That, and accurate observations that they couldn’t correctly explain. For example, prohibiting eating pork because it’s “unclean,” while having no clue about trichinosis. They don’t know (scientifically) how to mitigate it, so they just tell people it’s a sin.
Builder: “I’m not incompetent! Uh… God didn’t want it to happen. Yeah, that’s it; the collapse definitely wasn’t my fault at all!”
I bet a lot of religious tenets come from a lie that got way the fuck out of hand.
That, and accurate observations that they couldn’t correctly explain. For example, prohibiting eating pork because it’s “unclean,” while having no clue about trichinosis. They don’t know (scientifically) how to mitigate it, so they just tell people it’s a sin.