If a religion becomes involved with government, the religion will last as long as the government does, and especially in the case of hereditary monarchies, that can be a very long time.

Religions are generally a combination of several things:

A mythology (or at least, stories with a mythological element)
A moral code
A set of rituals to mark the passage of time and life events.
A community that subscribes to meaningful portions of the above (though often not all, and sometimes not even close to all, but enough to be deemed meaningful)

The longevity of a religion may suggest that there's something about the package that's important and enduring, but it doesn't mean each element in the package is truthful or even useful.


There's an old story about a woman (yeah old story so there's some sexism in the gender roles) who serves some guests a roast and it's delicious so they ask for the recipe. The woman gives it, and the guest notes that it includes cutting off both ends of the roast before putting it in the oven. Why, they ask?

I don't know, that's just the way my mom taught me and it always works great so I've just always done it that way.

Curious, she calls her mother, who answers the same way. You know, I never thought about it. I just always did it that way because your grandma taught it to me that way.

So they call grandma and ask her why she always cut the ends off the roast.

The grandma says are you kidding me, are you still doing that? I only did that because I didn't have a long enough pan for the roast!

Ba dum cha!

So: great recipe, but with a meaningless element that just came along for the ride.

I think there's value that can come from a sense of community and shared stories and celebrations and certainly a reasonable moral code. I think religions ensure because of this.

But that doesn't mean there's anything to the myths themselves. If there's anything at all to it, it's in the community sharing those stories as a part of their shared culture. Belief in the truth of those stories is probably besides the point.

AFAIK, Christianity is the only religion that makes actual belief in elements of the mythology synonymous with membership in the religion. Most religions *have* a mythology, belief in it is usually not the defining characteristic of the religion.

I'm a Jewish atheist, for instance, which makes perfect sense to me and many Jews, but Christians find it baffling because a Christian atheist doesn't compute for them. They think of it as well they used to be Christian but they're not anymore. Like their membership "lapsed".

The longevity of a particular religion can be directly related to the longevity of the civilization.

Survivability likely has more to do with multiple factors unrelated to religion.

Or does it break up into smaller factions. Lots of split offs.

it makes for a more cohesive society able to adapt.

for very long at any time in its history. All the while it was becoming easier to communicate and travel quickly. They can keep adjusting what they pretend and tell their people to make believe to match changing reality so much easier than any with earlier superstitions.

Longevity does not mean goodness.