The more recent religions were the ones that became universal because they emerged during a time of political turmoil. It must be noted that during the time that the religions started to become more universal, both the Han and Roman empires, then the two most powerful nations in the world, collapsed. Naturally, people started to lose faith in the stability and power of their governments and turned to the immutable divinities of religions like Christianity and Buddhism. As more people became religious, those in power realized that if they wanted to make their reign appear to be more legitimate, they should claim that the entity people were worshipping endorsed them. To do this, they created giant statues and churches to show their alliance with these deities and forces. Combine this trend with the fact that people and ideas were moving constantly along the Silk Road, and religions became universal.
-Socrates
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Socrates - I really like your point about the timing of this movement. If chaos had reigned in a different time, perhaps Zoroastrianism would be a major world religion. But, wait, Zoroastrianism existed then. Perhaps there was something particularly appealing about the religions that did emerge from the time of chaos?
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