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No other species pratices religion to the extent humans do. Without a doubt, this is due in large part to the unique capabilities of the human brain. We still have much to learn about language in animals, but none of them seem to be able to tell stories like humans can. Certainly, none of them can write.
Archeological finds show that religious practices among humans may have started even before the ability to speak. The ability to speak must have accelerated such practices, but that is nothing compared to the emergence of written language. We are now in historic time and our knowledge is on much more solid ground.
The earliest writers must have had a vast body of stories from their oral traditions to work with. There are a few things all the stories have in common, but most of the details are different from place to place and from time to time.
For example, just about every religion has some kind of creation narrative and supernatural beings or phenomena. A lot of them also have an end-of-the-world narrative. They often have guides for practices on how to worship deities or rules on how to live such as the Golden Rule. At least a dozen religions have some version of the Golden Rule.
The ancients did not just write, they also traveled and their stories traveled with them. Sometimes they merged over time with stories in other places and formed new religious practices. Large volumes have been written about how concepts from one religious practice appear in others.
When we talk about the classics, we really just mean ancient Greek and Roman literature. Today we also have classic symphonies, opera, evergreens or rock music. Certain movies also make the transition from one generation to the next. School curriculums usually include poems or novels we now consider classics as well. So who gets to decide what texts get labeled classics? Indeed, who gets to decide what texts are included in the Bible? Well, that is a whole study all by itself, so we will leave that for another day.
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