Retroversion in Religious Processes: a History with No Chronolgy

According to the general acceptance, a religious process is a stable development line at the beginning of which there are primitive practices as paganism, animism or totemism. But why should they be necessarily old stories? Have superstitions, totems and Greek gods really left us? Why should human diminish his multiple gods and be contented with only one God? Is an aftermath world really a good idea for people to console themselves against the world's evil? What is the difference of our modern totems from the old ones in the history?