Obviously there must have been something that started it all, and if there were n+1 things at some time, there might have been n things before, leading to the conclusion that there must once have been 1 thing.
These philosophies arise multiple times per evening in any pub where alcohol is served. It's just that most don't stick around for long enough, possibly due to bad marketing.
I see a similar pattern in the advent of abstract art. People have independently settled upon primary colors, primary shapes, and primary compositions, only to then get stuck in a rather limited playing field, from which people started again to create the total utter chaos that is called post-modernism.
My personal conviction is that neither religion not abstract art have found the key to understanding the universe. They merely reflect our limited way of thinking.
Can you expand on this a bit? I have an intuition about what you're saying, but I confess that the definitions can be a little slippery.
It is most likely there was some cultural interactions, ie, the Dayuan