vijayjohn wrote:True, a lot of people were not forced to convert to a monotheistic religion, and there are a variety of reasons why people did (and still do). But I'm not sure there has ever been a situation where all the members of a (polytheistic?) religion converted to a monotheistic one without the use of force.
Of course, it's also not the case that everyone has completely abandoned ancient religions. I think it's fair to say that you can find plenty of examples of people continuing to practice ancient religions in India (just as an example).
Yes. The Chinese and the Japanese, as another example, continue to practise their ancient religions, even if at a smaller scale and importance than they used to.
I might be an atheist, but it does somewhat annoy me that much of this abandonment has happened as intentional eradication carried out by Christianity and Islam, and that this is not recognized as such. Greco-Roman polytheism fell under the persecution to death under Christian emperors and leaders, particularly Theodosius I; Iceland converted to Christianity under threat of war; Lithuania did so under actual war; Arabian paganism is completely gone; and let's not even talk about the indigenous of the Americas...