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From my understanding, Buddhism was also present in Rome in the 5th century, and Buddhism would have filled a similar role to Christianity when it came to replacing the quickly obsolescing Roman Classical Religion people were becoming disillusioned with. Buddhist monastaries would have preserved Roman works, and would not have suppressed scientific research the way the Christians did. there also probably wouldn’t have been witch hunts or pogroms. Would anything else have changed?
Imagine if instead of seeing the Chi Rho, Constantine saw a Dharma Wheel?
"What if" is worth exploring, but you'd have to include the evolution/change/adaptation... corruption of the religion in the hands of a large new population as well as assuming it would remain the same while having an influence. After all, Christianity evolved and developed by the century, if not the decade, in ways good and bad. Consider the possibility of the Crusades happening anyway, just based on different religious conflicts.
I do think it's an unlikely branch for history. As I best understand it, Christianity caught on because of a powerful appeal (by a master marketing team ) that included individual immortality and salvation, which was wildly different from what Roman religion and others promised. Whatever Buddhism's appeal, the more austere notion of the karmic cycle could seem like... endless slavery or "someday" and thus less appealing to the masses of that time and place.
If the Sassanids weren't so tolerant if Roman Christianity, it is believed likely that Zoroastrianism, from Persia, would have dominated the Roman lands of those times.
From my understanding, Buddhism was also present in Rome in the 5th century, and Buddhism would have filled a similar role to Christianity when it came to replacing the quickly obsolescing Roman Classical Religion people were becoming disillusioned with. Buddhist monastaries would have preserved Roman works, and would not have suppressed scientific research the way the Christians did. there also probably wouldn’t have been witch hunts or pogroms. Would anything else have changed?
Imagine if instead of seeing the Chi Rho, Constantine saw a Dharma Wheel?
Perhaps a major difference may have been that Buddhism, unlike Christianity, does not seek converts, and is tolerant of other beliefs.
I think you're probably right about the monasteries. As far as human behaviour generally, perhaps not so much.
Buddhism has been in Asia to some degree since it was developed from Hinduism by Siddhartha Gautama around 600 bce.
It did not prevent the horrendous behaviour in feudal Tibet, under various Dali Lama's, not China's imperial wars,(from around 3rd century ce) nor Japan's extreme militarism, and barbaric behaviour in the the twentieth century.
Without exception, religions always reflect the society in which they are practised. Religion has always been used to justify the worst human behaviour imaginable. OR simply ignored when inconvenient, just as Christianity has always done ,and still does. Most egregious recent example is perhaps the Catholic church and child sex scandal, which refuses to go away---I use the Catholic church as a well known example. However, it is my belief that such abuse continues, in any organisation in which adults have power over children.
People give way too much explanatory value to religions and other ideologies, because it's an easy way to camouflage their own shortcomings and foibles, one's own stink.
But clearly there are patterns of human behavior that predate any of them by millennia, if not eons, and render them quite meaningless in terms of explanatory value for outcomes of human societies.
Just for example - among thousands across all known time periods, archaeological, historical and even geological and astronomical records - new technology has brought to light a relatively extensive Mayan civilization in today's Guatemala. One interpretation of the data so far suggests that they organized themselves as several city-states competing among each other, including war, eventually leading to disaster, reminiscent of ancient Sumer, late Bronze age eastern Mediterranean societies, and "medieval/early renaissance" northern/central Italy.
Relatively vast differences in geography, time period, language, technology, ideology, dress, bad breath, etc., and similar outcomes.
Again, these are just a few example among thousands.
The answers lie in human nature, human psychology, not the passing ideological fashion of the day, like so many dogs kicking up dirt to cover their sh_t. Guess what, it's still ...
From my understanding, Buddhism was also present in Rome in the 5th century, and Buddhism would have filled a similar role to Christianity when it came to replacing the quickly obsolescing Roman Classical Religion people were becoming disillusioned with. Buddhist monastaries would have preserved Roman works, and would not have suppressed scientific research the way the Christians did. there also probably wouldn’t have been witch hunts or pogroms. Would anything else have changed?
Imagine if instead of seeing the Chi Rho, Constantine saw a Dharma Wheel?
Who says the Romans were dissilusioned with their classical pagan religions? I haven't seen any evidence of that.
Those religions were still going strong when they were criminalized by imperial edict in 380 AD, and continued for at least another hundred years.
Christianity "caught on" in Europe because an emperor decreed it so...and that was not necessarily to the long-run benefit of the religion, which was created to be a selective minority religion, not a popular one.
Who says the Romans were dissilusioned with their classical pagan religions? I haven't seen any evidence of that.
Those religions were still going strong when they were criminalized by imperial edict in 380 AD, and continued for at least another hundred years.
It is my understanding the Emperor Constantine sought to put an end to Pagan/Christian battling by bastardizing the word "Pagan" and endorsing Christianity, the reason being that Christians were willing to die for their beliefs and Pagan were not. That trait made Christians unbeatable.
Today's Christianity is actually a blend of yesterday's Paganism and Christianity. Pagan elements include the halo, the Easter bunny, the shape of the church door, the virgin birth, the selection of Sunday as the day of worship. Here's a reference.
Ask most people, and they will consider being called a Pagan an insult. A Christian once called me a "Pagan" and she meant it as an insult (although I was not insulted).
It is my understanding the Emperor Constantine sought to put an end to Pagan/Christian battling by bastardizing the word "Pagan" and endorsing Christianity, the reason being that Christians were willing to die for their beliefs and Pagan were not. That trait made Christians unbeatable.
Today's Christianity is actually a blend of yesterday's Paganism and Christianity. Pagan elements include the halo, the Easter bunny, the shape of the church door, the virgin birth, the selection of Sunday as the day of worship. Here's a reference.
Ask most people, and they will consider being called a Pagan an insult. A Christian once called me a "Pagan" and she meant it as an insult (although I was not insulted).
Makes some sense. Only Cannon Fodder willing to die for their Religion (Leader) are worth squat in the modern era....and, yes, anything AD is definitely modern times.
No afterlife or priest to tell you that you will be "martyred" means a person might think about their life or family.
It always amazes me how one religion points to the other and says "look a those crazies who will become heroes if they die and they will go to a special place of peace".....while the same people pointing the fingers have the exact same ideal (maybe minus the amt of sex one has in this special place, but still).
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) that included individual immortality and salvation, which was wildly different from what Roman religion and others promised. Whatever Buddhism's appeal, the more austere notion of the karmic cycle could seem like... endless slavery or "someday" and thus less appealing to the masses of that time and place.