It really doesn't matter if some religions were still being believed in.
I didn't say "believed in," because I didn't mean that. I said, "some traditions and stories persisted." Most of these were either secularized or Christianized, however.
If you've ever decorated a Christmas tree, congratulations, you've participated in one such tradition.
It's only recently that some (including myself) have attempted to graft onto them our best estimates of what they
might have looked like in a pre-Christian context, or what they
might look like today had Christianity not effectively broken our lines.
its really which one has the most power. Its really that which bothers me. When i talk religion i usually mean the big 3 abrahamic religions. but sometimes others
Only two of them are big. Judaism is a fairly small, ethnic religion. (And I've seen it argued that "Abrahamic religion" as a term should be discarded, for lumping all three of them together despite being VERY different.)
There are three Major World Religions, yes, and Christianity and Islam are two of them. The third, however, is Buddhism.
Think of it in terms of a (
very) rough threefold division of Eurasia: in the West, Christianity dominated the cultures; in the Middle, Islam; and the East, Buddhism. Obviously, one of these three is not like the other, insofar as the former two tried erasing the older ways, while Buddhism organically merged with the various indigenous traditions of the cultures it spread into, but it still had a profound impact on East Asian cultures, including their religions (despite being, ironically, kind of a minority religion in India, its country of origin).
Be careful when using "religion" as synonymous with Christianity and contemporary Western media depcitions of Islam; by doing so, you're effectively accusing us of being guilty-by-association of whatever your grievances are.
All that said, I share your frustration with the power dynamic we have in the West. The cultural ubiquitousness of Christianity, together with the invisibility of our own indigenous traditions, is VERY frustrating, and makes it very hard to celebrate our heritage with other people. It also makes it a task to examine my own conceptions of the world, and determine which of them owe their existence to a Christocentric zeitgeist, and what virtue or toxicity they may have. I've seen many atheists, Heathens, Neopagans, etc., speak and behave almost exactly like Christians (in both good and bad ways). I'm sure I've done it, too. That's just how ingrained it is.
