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I think that in general religions and doctrines tend to draw on contemporary or past ones.  For instance, Jesus might have been based largely on the Egyptian god Osiris, a deity who was betrayed, murdered, and raised from the dead.  Many people across the world look for the same things to look up to, and commonalities do exist.  As for pluralism, I think it exists partially, but that the formation of faiths occurred before forms of mass communication, and that religions that were born in very different parts of the globe became similar as an amalgumation of common local elements.