Why do pagans give up easily their religion?

[FeederOfRavens]

The picture (a Baltimore ghetto kid)

Yep, the picture says a lot doesn't it.

[StonyArabia]

It just recycled into Christianity. Real Christianity was like that of the Ebionites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebionites

[Alessio]

It's a colored black&white picture, I've seen this picture before.

Yep, the picture says a lot doesn't it.

[FeederOfRavens]

It's a colored black&white picture, I've seen this picture before.

Yep, it is.

[Alessio]

And the ''real'' Islam was only practiced during the times of the prophet Mo.

It just recycled into Christianity. Real Christianity was like that of the Ebionites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebionites

[Methmatician]

Some were forced. Others benefited economically and politically by converting (like those who converted to Islam in the Ottoman Empire).

[Eusocial]

Because European paganism was royally effed up. The whole society was ridden with senseless violence. Read any description of Druidism, or what Varangians did, or what Scythians did. Or find out what a blood eagle was. The show "Vikings" depicted it in the second season. People were sick of the pointless cruelty that benefited nobody.

People also wanted a reconciliation with the east, because all the pagans believed their forefathers and gods originated from the east. Asgardr, Egypt, Dionysus in India, etc. Read Snorri or any surviving pagan sagas.

People were sick of living pointless lives out in the wilderness while the world had long since left them behind. Enough was enough. Whatever old grudges had once caused people to separate, people wanted to leave behind.

Also another reason. Something had shown its face in the east. The Saxons called it a heliand. A leader who would redeem not just the barbarians of the north, but the corrupt city world of the Romans in the south. It was quid pro quo. They leave behind their ancestral errors, and they inherit the kingdom. The prodigal sons were given an offer to return to their father's house if they helped their lost brothers.

[FeederOfRavens]

Because European paganism was royally effed up. The whole society was ridden with senseless violence. Read any description of Druidism, or what Varangians did. Or find out what a blood eagle was. People were sick of the pointless cruelty that benefited nobody. People wanted a reconciliation with the east, because all the pagans believed their forefathers and gods originated from the east.

Ignorance.

[Ars Moriendi]

Lack of trascendence.
European and Arabian original religions were animistic and naturalistic. A corpus of belief that provides something superior to mere nature will always be more compelling.

[Eusocial]

Lack of trascendence.
European and Arabian original religions were animistic and naturalistic. A corpus of belief that provides something superior to mere nature will always be more compelling.

Their formerly transcendent religions (binding them with each other and with duties to others) degenerated to petty tribalism. Myopically understood ceremonial holidays celebrating their selfish group existence without the slightest sense of responsibility to others outside the tribe. They thought their god would protect them "just because they were so self evidently good."

Then they found out they were wrong. Without a binding covenant of their tribe with other tribes, they were in danger of becoming senseless barbarians without real allies and without the protection that collective responsibility to universal law had once gave their ancestors. Their enemies came and there was nobody to protect them.