‘Is Paganism more natural than Abrahamic monotheism?’ (short 300-word response)
‘Which religions are not patriarchal?’ (short 300-word response)
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Beginning with Buddha and Hinduism would explain some differences.

Buddha rejected traditional Brahmanism (Hinduism). He disliked the varna (caste) system in which religious power and authority were held by the priests (Brahmins) stationed at the top. Brahmins exclusively performed rituals, which gave them cultural prestige. Even kings and powerful figures would consult them. They also uniquely taught the Vedas to the two classes below them, the Kshatriyas (warriors, kings), and the Vaishyas (agriculturalists, traders, and farmers). Those at the bottom, the Shudras (workers, laborers), were denied access to the Vedic teachings.

Buddha considered this discriminatory. He putatively said, “Not by birth is one an outcast; not by birth is one a Brahmin. By deed one becomes an outcast, by deed one becomes a Brahmin”. When men and women entered the sangha (Buddhist community), they left social distinctions behind.

Further, despite several shared beliefs (reincarnation, samsara, rebirth, etc.), various doctrinal differences emerged. Hindus affirmed an eternal soul (atman), which Buddha rejected. Buddha asserted that there is no subsisting self. Instead, all is in perpetual flux, including the human (who consists of five skandas, or aggregates). However, for the Hindu, there is a subsisting self, and if he successfully escapes samsara (the process of rebirth and redeath) by attaining liberation (moksha), he unites with the ineffable, impersonal ultimate reality, brahman. Buddhism does not hold this idea. Attaining liberation (nirvana) from samsara is like the extinguishment of a flame. There is no ultimate reality.

Zoroastrianism, a Persian religion that emerged c. sixth century BCE, does not affirm reincarnation and rebirth, distancing it from Hinduism and Buddhism. Early Theravada Buddhism has no concept of gods, whereas Zoroastrianism and Hinduism do. Zoroastrianism is usually distinctive in its stark dualism regarding deities. The Gathas teach that two gods (Ahura Mazda (good) and Ahriman (evil)) and their supernatural armies are in constant warfare, and that humans always take a side in this based on their actions. Here it shares similarities with Hinduism and Buddhism by affirming evil and suffering within creation. Suffering is particularly stressed in Buddha’s first Noble Truth, which is the truth of suffering (Dukkha).