why didn't the first civilization evolve in europe?

The reason why the first civilization did not evolve in Europe has everything to do with location, location, location!

It is no coincidence that all of the primitive civilizations - from Asia to the Americas - were strategically located at the convergence of ancient trading routes. Although there is no evidence that the early Europeans were active in China or the Americas when primitive civilizations emerged in those areas, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the Europeans - not the indigenous populations - were responsible for the primitive civilizations that emerged in India and the Middle East and needed to locate themselves in these places because that's where they sourced their supplies.

As transportation improved, there was no longer a need to retain the ancient source trading locations as centers of civilization, and gradually the focus locations moved north - towards Greece and Italy - where the trading goods were consumed.

That the ancient civilizations declined as the Europeans moved their cultural centers back to their home countries appears to support their active part in establishing them.

In more modern times, a parallel can be found for this question in America. Cotton was king in the early days of the colonies and the southern states, fuelled by slave labor, were also the cultural hub of the new nation. With the invention of the cotton gin, and the abolition of slavery, the focus location moved to the northern states where the consumers lived, and it has remained there ever since.

A similar parallel can be found in the famed spice islands of southeast Asia. These islands thrived during the colonial era and many Europeans became fabulously wealthy and powerful due to their control of the spice trade. Spices were used to mask the smell and taste of bad meat, but as soon as the refrigerator was invented their use died out and so did interest in building up the steamy spice islands as a wonderful place to live.

That the first civilization did not emerge in Europe is therefore no reason to believe that the Europeans were backward in comparison with the rest of the world. On the contrary, Homo sapiens, modern man, evolved first in Europe, migrated furthest, and there is something about the cold northern climate that has made European man not only the fiercest and most terrible but also the smartest and most inventive.

the religions of india, china and japan

The years between 600BC to 551BC represented a golden period for the birth of great thinkers in the eastern as well as the western lands.

In 600BC, the founder of Taoism, Lao-tzu was born in China.

In 580 BC, Pythagoras, a great mathematician as well as the founder of the dualism of the body and soul, was born in Greece.

In 563BC, Siddhartha Guatama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism (and, by influence, Japanese Shinto), was born in India.

In 551BC, Confucius, the founder of Confucianism, was born in China.

Unlike the bloodthirsty polytheistic and monotheistic religions - demanding a blood sacrifice of one sort or another in order to placate a god and gain whatever it was that worshippers wanted - the major religions that developed in India and China after the 6th Century BC were a lot more civilized and centered more on ethics, social behavior and personal enlightenment than organized worship of a god.

In India, Hinduism - encapsulating karma and the rigid caste system, without which man has no place - derived from the fears and ignorance of the early Indic civilization before 3000 BC and continues to the present day. Ancient Hinduism was, of course, an influencing force in the rise of the new thinkers of the 6th century BC, particularly Buddha, an Indian prince, whose four Noble Truths and the eight-fold path makes no provision for a god.

In China, Confucianism - advocating reverence of ancestors - differed from Buddhism and Taoism in that there were no temples or priests. Taoism, as represented by the magnificent White Cloud Temple in Peking, differs from Buddhism and Confucianism in that it has many gods - all for mundane purposes, such as the kitchen god that still exists in superstitious Chinese households - but it, too, is concerned wholly with man's benevolence.

In Japan, Shinto was developed as a particular form of Japanese Buddhism - worshipping Nature in the form of mountain and forest gods - and, like all of the far-eastern religions, it is particularly strong on truthfulness. In 1871, Shinto was proclaimed the Japanese national religion.