The worlds great faiths are fairly modern in human history. What about the Greek gods, the Roman gods, Hittites, Egyptians etc. Each had an accompanying empire to further the religion against the others, I don't think many of the present religions are over 3,000 years old. Without a symbiotic religion most ancient empires would have failed early in their history. The Romans were quite rare in that they believed in everybodies gods not just their own. I guess if you are going to be religious that it is a good thing to believe if your god is real then every one else's must be as well, pity that thought isn't more general now.
