the lifelong effort spent on debating details built upon impossible superstitions seems time wasted.

Yes, but no.

I have often wondered about “dead religions.” I mean, at one point Egypt had a thriving economy, building world class monuments, providing sustenance for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, with a vibrant religion reflected in many ways: temples, sacrifice altars, religious texts, priesthood, etc.

And then suddenly (or perhaps not so suddenly, I have ‘not really researched it) it’s gone. No “Ra” any more. No Egyptian Priesthood. All gone, every trace (except historical.)

Likewise with the Greek and Roman pantheon of gods. All belief vaporized, like it never existed (except in history.) Ancient Chinese and Japanese religions had thousands of gods and spirits who would do your bidding (or not) depending on their mood, and now those too are pretty much over.

In the case of Egypt and Rome and Greece (et al) it’s that one religion moved in and replaced the old order. I have to wonder “why”? Was there an economic collapse that made it happen, or some other event(s), or was it just “time” or what? I don’t know enough about modern Japan or China to opine on what’s going on there, religiously speaking, but at some point religions die. All of them. The Native American gods, the tribal voo-doo spirits of the Caribbean islands, those in Africa, all of them.

Are they always replaced with “just another flavor” or do any of them simply die, and good riddance to them? Inquiring minds, and all that.