Man spent a great deal of time worshipping those things he could not control, the only compensation being that he applied human form to them so that they seemed controlled by higher beings but in man's image, and so they were seen to work in accordance with man's behaviour on earth. Through this concept man felt that he could control things, even though it was in an indirect way, by way of his behaviour. Much of man's early evolution has been given over to this worship of the external world about him, and from these early concepts came an insight into the importance of morality and the learning of right thought and behaviour. It has always been the way of man to see behaviour in animals, stars and planets, his own perception of the world that surrounds him. Even today we interpret animal behaviour by our own instinct – so it is basically part of human evolution to do so – a survival method.
Although man's early attempts at morality were superficial, whereby it was negatively caused by fear, this was the first step to intelligence; for it was through his evolving intelligence that man recognised the root of that fear.
Although a massive over generalisation, we can say that as man began to live in tribes and these tribes began to run out of land and resources, it wasn't long before tribal warfare became a way of life for the selfish accumulation of additional land and it's resources. Archaeological evidence has shown that early man in fact lived very much in peace with his neighbour, but as civilisation grew and land and resources became scarce he turned his instinct to war. Envy was the driving force that urged man to conquer. He killed those that posed a threat, and then made slaves of those who wouldn't or couldn't resist. He then impressed his gods and goddesses on the people he had subjugated, and therefore in time certain pagan religions were formed by the enforced amalgamation of all the variations of celestial and elemental tribal worship. It was the utilisation of these early religions for propaganda and marketing techniques, which led directly to the creation of the early Shining Ones (See The Shining Ones by Philip Gardiner) and vast network of power brokers hiding behind the façade of religion.
The “gods” they created were believed to control the elements and could use them as they wished – as weapons of destruction – again a distinct association of man’s own behaviour forced upon their own gods. A wonderful new power game was created, the idea that mankind should keep the gods happy and satisfied so that they wouldn't use these “weapons” against him. This simply meant that the populations of the tribal units or even early civilisations had to submit a percentage of their produce to the religion in-order to stave off the vengeful gods. As we know for instance the early Yahweh was just such a god – hence the reason for the clear difference between the Old Testament vengeful god and the loving god of the New Testament – a stark and textual piece of evidence showing the evolution of the power of the gods.