@TheCobbler,
When Paganism spread from Babylon to every corner of the earth it was not spread by the sword and it was not spread by fear of inquisition...
It was spread by word of mouth, by reason and deductive rational.
It was pantheistic so it harmonized with nature and all things natural.
Contrarily Islam and Christianity were theistic and monotheistic so they had to be imposed by wars, fear of inquisition and the sword.
Egypt's Akhenaten learned the hard way that imposed monotheism would end his own linage and reign and nearly wipe his memory from the face of history.
Hebrew monotheism and Islamic Monotheism were also imposed upon the world by the sword and holy war/jihad.
Where monotheism was strictly imposed upon the masses, the Renaissance emerged from the dark ages and science emerged, theater emerged, social justice emerged, democracies emerged, philosophy emerged, and many other secular disciplines... But, religion came out looking like a many eyed beast from the pits of hell.
Its true nature was exposed and the barbarity of its legalism was paraded naked down the streets of every municipality in the world for all to see.
Region emerged hobbling on one leg and it has never recovered neither it is ever likely to have its own "Renaissance"...
Because it was never adopted with free will by the masses it was always imposed upon them by fear and intimidation.
Look at what the masses supposedly did to Jesus who tried to impose monotheism.
It took a public shaming and a position of martyrdom for the first century church to adopt the teachings of Jesus. They were shamed into adopting it.
Once again it was spread by nefarious means.
It was then used as a tool by the Roman Church to rule the people from the elitist's top down.
Monotheism is the enemy of democracy and the people.
Monotheism is a tool used to dismiss democratic rule over theocratic rule.
The Renaissance people knew this and rejected these forms of tyranny outright and refused to become shackled by this same yoke of bondage.
Whether it be monotheism under the guise of Islam or Christianity they abhorred its absolute truths and its edicts of supremacy.
This is why today, there are two subjects you never discuss in public... politics and religion.
Religion has been coupled with sociopaths and crooked government.
The truth is, most people prefer discussing politics far better than religion.
The fear and loathing of religion is what emerged from the dark ages and continues up into modern times.
The more enlightened people become the less religious they are.
This is not to say that paganism or pantheism did not have their barbaric faults but they were faults brought on by democratic errors in judgement by the masses, not faults imposed by a "higher power" and carried out by the elite.
Pagan priests and shaman were "people ordained", not God ordained...
