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Once at a long ago Con, someone on panel claimed that it was a modern thing to turn fiction into religion. I raised my hand and pointed out that cupid and Psyche were from a novel, yet Romans loved the story so much it started getting painted o n things and carved into coffins and ended up part of their religion.

I suspect a lot of religion happens that way; it's just hard to document before the modern era, and especially before there were documents. Somebody makes up a story so good that people tell it to each other generation on generation, until it's origins are long forgotten and the stories get agglomerated around a few key names, then someone invents writing for tax purposes, and the clergy think, hey, let's right down or holy stories and hymns so they'll be easier to remember, and next thing you know, you have holy texts.

I was an historian once. I know how unreliable texts are and the mutability of truth. What is written down may or may not last, and if it's core truth survives, it's usually because a bunch of people cared enough about it to keep talking or writing about it over and over, or because one particularly skilled voice survived thanks to people selecting over and over to save it, generation on generation. The books that last are the ones people love enough to pull from a burning building or to carry with them when they have to flee for safety. The stories that survive do so because they are so good and timeless and powerful, that people tell them over and over to each other in the dark of night when it's scary outside.