Picture it: A Manichean Roman Empire. It would never have fallen

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>Christianity is too mainstream for me guys, let me Wikipedia this obscure gnostic cult that died out a thousand years before my birth instead yeah... so meta and post-ironic XD

The classic contrarian 4chan autist

Picture it: A Manichean Middle East.

We wouldn't be dealing with all these fucking Muslims and their toxic religion today if the followers of Mani had already united the goatfuckers before Mohammad was even a twinkle in his daddy's ball sack.

>>2561372
Gnostic religions could never become popular enough, because people cannot stop worshipping the flesh. Even though they're more logical - gnostic dualism is the epitome of a logically built religious system, but people don't like being told that everything good they like is evil.

>>2561381
>cult

Was a little bigger than "just a cult."

That shit stretched all the way from Rome to fucking China.

>>2561372

>It would never have fallen into the decay its Christian counterpart eventually would.

how would one religion or another make a difference?

>>2561398

well esentialy they were telling people they live in the matrix, you cant realy base a stable empire on that

but regardles;

>the empire never ended

>>2561450
Pretty much, even the layman Manicheans back in the day were mostly just supporting the actual Manicheans - the clergy actively practising the faith, financially. A non-natalist sect telling you that the world you inhabit is evil and only death will set you free is an ideology that is not too friendly on a prospering society that seeks to grow and develop.

>>2561450
But Buddhism and Hinduism do just that and the nation as empires that adopted them never fell because of it, neither the people fall into mass nihilism.

>>2561492
Buddhism tells you that by having kids, living a normal life without being a cunt you can slowly get toeards nirvana. If you want to take the elevator you become a monk and live the actual buddhist life. Gnosticism was similar, but much more hostile, as they didn't only consider this world to be a stage in the way to nirvana, but the literal hell created by the devil. The one hell, the indians are much chiller on this subject, there are many lower stages of worlds with various levels of suffering. It's more open to "living the normal human life" with buddhist aspects, not forcing you to hate it with burning passion and zeal.