There are approximately 10,000 distinct religions worldwide

One of the many things interesting to me regarding religions is that there is no scholarly consensus of what a religion is supposed to contain. So, Each religion can come from almost any kind of place or thought process or spontaneous evolution. In Tibetan Buddhism there is the concept of "Spontaneous Arisal From Voidness" which basically means something positive that comes from out of literally nowhere.

I think you have to think about religions sort of in this context that often they literally "Arrive out of nowhere giving comfort to individuals and the masses" in much the same way that Disney movies often comfort the masses, and some people use Disney Movies themselves as the basis of their own personal religions. This is not to denigrate any religion at all but just to show you that religions are to "Bring Comfort" to the masses in the most part. And anything that brings people comfort enough so they don't just end their lives quickly in this sense could be considered a religion.

So, when we contemplate whether a religion is based upon scientific fact or not we are missing the whole point of what religions are for. What they are for is ways to not just end one's life right now. They are to teach children not to end their lives suddenly because a loved one dies or a dear friend dies or a father or mother or grandmother or grandfather suddenly dies and they have to go on without them.

 Begin Partial Quote from:

Religion - Wikipedia

There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide,^[10] but about 84% of the world's population is affiliated with one of the five largest religions, namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion.^[11]
The study of religion encompasses a wide variety of academic disciplines, including theology, comparative religion and social scientific studies. Theories of religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion.