Is God really a volcano

[Anomalocaris]

Kichi, cargo cults. The reason they're such a big deal is that they emerged within our modern experience, and we were able to document "the birth of a religion" exceedingly well. The locals used their own indigenous myth structure and wrapped it around a verifiable set of events (and people). Their explanations were understandable from their vantage point, and completely known to us (as we, and our equipment became the object of worship). The narrative became something that was entirely their own, very much an easily distinguished part of their culture, but completely divergent from anything that we are able to discern before that point. One of the more interesting things about this is that they did not actually completely abandon their previous religious observances, but we wouldn't have been able to tell that from our vantage point in the present had this happened a few thousand years ago. The similarities would have been lost to the sands of time (as would the original source material pre-contact).

Cargo cult is an example of a relatively innocent origin to religion, where a group is exposed to awe inspiring things genuinely far beyond the familiarity of their experience. But why do we overlook the other modern example of a much more fraudulent, sinister, murderous and relevent origin to religion - Mormonism?

Cargo cult might offer insight into how primitive beliefs arose in isolated primitive cultures. But surely Mormonism offer better insight into how full blown religions arise in relatively consmopolitan cultures, and spread and poison a sophisticated world.