When you live in a town run by a gangster, you haven't got much choice but to obey his rules. But at least you know he's a gangster. The whole idea of religion is that the boss DESERVES to have his butt kissed.

This is why Chritianity and Islam caught on. The Roman and Greek Gods were thugs, bullies and blackmailers, they had to be paid off or it was curtains for you. And they didn't care how you lived your life, as long as they got their sacrifices and temples.

The idea that god enforced universal rules of decency, morality and fair play was not a Western idea at all. We learned that from the Jews.

As for the dietary rules and other purely ceremonial and ritual postures, that was just to keep the faithful in line, and make sure they were signed on to the program. Anybody who wasn't enthusiastic about that was immediately suspect, a potential troublemaker. Kind of like the Pledge of Allegiance.