User blog comment:LurkerLordB/Religion in a world without Christianity/@comment-97.102.131.191-20120423011502/@comment-1593341-20120424101522

Most Christmas traditions come from Germanic paganism. Gift giving, Christmas trees, Christmas Ham, etc. So it would still be there. And most of the commericalised aspects of Easter come from pagan roots as well. Pagan fertility festival called Eostre I believe. Rabbits and eggs were used as symbols of fertility.

Without christianity the pagan masters would not have been supressed, and the Mayan codexes would not have been destroyed, which means there would have been no need for the rennaissance because there wouldn't have been a dark age.

Islam arose in an area that was dominated by Pagans. No Christianity doesn't mean no Islam, and until the Mongol conquests and resulting sacking of Baghdad, the Muslim world was the height of civilization. Its possible Islam would have spread across Europe. And without Christianity there would have been no Reconquista. With no Reconquista when the Mongols sack Baghdad, Cordova would have become the center of civilization.

The major thing that would be different would be the idea of sexual modesty. People would be MUCH more open about sexuality and much less would be taboo because of the strong place sex had in pagan spirituality.

Also, without Christianity there would have been a lot less great art. If there is one thing Christianity was good for, was inspiring works of art.