>>Somehow that is common to the major religions coming from that little middle east area - is it the monotheistic bend ?
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>Hey Thomas,
>That's a question with its answer rooted mostly in the Bronze Age. Major world religions have one significant attribute that differs: today's "monotheistic" types have inherited from nomadic ancestors a male sky-god and are "exclusive". The poli/pan-theistic ones from the early agrarian peoples are "ideosyncratic".
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>As a result, the famous Abrhamic ones (Jewish-Christian-Muslim) have "no other Gods" before them, wherea, for example, the Buddhist movement born within the tradition Hindu, moved across all of China assimilating the local deities making them "keepers of the Dharma."
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>Make sense?

Yupp, but AFAIK the mongol tribes were not monotheistic (but not especially peaceful people at the times of genghis khan).
I was half commenting on the tendency to try baptism with the sword - which is/was rampant with christians and muslims. Politheistic people can be warlike as well, but sizeable wars *just* in the name of the god I remember mostly with the perticipation of at least one of those faith. I do realize that the people deciding are not always faith-frenzied, but have more wordly motives, but somehow a politheistic believer intent on stomping out one specific faith even less "logical" than a monotheistic. Any other large monotheistic faiths around ?