How did organized religion begin?

There's a great song from the '80's by XTC called 'Dear God' (it's been covered by Sarah McLachlan and others). It starts as a rant about humankind and how we've let the world go to pot. Then it changes course and becomes a rant at God - ending with the singer singing that he doesn't believe in God. In the chorus there's a line that has always struck me as very poignant - Did you make mankind after we made you? Interesting question, especially for a non-believer (like my brother the Atheist). Before I was a believer it's something I pondered quite often. When you look at all of the wacky religions out there that are clearly man made (Scientology comes to mind, along with any religion that asks you to cut off your own genitalia, kill your parents, eat garbage from a dumpster, live under the sea, etc), so many are easy to define as having a Deity that was created by the worshipers. But for the big 3 (Christianity, Judaism and Islam), how did they originate? Of course I believe that Christianity and Judaism are real in the sense that God communicated with man after creating the world. And I know the roots of Islam are in the old testament with Mohamed having a revelation from God. But somehow we all got organized and moved our beliefs forward, while Greeks and Romans, Norse and Egyptians all lost their faith... why? Why did these 3 take off? I know I'm leaving off Hinduism and a few others. But focusing on these 3 you've got 5000+ years of history - what the heck else has lasted some statically for 5000 years? It's almost a basic part of society. Doesn't that help (logically) with the relevance of Judeo-Christian beliefs? Surely if it was all made up people wouldn't be as passionate over the years to keep them alive and thriving. Whole empires have risen and fallen during the centuries, yet these 3 religions stay strong... it's interesting to me.

Does this work both ways?

In my brother the Atheist's introduction and throughout his book he talks about his negative perception of Christians spreading the word of God... why do they do this? Why don't they leave us all alone? Who cares about God? Please don't pray in public or say grace over dinner in a public place! Don't trash my beliefs - just leave me alone! It goes on and on. Yet in the introduction he's fast to say he's not trying to convert anyone away from their belief system, just to explain his own. But then he says "Of course, part of explaining my beliefs is to tell you why I think you're wrong and why I think your religion is false and deceitful". Hmmm... seems like he's using the same techniques he's opposed to to drive his own beliefs into the readers mind. I mean why is it OK for someone to use this technique and not for someone else to use the same technique? Hypocrisy is a strong word - so maybe it's not that. Maybe he's not aware that he's basically doing the same things in this book that he despises Christians for doing? I see that a lot these days from politicians, "news media", left/right leaning people, etc. More and more are angry and mean spirited in their disagreements. Something happened in the 90's where people stopped disagreeing and instead decided to belittle each other when they didn't land on the same page. It's amazing how many news shows (Fox News, MSNBC, CNN) trash other shows for something and then do the same exact thing. Have you ever watched O'Reilly and Olberman? These guys are the same - except one is left leaning and one is right leaning. But both spout gunt across the airwaves.

And yes, I used the word Christians previously because after reading through the book I really think the issues discussed are all related to Christians and not other faiths. I don't see much commentary on Scientology, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc... not even much commentary on Judaism. It's pretty slanted as a negative discussion about Christians. I've got to dig deeper into this, but the main point I'm getting from the introduction is that Christianity is made up, my brother the Atheist is mad that anyone would believe in Christianity, and therefore he's going to spend the next 200 pages making light of people's beliefs while sharing his own, and pointing to several examples of Christians who have gone out of their way to misrepresent the truth OR have upset him with their methods. I have to reread the book to get a better grip on some of the points, but this is my initial view. Of course, after you read the book feel free to tell me if I'm off base.