Religions are like the childhood memories of culture.

They might be foundational to all that follows, but still should be taken with a few grains of salt.

If you want controversy, consider that democracy and republicanism originated in pantheistic cultures.

To the Ancients, gods were metaphors.

Ancient Isreal was a monarchy. The Big Guy Rules. Like the religion.

Constantine adopted Christianity for the monotheism, as the Empire was coming back together. So the emphasis was on the monotheism, while the more pantheistic aspects were shrouded in the Trinity. The Big Guy Rules.

The Catholic Church as the legitimating authority for European monarchies. Divine right of kings, as opposed to consent of the governed.

When the West went back to popular forms of government, it required separation of church and state, effectively culture and civics, morality and law.

The problem is, the larger the crowd, the more basic the common denominators, so those simple belief systems are what guide the herd and when you are running with the herd, you can't just stop and scratch your ear.