That is explainable with plane old mundane naturalism/materialism. I think most of us on the forum arrived at the same explanation.
1. A lot of people are born. Some want to be blacksmiths, some want to be barbers, some want to be farmers, etc.
A few times a year, some overconfident and delusion person gets born thinking that the gods are talking to him (a prophet).
2. It seems that the prophet is over 99% of the time a male. Maybe females are born but they lack the confidence or people did not follow them.
(I know that in the Heaven Gates movement, there was Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettle. USA. 20 th century.)
3. The prophet needs to have the right qualities. He needs to make pretty speeches to attract people.
His religion needs to offer utopia + hell (death, eternal life in jail).
4. So, various cults compete. Some survive. It’s Evolution for religions.
In the case of christianity, it reached Helen, the mother of the king and that gave christianity a big help.
I know that in the case of Armenia, the story is that the king was convinced and made it the state religion in 301 CE.
That helps to make other religions illegal.
1. A lot of people are born. Some want to be blacksmiths, some want to be barbers, some want to be farmers, etc.
A few times a year, some overconfident and delusion person gets born thinking that the gods are talking to him (a prophet).
2. It seems that the prophet is over 99% of the time a male. Maybe females are born but they lack the confidence or people did not follow them.
(I know that in the Heaven Gates movement, there was Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettle. USA. 20 th century.)
3. The prophet needs to have the right qualities. He needs to make pretty speeches to attract people.
His religion needs to offer utopia + hell (death, eternal life in jail).
4. So, various cults compete. Some survive. It’s Evolution for religions.
In the case of christianity, it reached Helen, the mother of the king and that gave christianity a big help.
I know that in the case of Armenia, the story is that the king was convinced and made it the state religion in 301 CE.
That helps to make other religions illegal.
