A dying organism of any type will exhibit behavior associated with less exploration, a tendency towards traditional values as a survival mechanism.

Akhenaten was the first monotheist, most likely creating monotheism...Amenhotep IV converting his name to roughly mean "he who works for Aten". Aten was nothing more than a composite deity of Ra, Amun, and Horus. The first type of single God though...leave it to the Judeo/Christians to create God into a man, instead of men into Gods.

A new concept: What I call the Private Defeat.
I was thinking about why men like video games, ironically and I realized it was mostly because when we lose it is in private. It was not a public humiliation. Private defeat is a driving force to many a male behaviors.