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In advance, the answer to all of these questions is yes and no. But I will try to explain why. Firstly, whilst the hundred schools era was of course incredibly diverse, latter periods were still very diverse, just usually within traditions. I.e. a buddhist philosopher in China during the Yuan...

Ive been meaning to save this somewhere as I have written the post, but here goes anyway. So there is a lot of potential for this OTL, one example being somewhat apocryphal and the other kind of weird in it's non acceptance otl. For the apocryphal version, there is a largely spread story that...

The ideas were there, they just needed some oomph behind them. Of the top of my head, Shiek Bedreddin launching a succesful revolt against the Ottomans is a good starting point, having democracy be an essential part of the region's identity and religous tolerance more codified.

off the top of my head, I would actually suggest doing a cross comparison of the various gnostic sects to see the differences, it being somewhat hard to prove a negative. I am currently on my phone, but there is a really good youtube video which explains why gnosticism is more of a model. The...

And that is an excellent demonstration of the importance of canon. A large population over a large area can recognise eachother as part of the same overarching religious tradition (at least to the point of being vedic) in a way that is truly remarkable. Sure it isn't perfect, but for the laymen...

So whilst I do believe that a more organised Pagan church could have come about, I have always argued that neoplatonism is something of a dead end in that regard. The comparison is often made to Hinduism, but Hinduism had from it's brahminical predecessor both a canon to build off (the Vedas)...

The issue is that "Gnostics" were not really a thing, but a generall catchall for a lot of, often contradictory, theological positions. Weirdly, believing in all the gnostic halmarks (Yaldabaoth, Sophia, good guy Judas etc) is a distinctly modern phenomenon.

Perhaps controversial, but I don't think that there would be much of a difference. OTL, the followers of Martyrs have been more than happy to embelish a death (i.e. Mani), so we just might have a few more/longer books.

FTFY ;)

No it didn't? Smarta has big positions for them, and they feature prominently in Shaktism, Vaishnavism and Shaivanism. I am actually having a hard time thinking about a time they were not popular.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism_in_China Not the best source for it, but there is a lot to cover RE it so it will do for now. It is it would seem possible for a Hindu prosletysm has demonstrated by ISKCON, and the Gaudya Vaishnavism of Iskcon (whilst a Bhakti movement) does have roots...

To be fair, there could be quite good reasons for communism to have a larger appeal ITTL. For one, the US has a lot less reason to prop up far right movements as it did OTL and reactionary ideas are going to become absurdly unpopular quite quickly. When the SA war hits, this will be massively...

There was and still is (iirc) a hindu presence in China going back over a millenia. Depending on what you want I would have different answers, but this is OTL.

Playing devil's advocate, it should be noted that affiliation isnt the same as belief. It isnt uncommon, particularly in older generations, to lable yourself as belonging to a church even when you dont. My grandfather was a methodist preacher, but has been an Atheist who still calls himself a...

Only loosely so, but I have always loved the idea of an Arthurian cult (i.e. instilling warrior virtues, chivalry and a veneration of the knights as saint like figures). It would still be Christian, but Arthur is often associated with bears in the celtic world.

I have no idea how this would occur, but perhaps the papacy is forced out of Rome somehow and is given land in SA by Spain/Portugal?

Could you clarify what you mean by social function? I think I know what you mean but I dont want to strawman you.

RE Buddhism and Gnosticism. So this is a somewhat common claim to compare the two as similar, but this isnt really true on much of any front, particularly for the time period we are discussing. I have discussed much of this in the recent Christian reincarnation thread, so in this I will discuss...

The Yuan Court, Thailand, Tibet etc. All coubtries that have/had a buddhist state religion.

So its worth noting that this notion of viewing the world does seem to occur more as a polemic against Gnostics rather than how they actually saw the world. A Gnostic derived faith, the Manichaens are an excellent example of this. Yes they saw everything material as evil, but an evil that...