From the site on origins of religion mentioned by the Rev:
"However there is considerable historical evidence from ancient times that religions in the area from India to the Middle East shared many religious beliefs."
The reason for this is mind-numbingly obvious. Religions evolve like everything else. They are human constructs and ideas move around, just like genes. For example Buddha and Pythagoras were virtually contemporaries. The connection was presumably via the Persian Empire. They lived at opposite ends. That there are two completely different words for god in the Old Testament shows that the Hebrew religion was itself a hybrid.
Anyway, I stand by my posting earlier regarding the origin of religion in the early Upper Paleolithic. It evolved to explain the unknown and a priesthood that could make a comfortable living by hoodwinking the population was a natural development. Religions needn't have anything to do with reality. In fact usually the less so the better. All the easier for the priesthood to claim the single route of communication to whatever higher power they have convinced the population to believe in.
