cladking Wrote:
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> It seems that many people who study the ancients simply take the religion as a given.
> Perhaps Amon or Hathor or even Re came down fron the duat to explain to
> mortal man how the world came to be and how to best show
> their appreciation for their creators but the lack of people who
> believe in this ancient religion will assure there are few
> among us who subscribe to such a theory.

You might enjoy reading more about the philosophy and history of religion in general from an anthropological standpoint. Religions in the modern world do just sort of "appear" in areas where there is already some sophistication about religion -- where there are models for religion (Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Ba'hai, etc, etc.) Religions are very formal structures and have laws such as "this is the way to salvation" and are very different from more primitive (religious) beliefs:
[www.insoll.org]

The "original" religions are not true religions but animism... a belief that all things have spirits.
[personalwebs.oakland.edu]

Religions are complex social and philosophical structures and there needs to be a ground for such memes to exist and perpetrate.
[www.arcl.ed.ac.uk]

(hundreds of papers like this):
[links.jstor.org]

> There are biblical scholars of both religious and other
> stripe who can give a reasonable accounting of the
> basis for most forms of christianity. Most religions are reasonably
> well understood in how, when, and why they arose.

And they're a bit more complex than the "commonly held folk knowledge" reports. No religions are "pure"; all are syntheses of each other. For instance, we know when in Egyptian history a lot of these gods and goddesses appear and when some beliefs arise. Symbols also show a history of religious thought.

> Most importantly, are any of these early causes known?
Here's a list of over 3,800 publications about this topic:
[scholar.google.com]

And 111,000 more publications:
[scholar.google.com]