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Bugmaster comments on A Parable On Obsolete Ideologies - Less Wrong
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Seconded.
Religions are notoriously difficult to eradicate by force. Considering all that's happened, it's rather amazing that Judaism managed to survive. Similarly, neither the Roman Empire nor the Soviet Communists were successful at eliminating the influence of Christianity.
On the other hand, Christianity was quite successful at eliminating some competing religions, by utilizing the direct approach: physically eliminating all of their adherents.
The usual defense against that kind of thing is to pretend to convert while practicing your religion in secret. But yes, that does work if you know who to kill.
The problem is that many, if not most, religions impose two very strongly valued goals on their followers: 1). in-group and out-group separation, and 2). evangelism. These goals conflict directly with this new goal of 3). staying hidden so that you don't get burned at the stake. Many religions also devalue the follower's life on this Material Plane, which drives the utility of (3) even further down. As the result, heretics don't get the chance to survive in secret nearly as often as one might think.
At least the religions that still exist do. Fancy that!
I would argue that the majority of religions that no longer exist also fit this pattern, however.
There are religions which don't virulently evangelize, you just don't hear about them as much. It's like the difference between kudzu and orchids.
Actually, you hear about some of them all the time. Notably Judaism and Hinduism. Or perhaps more accurately, they online evangelize internally (and then only Lubavitchers and Hindu nationalists, respectively)