it" tells you nothing of any value and cannot even be verified.

Our culture has a bias towards the middle east because it was the origins of many of our early civilizations: the Egyptian Empire, Hittites in Turkey, Babylonians in Iraq, Persians in Iran, and so forth. Some of that history, with a Jewish spin, is recorded in the Torah, aka Old Testament. Since Christianity took the Old Testament as its foundation, that bias tended to permeate our view.

But it is clear that the Hindu and Buddhist in India, the Lao-Tzu in China, the various religions of the American Indians, the religions of the Polynesians, the religions of the various peoples of Africa, and virtually all people's of the earth developed religions, either to try to gain power over the mysterious world, placate a cruel God, make others think that they had some secret power, or to diminish the pain and suffering of an uncomfortable life.

Answer 3

No there are more religious like Muslims Christians and the Jews and if you count India with the Middle East then Hinduism is a very flourishing religion and a practising one also.

Answer 4

even extra religions than that originated contained in the middle east. the historic Israelites seen Jerusalem to be the "non secular umbilical" of the international, and that all errant religions began at Jerusalem and spread througout the international. the author of the Revelation describes it: Rev 17:5 This identify replaced into written on her forehead: secret Babylon the entire the mummy of Prostitutes And of the Abominations of the Earth.

Answer 5

The fertile crescent was the area where many civilisations came into being during a short time span and that generated an explosion of culture and religion and the subsequent arrival of the Greeks and Romans provided the means of carrying those beliefs all over the known world.

Answer 6

The middle east is where history records the first civilized concentrations of humans. The Mesopotamian people. Thus religion began and developed with the advent of civilization.

Answer 7

LOL, except u did type southwest asia in your addition =\

however, i think poverty creates a need for religion. look at how the africans portray religion, the native americans portray religion. notice that the more advanced the society the less people rely on some form of higher power to help them through.

Answer 8

Well, considering that Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are all Abrahamic faiths sharing the same origins.... that could have something to do with it. Of course, Abrahamic faiths only account for 3 of the world's major religions.

Answer 9

Mesopatmia (Modern IRaq) is considered the cradle of civilization, the Tigris river was the birthplace of the first civilizations and as a result the first religions grew up with them.

Answer 10

Because historically & geographically, Jesus was born in Jerusalem. Located in the middle east.