Some interesting thoughts here!
One thing that strikes me about the comparison of capitalism to religion (and I really like the "illusory promises and explanatory power" link) is that, in many countries, religion is not enforced by the state, whereas capitalism more or less is.
That's not wholly true, even setting aside countries where religion is enforced by the state: my government does not literally require me to exchange money for goods and services. On the other hand, escaping religion is merely a matter of saying "no thank you" (and just stopping; it's even easier to do than continuing to practice, which takes ongoing commitment and effort), whereas my government has in fact set up numerous structures to make it very hard to simply decide not to capitalism (legal recourse from landlords, for instance). I could grow my own food--but not in this small living space with no backyard, I would need, well, to buy land, and...yeah.
So that's a thing I'd love to see explored more, if you expand this essay.
(Also this is easily the weirdest comment I've ever left on a game site.)