What of the dead

The concept of the deification of the dead as a universal religious phenomenon belongs to the evolutionist paradigm of 19th-century scholarship. Because the Hebrew Bible contains almost no evidence that family (or royal) ancestors were worshiped, it seems to provide a strong argument against the universality of this phenomenon.—Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, page 433

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But that doesn't keep it from being repeated!
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