Quite possible. I'm going to talk about ancient religion without talking about current religion... much.
A friend of mine is totally into Egyptian lore, real, fake and Hollywood.
One of things he told me about the lore (note: I can't be assed to check) was: to get into the afterlife (as opposed to your soul being snuffed) =
-You had to have your heart removed and measured for how much sin you had vs. a feather.
-You had to wander through a maze, one wrong turn, and you were snuffed.
-(more steps that I forgot)
-THEN, you were only allowed to keep your soul intact for as long as people remember you (hence why pyramids, monuments, etc...).
The above could...
...all...
...be...
...bullshit. (or my friend was wrong or fuckin' with me)
But if it is even partially true... puts the current religion stuff in perspective, doesn't it?
They're just following a 10k year old trend... adjusted for inflation. Food for thought. (oh, and hands off my fuckin' heart, creepy ancient god...)