[bluekeybox]

Correct, except I see cult of personality (usually mentioned in context of pop culture idols or state leaders) as a wider pattern (including family members, imaginary gods, and romantic interests); my hypothesis is that cult of personality-related traits first evolved as a way to ease building of trust between individuals -- starting as early as children trusting their parents to bring food etc. -- and also as one of primary ways in which potential mates were sought out. When this propensity to imagining other individuals as possessing magical powers was combined with abstract thought, creation of totems, idols, and gods followed. Some smarter individuals probably eventually grasped the potential that control of this process would bring and created organized religion. It seems to me that Abrahamic-type religion (single god, typically imagined as an old man) arose concordantly with the establishment of agriculture, during a time when a settled lifestyle shifted generational power balance towards the elderly who then attempted to perpetuate its influence using organized religion.