This article reminds me of a book written by Kim Stanley Robinson, "The Years of Rice and Salt". It's a historical fiction which explores a history in which the bubonic plague wiped out Europe, precluding Western civilization as we know it. The cultural and religious vacuum left behind is filled by Islam, Buddhism, and the Chinese dynasties. Robinson explores the evolution of humanity over the next 600 years under th…
Sounds like the author assumes Christianity started in Europe and spread to the Middle East. It actually happened the other way around.