I don't know much about the latter three apart from their point of origin, but I would call Hinduism an organized religion.
None of those religions, including Hinduism, have a unique founder, a single set of universally accepted dogmas, or a single body of clerics with common rules for who can be and who cannot be a cleric. Hinduism has Brahmins, Sadhus and various other religious figures but there is no Hindu pope or body of priests who says which gods are in or out of the religion, whether a person is going outside the bounds of the religion, etc.
The only thing tying most Hindus together is the belief in the Vedas, but the interpretations of the vedas are incredibly varied and many people on the boundaries of the Hindu religion don't really focus on those texts.
Look at how Hinduism emerged - it was an organic growth out of the polytheistic religion of the Aryans mixing with the polytheistic religion of the inhabitants of ancient India, and was bottom-up much the way Greek, Roman and Chinese polytheism. The only difference is that it survived and developed a coherent philosophy and theology that could compete with the later religions like Islam and Christianity.
I guess these are based on the civ leader =)
probably! That makes the most sense. Though it doesnt really work then for all the ancient/native american leaders/shaka zulu whose religions aren't represented. They obviously can't represent everyone's religion I don't blame them for that though.
the branching of the christian religion is really welcomed by me!! native american religions maybe better called "beliefs" does not compete in terms of influence on world history and population-wise. yes it might be neat and unique, but any small group of people can dream up a new religion, but no influence the world with it..
That's not true at all, I think this is a Eurocentric conception. The Aztecs and Mayans had similar religious beliefs which shaped the culture, politics and philosophies of their empires greatly. I don't think you can understand Mayan and Aztec civilization without understanding their religions, and how the religions of those two cultures were different yet shared certain common values and myths.
The sun dance and ghost dance religions spread across many native american tribes, especially in response to the coming of European culture, and shaped their cultural and political response to European arrival. The ideas have now spread somewhat into American culture, albeit often in a corrupted manner (like the way a lot of new age people appropriate the aspects of native american religion).
Have you ever heard of the massacre at wounded knee? It was instigated in part by sioux indians participating in the ghost dance religion, which was a pan-native religious movement which sought to restore native american hegemony. Also those tribal religions still exist, not every native american converted to Christianity and many also mix those two religious beliefs.
Its the only way to really reflect that cultural diversity in the game.
I liked the division of Christianity
But I would like to see religions Mesoamerican, to represent the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas
Yeah I dont think its a bad thing to have more Christian sects it just seems unfortunate that they didn't also add religions for 1/3 of the world's people.
