That’s right, and that’s also probably why Christianity grew extremely slowly early on. (I wouldn’t go the religion route myself unless I had technological miracles to employ.)
People have speculated about that for a long time. Relevant factors seem to be the decay of the Roman military discrediting Christianity’s major rival, Mithraism, lack of vitality in the pagan faiths such as diminished oracular activity discrediting them (‘the silence of the oracles’), and good political luck.
This also means that there was intense competition among religions which would reduce the chance that any one religion could gain adherents.
On the other hand, a printing press is an enormous advantage for spreading memes.
That’s right, and that’s also probably why Christianity grew extremely slowly early on. (I wouldn’t go the religion route myself unless I had technological miracles to employ.)
I wonder why Christianity won so big in the end then, given that it wasn’t displaying early memetic virulence.
People have speculated about that for a long time. Relevant factors seem to be the decay of the Roman military discrediting Christianity’s major rival, Mithraism, lack of vitality in the pagan faiths such as diminished oracular activity discrediting them (‘the silence of the oracles’), and good political luck.