Looking at the international scene, I am reminded of Moloch. This was a god of the early Middle East whose primary act was to devour children. They got tossed into his fiery belly. (This is not intended to be a political statement - just a sociological observation that things don't seem to have changed much.)
There was once the idea that each house had a spirit, all of whom worked for the spirit of the tribe. They'd make an image of the tribal god and worship it. Many early peoples associated the house spirit with fire, so they had to keep the fire going all the time - probably a carry over from days when fire was hard to acquire if you didn't have a glowing coal saved. The little gods and the bigger tribal gods, were later conquered by some other tribe, making their gods higher. Romans conquered everyone so their pantheon of gods and goddesses (essentially a set of 12 personality factors) were top gods, justifying Roman control over their conquered nations.
Sacrifices were the common way to appease the gods. Cain and Abel had opposite ideas, evidently Abel used herbals for sacrifice, while Cain killed chickens or some such. Since Abel had more successes he killed him too.
The Aztecs and Mayas sacrificed in blood - either the heart of the victim, or sometimes the skin could be worn by the priests. Mayan sacrifice also included self mutilation, especially by the rulers, like drawing the spine of a sting ray and a barbed thread through the tip of his pen!s. For the Incas, there were also sacrificial children left in the mountains where they mummified.
Early Hindus sacrified by holding an arm aloft until it withered, or the equivalent. Or starving thmselves into numbness. Buddha specifically objected to these methods because after trying them out he found that they didn't work. Other Hindus simply used mind altering methods, sex or drugs seem to have been popular, but they were a bit short on rock and roll.
Shinto beliefs began with the "Two Divine Children", Itsa Nami and Itsa Nagi, brother and sister, from whom descended the Japanese people. Their mythology tells us that Amaterasu, god (goddess?) of spring, was angry at the nastiness of people and locked himself in a cave and wouldn't come out. Finally O-Susanna Wo Omikami put a mirror at the entrance of the cave, and Amaterasu saw his reflection and came out, so good weather and nice seasons returned. (This may be a recollection of the "flood".) This must have amused and perplexed the Japansese when GIs were singing "O Susana, O don't you cry for me. For I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee." The term "banjo" is a slight mispronounciation of "benjo", the rather crude Japansese word for "out house" or "latrine".
The Egyptians ultimately believed in a collection of gods who descended (if we follow Budge's rendering) from an initial pair of creator gods, and seemed to focus on a single highest god Osiris, who was evolved out of the gods of the spring. The layout of pyramids throughout Egypt reflects the pattern of stars around Orion at roughly 5600 years ago. Osiris may have later been associated with Bel. Bel was a typical springtime god who died each winter and was resurrected in the spring. Akhenaten tried to equate the highest god with the sun, but it didn't last. But the idea went away with Moses when his tribe escaped.
In the Middle East, all the families and their little gods, with the bigger tribal gods, and then the still higher Roman gods fell afoul of the Hebrew notion, developed through Moses and onwards, that ultimately there was only a single god. Roman philosophers of the period were also busily trying to make sense out of the manner in which all the 12 Roman gods seemed to have something in common. The entire ideological nature of the Roman state was thus slowly being brought into question. The issue was how to reconcile all the diversities into a single concept. The Hebrews provided the answer, one God. This upset the Roman state, so they had to suppress the idea. Jesus was one of the more vocal supporters of monpotheism, so He got targeted. The biggest threat that the Romans observed was that monotheism was an idea that would literally overthrow the government.
About 500 years after Jesus and the Jews brought monotheism to the Mediterranean and the Christian believers prospered in the northerm Mediterranean regions, Mohammed brought the message of monotheism to the desert tribes in Arabia and the rest of the Middle East. He specifically targeted the household and tribal gods - just as Moses targeted the Golden Calf of his followers. That's why Muslims are forbidden to make images or representations of people, and especially forbidden to worship them. (However, they are allowed to conjur the djinns and spirits of the desert to put them to work.)
Nowadays it's the problem of the dyslexic philosopher who worries whether there is a Dog.
dave
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